Anand Patwardhan is well known for being a radical documentary filmmaker. His clear-minded approach and impassioned argument for a just society can be seen clearly through his films. Patwardhan, along with several filmmakers, returned their awards in protest against incidents of intolerance in the country. Chitra Sawant spoke to him about the protests by the intellectuals, the FTII tussle and the rising level of intolerance in India.
Q: Questions have been raised by a section of the society as to why awards were not returned during the anti-Sikh riots in 1984 or during the UP riots, or after Dr. Dabholkar and Comrade Pansare were murdered? Why are these protests being staged now after the Dadri incident?
A: Many of us protested when Gujarat 2002 happened, when Muzaffarnagar happened, when Dabholkar, Comrade Pansare and M.M.Kalburgi were killed, when the ant-Sikhs riots took place. For that matter, none of us returned awards just because the BJP came to power in 2014. During these 14 months of the BJP government, the cumulative result of all the acts of intolerance and murder finally reached a point when we said enough is enough. When I say ‘we’, it is not that most of us even knew each other. The awards were returned by people from different parts of the country and from different walks of life — writers, artists, scientists, filmmakers and historians. And we represent many different ideologies and some consciously do not have any ideology at all, but we can see that something is very wrong. This is clearly the voice of civil society and the government and its friends must be especially insensitive not to realise this.
At the same time, it is true that I have personally been wary of the Hindutva ideology for a long time. The ideological roots of the communal people who have ruled India for the last 14 months go back to 100 years ago when the Hindu Mahasabha, the RSS and the Muslim League were formed to oppose the mainstream Independence movement. They supported the British, they created the conditions for partition. They killed Mahatma Gandhi. In post-Independence India, they demolished the Babri Masjid, which started a chain reaction of violence and hatred. Today, they are implementing their agenda of forming a ‘Hindu Rashtra’ in a crude manner.
Q: In 2013, the Akhila Bharateeya Vidyarti Parishad (ABVP) had attacked FTII students who had organised a screening of your film, ‘Jai Bhim Comrade’…
A: Five FTII students were physically attacked outside the National Film Archives of India on August 21, 2013 by the youth wing of the BJP, the ABVP, after a screening of Jai Bhim Comrade in Pune. The students were hospitalised. Ironically, the Maharashtra president of the same ABVP is now part of the FTII governing council. Four people, who are affiliated with the Sangh parivar, were made part of this governing FTII panel, which is why the FTII students went on strike and appealed to filmmakers for support. There is saffronisation of education not just at FTII but all across the country. This saffronisation is affecting public institutions of all kinds. Soon, we will create a dumb generation that knows nothing but mythology. They are trying to rewrite our history. The next generation won’t even know that Nathuram Godse and his co-conspirators, who killed Mahatma Gandhi, were members of the RSS and the Hindu Mahasabha. Or that the RSS was banned for a year afterwards and unbanned only after they gave a written undertaking never to participate in politics again. They won’t know that Sardar Vallabhai Patel stated that the RSS distributed sweets after Gandhi’s killing.
Q: Shah Rukh Khan was threatened and well-known writer, actor and filmmaker Girish Karnad has received a death threat on social media. What is your perception of the country’s future?
A: I am an optimist. There is a general awakening that is happening in the country due to the actions of communal forces. Even outside the country, Modi is facing protests, especially during his recent tour. This may not change him or his friends, who were brainwashed from the age six. But the general public is awakening, as Bihar has already shown.
Q: You have faced problems while getting most of your films released in the past, especially ‘War and Peace’, which waged a long censorship battle. There have been restrictions in the past over the freedom of speech and expression.
A: There were attempts at censorship during the previous government’s regime, too. But earlier governments were somewhat vulnerable to public pressure. You can’t embarrass this present government. The FTII students have been protesting for over four months but the government is not addressing their issues. This is one reason why we returned our awards. People ask why I didn’t do it in 1984 after the Sikh massacre in Delhi. In 1984, I made a film on this massacre and on the Khalistan separatist movement. I blamed the Congress party and I used the teachings of Shahid Bhagat Singh to fight communalism. Incidentally, I want to make an important point regarding the anti-Sikh riots of 1984. The people leading the attacks on the Sikhs were not only from the Congress but also from the RSS and the BJP. This fact is well-documented by newspapers of the time. Of course the BJP and its friends in the media want us to forget this.
