Christianity in India

Conversion, Community Development, and Religious Freedom

Rebecca Samuel Shah, Joel Carpenter

• Publisher: Fortress Press
• Year: 2018
• Print ISBN:
  9781506447919
• eBook ISBN:
  9781506447926
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christian Theology

Christianity has been present in India since at least the third century, but the faith remains a small minority. Even so, Christianity is growing rapidly in parts of the subcontinent, and has made an impact far beyond its numbers. Yet Indian Christianity remains highly controversial, and it has suffered growing discrimination and violence. This book shows how Christian converts and communities continue to make contributions to Indian society, even amid social pressure and violent persecution. In a time of controversy in India about the legitimacy of conversion and the value of religious diversity, Christianity in India addresses the complex issues of faith, identity, caste, and culture. It documents the outsized role of Christians in promoting human rights, providing education and healthcare, fighting injustice and exploitation, and stimulating economic uplift for the poor. Readers will come away surprised and sobered to learn how these active initiatives often invite persecution today. The essays draw on intimate and personal encounters with Christians in India, past and present, and address the challenges of religious freedom in contemporary India.

III

NATIONALISM, VIOLENCE AND FREEDOM

7

Bollywood and the BJP

An Analysis of Indian Identity in Karan Johar’s Films

Samuel Thambusamy

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) led by Narendra Modi won the 2014 General Elections held in India. Modi embodied the BJP’s political message—Governance, Development, and Decisive Leadership—albeit with the Hindutva^[1] subtext. Modi’s credibility, charisma, and charm had a phenomenal connect with people across India and more importantly with the Indian diaspora around the world. Interestingly, the large Hindu segment of the Indian diaspora, particularly in the United States and the United Kingdom, played a supportive role with funding, volunteer force, and social media technical support in the BJP campaign.^[2] The “Modi wave” was real and the resultant “saffron surge” helped the BJP to make huge political gains across India and to form the first ever non-Congress Party majority government since Independence. Modi, who had been a controversial and polarizing politician until then, emerged as the preferred choice of a new India. Modi’s victory was simultaneously Hindutva’s victory for mainstream acceptance.

After the historic win, Prime Minister Modi undertook visits to Japan, the United States, the United Kingdom, Dubai, and Australia to seek support for his diplomatic and economic objectives. Earlier in his career, the United Kingdom, the United States, and some European nations had imposed a travel ban, holding him responsible for the 2002 anti-Muslim carnage in the state of Gujarat while he served there as governor.^[3] Modi’s election victory and more importantly his official visits to the United States and the United Kingdom were also deemed a victory for the Hindutva-leaning diaspora organizations that lobbied hard for Modi’s cause for almost a decade. They organized grandiose public receptions for Modi, and his rock star-like performances at these events evoked deafening applause and raucous cheers from the audience. These public rallies were akin to a well-scripted Bollywood blockbuster; they were full of dance, color, lights, and fanfare. Such public receptions were unprecedented and unparalleled for any foreign leader, let alone the Indian prime minister.

Modi’s connection with the diaspora was not merely a function of his personal charisma. It is reflective of a Hindu revivalism, and it shows that the resurgence of Hindu nationalism within India has had an impact on the Hindu diaspora worldwide. The destruction in 1992 of the Babri Masjid, a centuries-old Muslim mosque, and the subsequent violence marked a new phase in Hindu Nationalism both at home and across the Indian diaspora. Since then the BJP has been working actively with the Indian diaspora in the United States, the United Kingdom, and elsewhere. The Hindu diaspora is an important part of the BJP’s political strategy. Since the 1990s, large sections of the Hindu diaspora have been huge supporters of Hindutva and have contributed to the growth of the BJP. In fact, the BJP’s earlier government (1999-2004) led by A. B. Vajpayee launched an annual event called the Overseas Indian Day in 2003 to galvanize the Indian diaspora to play a supportive role in India’s development. As a result, the 2004 elections saw a significant political engagement by the Hindutva supporters across the diaspora. While several factors might have contributed to the growth of Hindu revivalism among the diaspora, this chapter explores the role of Bollywood films of the 1990s in the construction of a Hindu identity, both at home and among the Indian diaspora.

Cinema is an integral part of contemporary Indian society and its influence is all pervasive.^[4] Indian commercial cinema (re)shapes both public culture and the political space by capturing the collective national imagination. Bollywood cinema, the film industry that is based in and around Bombay (now Mumbai), has gained a “national” character,^[5] this despite a robust regional cinema based in Chennai (formerly Madras), Kolkata (formerly Calcutta), and Hyderabad. The lure of Bollywood is its stardom, music, and thematic components that unify diverse people groups/communities across India. Patriotism and pleasure are two major dimensions of Bollywood. Nasreen Munni Kabir, a British-based Indian producer and critic, contends that every Bollywood film “must address the theme of what it means to be Indian or reflect on Indian thinking.”^[6]

Bollywood’s fascination with Indian-ness is as old as Indian cinema itself.^[7] Since its earliest days (circa 1913), every filmmaker has recast the patriotism motif across different genres and times. Bollywood, in its representation of Indian-ness, has portrayed a close relationship between religious identity and nationalistic fervor, and this linkage was particularly evident during the anticolonial Freedom Movement. Historically, Bollywood has privileged the Hindu perspective to the question of Indian-ness/identity. Studies by Melanie Wright and Rachel Dwyer have shown that Bollywood is “primarily informed by Hinduism” and even when it is less obvious, Hinduism still “remains its invisible norm.”^[8] In the past two decades, Bollywood’s appeal and influence have spread across Europe, North America, and the Pacific. These new cultural viewing contexts and changing consumption patterns have forced Bollywood to re-invent itself. Popular filmmakers such as Yash Chopra,^[9] Sooraj R. Barjatya,^[10] and Yash Johar and his son Karan Johar have repackaged Bollywood (with multi-star casts, extravagant sets, designer costumes, and exotic locales).^[11] However, the re-invention of Bollywood as a global brand has not changed its basic conventions. “Pleasure-patriotism” dimensions, a key ingredient of the Bollywood flavor, have been retained to meet spectators’ demands and contextual needs. In fact, the unprecedented success of Bollywood cinema beyond India, particularly in recent times, is due to its representation of Indian-ness.^[12]

In this chapter, I will take a closer and more critical look at this Indian-ness as conveyed in commercial Hindi cinema by focusing on four of Karan Johar’s popular films: Kuch Kuch Hota Hai (Something, Something Happens, 1998), Kabhie Khushie Kabhie Gham (Sometimes Happy, Sometimes Sad, 2001), Kal Ho Na Ho (Tomorrow May Never Be, 2003), and Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna (Never Say Goodbye, 2006). I have chosen Johar’s films because they were extremely popular, both in India and abroad. Also, these four films best represent the strand within Bollywood that seeks to cater to the changing needs/contexts of urban India, immigrant Indian communities, and the larger South Asian diaspora. Through a textual and visual analysis of these films, I will argue that these films achieved unprecedented success, particularly among the diaspora, because they represent Indian-ness as Hindu religious identity. Thus, they provide powerful, mass-mediated support for Hindu nationalism. For this analysis, I propose to use a critical reading that looks for things that either seem not overtly intended or are not always obvious in the films. It is my belief that such a critical reading of Bollywood unmasks its ideological underpinnings, whether fully intentional or not.

But first we need to locate this reading within Bollywood’s own story. Bollywood has a longtime fascination with the patriotism motif, particularly through the interplay of religion and Indian identity. Then we will be able to see how these representations of Indian-ness progress in Johar’s films and how he privileges the Hindu perspective by using a variety of devices. Before closing this discussion, I also want to inject a note of hope. Bollywood is not bound to this approach. New visual narratives, vocabulary, and composition make possible a more inclusive understanding of what it means to be Indian.

Understanding the Dynamics of Bollywood

The history of Indian cinema began with the screening of Harichandra (King Harichandra, dir. Phalke, 1913) at Coronation Cinema, Bombay.^[13] The initial impulse, particularly in the era of silent films, was to re-tell Indian mythology in film. However, the political usefulness of films (particularly during the movement for national independence) eclipsed the religious impulse. With the advent of new technologies (such as sound) and the changing political context, filmmakers explored other genres such as historical, social, and realist films. Since the 1950s golden age of Hindi cinema, it has evolved into a more commercial music-drama form popularly known as “Bollywood.”^[14]

Bollywood: A Masala Twist to Hollywood Tales

The evolution of Hindi cinema to Bollywood, particularly its masala formula,^[15] is a fascinating story. No filmmaker can afford to disregard its formulaic conventions, especially its distinctive music-drama format. This format is an ingenious mix of varied elements within traditional theater (Parsi), Indian mythology (particularly the two great epics Ramayana and Mahabharata), and Indian aesthetics, emotions, and sentiments. A Bollywood film must necessarily have a loose narrative structure dealing with familiar themes marinated with a “masala-mix” of spectacle, emotions, comic subplots, mythological resonances, and social obligations to cater to Indian audiences. The spectators’ demand and need for heroism, emotions, romance, social obligations, cultural negotiation, and song-and-dance sequence dictates the logic of Bollywood’s “mix-and-match” approach.

Bollywood is not entirely insulated from Hollywood influences. It continues to draw inspiration for its plot line, filming techniques, and cinematic technology from Hollywood.^[16] However, even Hollywood inspirations are subjected to such cultural re-locations and given a masala twist. Thus, despite Hollywood traces, Bollywood remains distinctively Indian in its form.

Bollywood and Patriotism: Indian-ness Explored

Patriotism is one among the many recurrent themes of Bollywood. Interestingly, Phalke’s pioneering attempt to make cinema was deemed as a “swadeshi” effort and subsequently seen as an alternative to Hollywood.^[17] Not surprisingly, Bollywood reflects strong patriotic sentiments in its visual narrative and style. Bollywood studies have pointed to nationalistic intent as its underlying theme since the early films readily reflected the growing spirit of nationalism. In fact, the mythological, historical, and social films acted as subtle metaphors for the struggle for national independence. The nationalist project was further intensified in the post-independence era, as Bollywood arose, and its narratives addressed the experience of urbanization.^[18] India’s partition with the creation of Pakistan provided an occasion for popular Hindi cinema to be put to political use in the cultural integration of the newly less Muslim nation.

In the 1960s, popular Hindi cinema developed the themes of migration and settlement as films represented the West as a corrupting influence and counter referent t...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Table Of Contents
• Acknowledgments
• India Map
• Introduction
• Conversion and Identity
• Indian Praxis, American Learning
• Nationalism, Violence and Freedom
• Bibliography
• Contributors
• Index