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Portrayal of Muslims in Bollywood: Case-Study of the Tanhaji Movie

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Abstract

1 This paper aims to investigate the portrayals of Hindu-Muslim relations in recent Bollywood movies with a specific emphasis on the Tanhaji movie. The movie narrates and depicts a religious struggle in the 17 th century for the liberation of India. While Hindu-Muslim relations and conflicts have had many fluctuations throughout the history of India, evidences indicate that the contemporary situation of Muslims have worsened in the country. In parallel with the discriminatory discourses that are becoming prevalent against Muslims in the mainstream Indian society, different types of media represent and justify these actions. Cinema as the most significant type of popular entertainment in India has played an important role in this regard. The results of the present study indicate that by introducing Hindus as heroes who are smart, loyal, brave, diligent and dedicated to their motherland, and Mughal Muslims as violent, cruel and irrational, certain Bollywood movies have provided a significant contrast between the two groups.
Research Pa
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© University of Tehran
Portrayal of Muslims in Bollywood:
Case-Study of the Tanhaji Movie
Hamideh Molaei,1 Sahar Hussain Babaei2
1. Assistant professor of South and East Asian Studies, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran
(Corresponding author) (hmolaei@ut.ac.ir)
2. PhD Student in Indian Studies, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran
(saharbabaei@ut.ac.ir)
(Received: Dec. 08, 2019 Revised: Feb. 12, 2020 Accepted: Apr. 05, 2020)
Abstract1
This paper aims to investigate the portrayals of Hindu-Muslim relations in recent
Bollywood movies with a specific emphasis on the Tanhaji movie. The movie
narrates and depicts a religious struggle in the 17th century for the liberation of
India. While Hindu-Muslim relations and conflicts have had many fluctuations
throughout the history of India, evidences indicate that the contemporary
situation of Muslims have worsened in the country. In parallel with the
discriminatory discourses that are becoming prevalent against Muslims in the
mainstream Indian society, different types of media represent and justify these
actions. Cinema as the most significant type of popular entertainment in India
has played an important role in this regard. The results of the present study
indicate that by introducing Hindus as heroes who are smart, loyal, brave,
diligent and dedicated to their motherland, and Mughal Muslims as violent, cruel
and irrational, certain Bollywood movies have provided a significant contrast
between the two groups.
Keywords: Bollywood; Hindu-Muslim relations; Tanhaji; Muslim portrayal;
Narrative analysis
Journal of World Sociopolitical Studies| Vol. 4| No. 2| Spring 2020| pp. 379-400
Web Page: https://wsps.ut.ac.ir//Email: wsps@ut.ac.ir
eISSN: 2588-3127 PrintISSN: 2588-3119
DOI: 10.22059/WSPS.2021.314905.1185
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1. Introduction
An investigation of the history of Islam in India indicates that
“trade relations have existed between Arabia and the Indian
subcontinent from ancient times” (Singh, 2016, p. 1). Trade
relat ions have existed in this region even in the pre-Islamic era.
However, according to historians Elliot and Dowson, “the first ship
bearing Muslim travelers was seen on the Indian coasts as early as
630 A.D (Singh, 2016 p. 1). Since then, Muslims proved a
significant contribution to the economic and socio-cultural
development and prosperity of the Indian subcontinent. According
to the latest official statistics, which are based on the national
census conducted in 2011 in India, the population of Muslims in
the country was slightly more than 172,000,000, constituting
approximately 14% of India’s entire population (Censusindia,
2011). Interestingly, the number of Muslims in India is increasing.
As estimated by the Pew Research Centre in a report titled The
Future of World Religions: Population Growth Projections, 2010-
2050, “the number of Muslims in India will be 311 million by 2050
and the country is projected to have the world’s largest Muslim
population, surpassing Indonesia” (Hackett, 2015).
Although Muslims constitute a significant part of the population
in India, they have been suffering from discrimination by the Hindu
Majority. Evidently, the partition of the country into two nations in
1947, worsened the situation of Muslims in India. Abul kalam
Azad -the senior leader of the Indian National Congress during the
Indian independence movement, in his book titled India Wins
Freedom, describes the severe situation of Muslims during the
early days after independence (Azad, 2009). The situation
continued and these discriminatory activities were highlighted
when the Hindu affiliated parties, particularly Bharatiya Janata
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Party (BJP), the most important pro-Hindu party in post-
independence period in India seized power.
The roots of BJP can be found in Bharatiya Jana Sangh (BJS),
established in 1951 which was the political wing of the pro-Hindu
group Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). The main aim of BJS
was to reconstruct India in accordance with the Hindu culture and
form a strong unified state (Britannica, 2020). BJP mainly
supported the ideology of Hindutva (Hindu-ness) and defined the
Indian culture based on Hindu values, which were significantly
different from the secular policies of the Congress Party
(Britannica, 2020). Evidences indicate that BJP has strongly used
anti-Muslim strategies for gaining popularity among Hindus. In
addition, whenever it reached power, BJP operationalized anti-
Muslim act ivities. The main controversy began when Hindus
believed that Mir Baqi Isfahani laid the foundations of his famous
mosque by demolishing the Hindu temple in the 10th century
(Khatun, 2020). The first conflicts took place during the British
colonial period. In the mid-nineteenth century, the British sided
with the Hindus to form a 150-year legal process over the Hindu
mosque. Hindus believed that the Babri Mosque was the birthplace
of Rama, a Hindu deity. However, the legal process was more in
favor of the Muslims and created the ground for general revolts.
The mosque was therefore repeatedly attacked and destroyed
(Khatun, 2020). Following the independence of India and the
appointment of Jawaharlal Nehru as Prime Minister, the Babri
Mosque was closed and the idol of Rama, which was forcibly
installed in the courtyard of the mosque by Hindus, was removed.
The close-down of the mosque lasted 35 years. On February 1,
1986, following the ruling of the Faizabad court, the mosque was
reopened by Hindus. Now it was the turn of the Muslims to express
their discontentment and protest (Bhattacharyya & Pulla, 2019);
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they revolted along with the formation of the "Babri Action
Committee". In 1988, then-Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi referred
the matter to the Supreme Court. In 1990, the extremist Bharatiya
Janata Party, staged a Hindu demonstration. A two-way dialogue
was established, but the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi undermined
the dialogue. In 1992, 150,000 Hindus destroyed the Babri Mosque
in the absence of troops (Bhattacharyya & Pulla, 2019). Clashes
escalated and Muslims were massacred. It is reported that more
than 2000 people, most of them Muslims, were killed because of
the conflicts (Vats, 2019). Although India's longest-running legal
dispute ended in September 2010 with the division of the Babri
Mosque land between Muslims and Hindus, in the last days of
2019, the Supreme Court deprived Muslims of the right to own
land in Babri Mosque in order to free Mr. Mundari and his party
from a historic struggle (Bhattacharyya & Pulla, 2019).
Since the inauguration of the right-wing Hindu Prime Minister
Narendra Modi in 2014, the situation of Muslims in India has been
fraught with difficulties, as discriminatory activities against Indian
Muslims have significantly increased. This hard situation reached
its peak in 2019 when Modi was reelected Prime Minister. Two
important examples of these discriminatory policies and action
include “the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganization Act” and the
“Citizenship Amendment Act” (CAA).
On October 31, 2019, the Parliament of India revoked the
Article 370 of the Indian Constitution, under which Jammu and
Kashmir were given special status and considered as Union
territories. Under Article 370 of the Constitution, Jammu and
Kashmir had their own constitution and administrative autonomy.
More importantly, citizens from other states in India were not
allowed to buy land and property there. In other words, “residents
of the states live under different laws from the rest of the country in
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matters such as property ownership and citizenship” (Aljazeera,
2019). The 2019 Reorganization Act, considered Jammu and
Kashmir as Union territories governed directly by the Central
Government of India in New Delhi (Aljazeera, 2019).
More seriously than the 2019 Jammu and Kashmir
Reorganization Act, was the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA),
which amended the citizenship Act of 1955 by providing the
opportunity of citizenship for illegal migrants of different religious
groups including Hindu, Sikh, Buddhists, Jains and Christens fled
from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh to India before
December 2014. This Act was considered discriminatory since
Muslims were not included (The Economic Times, 2019). These
discriminatory activities and other brutal actions against Muslims
such as the uprisings during the recent Donald Trump’s visit to
India on February 2020 (Ellis-Petersen, 2020) have worsened the
situation of Muslims in the country. According to The Guardian,
on February 25th, 2020, New Delhi was rocked by deadly protests,
as Trump visited India. The protestors clashed before the US
President visit, with further conflict over controversial citizenships.
These protests continued to engulf Delhi, as Muslims and Hindus
groups clashed violently. Another report by the Washington Post in
2020, indicated: as president Trump landed in India, New Delhi
erupted in violence due to clashes between supporters and
opponents of the new citizenship law, and demonstrators gathered
along a stone-covered road.
In parallel with the anti-Muslim activities due to the recent
government and other administrative bodies’ decisions, various
media and cultural products are increasingly portraying Hindu-
Muslim relations in India. Prominently, the number of Bollywood
movies representing Muslims as ‘others’, ‘terrorists’ and ‘violent’
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are increasing. Particularly since 2016, Bollywood has turned to
producing historical epics such as Bajirao Mastani, Padmaavat,
Manikarnika, Panipat and Tanhaji. Critics in India believe that
what Bollywood produces is not India’s history, but rather the
history of Hindus. The recent wave of historical stories in
Bollywood focuses on highlighting stories that "have never been
seen before" (Khatun, 2020).
In this regard, a significant study conducted by Khan and
Bokhari in 2011 illustrates a content analysis of 50 movies, aimed
to investigate the slant picture that was portrayed of Muslims in
Bollywood movies. The findings indicate that an overwhelming
number of movies had an "unfavorable" representation of Muslims
(65.2%) while 30.4% of Muslim portrayal were rather "neutral".
The remaining 4.4% show a "favorable" image of Muslims. About
ten parameters were considered for rating the Muslim image
including: dress, motivation, profession, patriotism among others.
Khan and Bokhari also mentioned that there is a significant shift in
the portrayal of Muslims in Bollywood, from movies in which
Muslims are portrayed as emperors and Mughals (such as Mughal e
Azam, Taj Mahal, Razia Sultan), to the Jihadis in the late 1980s
and 1990s (i.e., Roja, Mission Kashmir, Fiza, Fana) and Muslims
as present global terrorists (i.e., Kurbaan and Vishwaroopam).
Jain (2011) examined the portrayal of Hindu-Muslim relations
in Bollywood. He argues that Muslims in Bollywood are mostly
depicted as "others" and their image is eroticized, marginalized and
demonized. Jain also investigated two Hindi language movies:
Padosi (1941) and My name is Khan (2010). As his research
method, Jain analyzed several movies and discovered that
Bollywood movies are stereotyped based on their historical
portrayal of Muslims. He discussed various films by
subcategorizing them into four different groups: Hindu-Muslim
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friendly relations, Indo-Pakistan partition on 1947, Hindu-Muslim
violence, and modern Muslim community.
Against this backdrop, this paper aims to investigate the
portrayals of Muslims in the most recent Bollywood movies; the
second round of Modi’s administration has been selected as the
study’s time frame, since the various problems raised for India’s
Muslims have significantly increased during this period. In this
regard, we are going to see whether Bollywood contributes to
representing this issue. To this end, Tanhaji has been selected as
the case study of the paper. The movie narrates and depicts a
religious struggle in the 17th century for the liberation of India. The
present article therefore attempts to answer the following research
question:
1. How are Muslims in general, and the Hindu-Muslim relations in
particular portrayed in Tanhaji movie?
The paper first provides a literature review on previous studies
regarding the representation of Muslims in Bollywood to show the
gap in the literature. It then explains Tanhaji as the main case study
of the article. The paper provides an analysis of the movie and
concludes with remarks about the recent portrayals of Muslims in
Bollywood.
1.1. Previous Studies on the Portrayals of Muslims in Bollywood
Numerous studies have investigated Muslims’ image in Bollywood,
some focusing on the Muslim-Hindu relations and their
perspectives in Bollywood, especially after September 11 2001
attacks and November 26 2008 Mumbai attacks, others focusing on
the Hindu government and its effects on the Muslim community.
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A recent study conducted by Narindra Khatun (2020) titled
Postcolonial Hindi cinema and neo-nationalism: The politics of
Muslim identity has focused on Hindi nationalism in Bollywood,
called Hindi Rasht Riya (nation), and the image of Muslims in this
nationalist atmosphere. The study also investigates the position of
Muslims in contemporary Bollywood films by adopting a textual
analysis using Edward Said's theoretical framework on orientalism,
and divides the Muslim representation on Bollywood into three
segments: the representation of Muslims as terrorists, the portrayal
of patriotic Muslims, and the act of ‘Jihad’ on Bollywood.
In another study, which examines the topic of religion in
Bollywood from a more general perspective, Rachel Dwyer (2017)
looked at Bollywood fictions as modern mythology. The author
explained the portrayal of religion through cinema by focusing on
the depiction of the every-day rituals and pop religion in movies.
Bollywood movies first try to represent the philosophy of religion
and the strengthening of secular principles of India nation-state and
the role of religion in the portrayal of this issue. A content analysis
of two movies P.K and Bajrangi Bhaijaan has been conducted to
illustrate the religious groups in a modern way by revoking their
believes and practices.
In a comprehensive study, Ahmed and Matthes (2017) conducted
a meta-analysis of 345 studies in order to examine the role of media
in the construction of Muslim and Islam identities. A quantitative
analysis was used to highlight the geographic, methods, theories,
media types and time frames of the published studies. The selected
time frame consisted of a fifteen-year period, from 2000 to 2015.
From 9/11, media and political debates surrounding the issue of
Muslim and Islam have narrowed to an orientalist discourse. This
study specialized the representation of Muslims both in Bollywood
and Hollywood through a comparative study.
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In another study, Umar (2020) explained the portrayal of
Muslims in Bollywood by analyzing two important movies
Kurbaan (2009) and My name is Khan (2010), which represented
violent Muslims after 9/11. The movies were directed, produced
and acted by Muslims, Hindus as well as Christians due to India's
diverse religion society and ethnic groups. Kurbaan introduced
Muslims as harsh, violent and involved in terrorism. My name is
Khan (2010), on the other hand, which was released a year after
Kurbaan, made an attempt to defend Muslims. Accordingly, Umar
compared and contrasted both movies to represent the September
11 events as well as terrorism, which constitute a significant aspect
of both movies.
Tiwari (2019) focused on the religion textbook of
Ramcharitmanas (story of Rama in Ramayana) and its presence in
Bollywood, its hunting backdrop of the Babri mosque demolition
and the debate generated in the contemporary Indian literature and
literary festivals. The study concluded that religion has a significant
influence on literature, filmmaking, and screen plays, especially
those of Bollywood.
Thambusamy (2018) represented Bollywood and BJP vis-à-vis
the analysis of Indian identity in Karan Johar's films. As BJP won
the 2014 election led by Narendra Modi, this victory was portrayed
as a Hindutva victory for mainstream acceptance. The non-Muslim
plans of Modi were accepted by the United States, which led to the
support of Hindus diasporas. While several indications might have
contributed to the growth of Hindu revivals among the diaspora,
Thambusamy’s paper explored the role of Bollywood movies
released in the 1990s in the construction of Hindu identity and
Muslim relations among the diaspora.
Rajasekhar and Venkataraghavan (2013) focused on the
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portrayal of the Muslim community and Islam in the Indian cinema
in post 9/11. Their study represents the portrayal of Muslims in
Bollywood through a content analysis of New York, Anwar and
Vishwaroopam movies. In Rajasekhar and Venkataraghavan’s
opinion, Indian cinema is the best example of the multidimensional
nature of the subcontinent, as it portrays the Indian culture, society,
classes and castes, art and religion.
Studies that have been conducted on the portrayals of Muslims
in Bollywood or the representation of Hindu-Muslim relations in
the aforementioned cinema are numerous. The above studies have
been selected among the most relevant and most recent studies in
this area. As indicated in the above-mentioned studies, there are
still potential lines of inquiry for the most recent productions in
Bollywood, such as Padmawat or particularly those that are
constructed in the second round of the Modi’s administration, such
as Tanhaji. The present study is going to contribute to the existing
literature by analyzing the presentation of Muslims in Bollywood
through the lens of Tanhaji movie.
2. An introduction to Tanhaji movie
Tanhaji, a 2020 Bollywood movie, depicts a religious struggle in
the 17th century for the liberation of India. Directed by Om Raut,
and staring Ajay Devgan, Saif Alikhan, Sherad Kelkar and Kajol,
the movie is about the Battle of Kondhala and claims that in this
battle ,the Mughal sultan was behind the invasion of India in order
to expand his territory. Shivaji, the king of Maratha, tries to hide
this from Tanhaji, the commander of the emperor of Maratha,
because the wedding of Tanhaji's son is nearby. However, Tanhaji
discovers the matter and decides to stop the trusted soldier of the
Mughal emperor, Udaybhan, and prevent him from reaching the
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castle under his control. Unlike the film, the main battle is between
Tanhaji Malusare, the commander of the Maratha Empire, and
Udaybhan Singh Rathore, the guardian of Rajput Castle. The
movie depicts this historical event as a battle between the sun and
the darkness, as explained in more details in the following section.
3. Analysis of Tanhaji
In Tanhaji, there are different signs related to Mughals, which
represent Muslims on one side and Hindus on the other side. In
order to investigate the representation of Muslims and Hindus in
the movie, which is the core focus of this paper, two factors will be
examined. First, the article compares different aspects related to
hero and anti-hero introduced in the movie. Evidently, the main
hero is Tanhaji Malusare, the commander of Shivaji, the Hindu
King, and the main anti-hero is Udaybhan Rathore, the commander
of Alamgir, the Mughal emperor. Second, the article will look at
different elements regarding the mise-en-scène used in the movie,
including décor, lighting, physical appearance of different
characters and selected dialogues, which provide interesting
indications for a deeper understanding of the Muslim and Hindu
depiction in the movie.
3.1. Research Method : Narrative analysis
This study uses a narrative analysis method to investigate the
depiction of Muslims in the Tanhaji movie. Narrative analysis is a
method used for studying the genre of analytic frames where
researchers interpret stories that are told in the context of research.
In this method, scholars conduct the analysis and conclude the
findings focusing on different elements. These elements mostly
include—but are not limited to—the way the story is stretched, the
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way it functions within a specific society, the elements around
which the story is constructed, and the way the story is performed
(Allen, 2017, p. 1110).
3.2. The dichotomy of hero and anti-hero
The main hero of the movie is Tanhaji Malusare, the main
character of the story, after whom the movie is named. The movie
has another hero: Shivaji, the king of Maratha. As his commander,
Tanhaji is very faithful, lo yal and obedient toward Shivaji. Shivaji
is considered as the most important person in fighting against
Mughals and freeing India from their domination. In this mission,
Tanhaji is considered as ‘his right hand’.
On the other side, there is ‘King Alamgir’, the Mughal emperor
who has dominated a significant part of India and yearns to extend
his kingdom to other parts. According to the Hindu character of the
movie, Alamgir is going to reach this aim through an evil plan,
which consists of putting Hindus against each other. To this end, he
selects Udaybhan Rathore, who has already proved his loyalty and
faithfulness to Alamgir.
Accordingly, while Shivaji and Alamgir are the two important
opposing characters in the movie, the main hero and anti-hero are
Tanhaji and Udaybhan, respectively, because the real battle for
freeing India happens between these two commanders and their
soldiers. In this regard, to analyze the hero and anti-hero
characteristics, this article refers to Tanhaji and Udaybhan.
3.3. Main hero: Tanhaji Malusare
The movie has taken a rather positive initiative to depict the main
hero, Tanhaji, a Hindu warrior who is loyal to Shivaji and his
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sacred aim is to free Hindustan from the Mughal occupants. The
positive characterization of Tanhaji starts from the beginning of the
movie where his father is teaching him martial arts and battle
tricks. Throughout the movie, there are several attempts to
introduce Tanhaji as a brave, smart, diligent and faithful character.
His intelligence in battle is shown when he becomes disarmed by
his father and does not have any way to defend himself. At this
moment, he uses his shield to defend himself and injures his
father’s arm. This is a rather impressive introductory scene of the
movie in which the main hero is introduced as clever and
courageous
Following the positive description of the characteristics of the
main hero, his mission is introduced in the second important scene
of the movie. In this scene, his father is killed in a brutal attack to
their village by Mughal soldiers. Tanhaji’s father, in the last
moments of his life, tells him, “You are my main power. People
have different wills. I want you to do an important duty and it is
‘the freedom of this land’”. In this respect, we have a faithful
warrior whose main mission is to free his land from the domination
of the Mughal occupants.
Throughout the movie other positive aspects of Tanhaji are
emphasized. His love and passion toward his family are shown in
different scenes, particularly his kind behavior with his wife,
brother and son. The movie shows that he is deeply dedicated to his
family. However, the most important point regarding Tanhaji,
which makes him a real hero, is prioritizing his motherland over his
family. As soon as he understands that his land is in danger, he
leaves his son’s marriage ceremony and goes to defend his country.
In the different scenes of the movie, Tanhaji is depicted as ‘a real
man originated from his motherland’. Another positive point of
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Tanhaji is shown in a scene where he is working hard on his land,
doing agriculture similar to ordinary people.
3.4. Main anti-hero: Udaybhan Rathore
As explained earlier, the main anti-hero of the movie is Udaybhan,
the commander of the Mughal emperor, Alamgir. Although he is
not Muslim, his association with Mughals and his loyalty to them,
as well as betraying his Hindu fellows make him the most negative
character of the movie. In contrast to Tanhaji, who is introduced in
different ways as a positive character, looking at Udaybhan, his
behavior and even his physical appearance provokes a negative and
unpleasant sense to the audiences. From the first scene, he is
portrayed as a violent man. As an evidence, in human chess
between Alamgir and the king of Persia, Udaybhan brutally kills an
elephant. Although Udaybhan is also portrayed as a strong man, the
evidences for his power have mainly negative and somehow
disgusting connotations. In another scene, it is shown that he kills
an eagle with his arrow without any reason. The negative portrayal
of him reaches its peak in a scene where he sets fire under an
alligator and wants to eat him as his dinner. In order to provide a
more disgusting face of Udayhan, the movie shows that he starts
eating part of the animal.
The movie not only shows Udaybhan as a violent person, but
also depicts him as a cruel person who kidnaps a woman whose
husband has recently been killed by his own troops, and takes her
captive. In addition, he is portrayed as salacious and lustful,
particularly when he has an obscene gaze at the aforementioned
woman.
In another description of Udaybhan as a negative character, the
movies shows that he has very harsh behavior with the captives: he
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put them in a cage, strikes them with his arrow, pours hot water on
them, and finally closes their mouth with cloths and their feet with
chains. He dresses them like the Mughal soldiers and sends them to
battle with Tanhaji. In this respect, throughout the movie, we see a
negative character who is loyal to the Mughal emperor; he is truly
violent, cruel, salacious and lustful and does not have any rationale
for killing people. He does not have any passion and empathy
towards innocent people and constantly humiliates them.
A significant contrast between hero and anti-hero is therefore
shown in the movie. In opposition to Udaybhan Rathore, Tanhaji
Malusare is always moral, upright and well principled. He is
portrayed as a family man, and is well-mannered and polite, even
when his own wife Savitribai Malusare wants to seat beside him.
3.5. Mise-en-scène analysis (physical appearance of the characters
and lighting)
Paying attention to the physical appearances of the two groups and
particularly their representatives i.e., the main hero and anti-hero of
the movie, clearly indicates that on the one hand, we have Tanhaji,
a ‘Hindu’ with Hindi, light-colored clothes, and on the other hand a
‘Rajput’, Muslim-liked man with beard, wearing dark clothes
portraying his evil character. Other Hindus have always been
shown in white clothes, while the Mughals are always dressed in
dark colors, particularly black and dark green. While throughout
the entire movie, Udaybhan is dressed in black, the only t ime that
he is shown in white clothes is when he is in the palace, living with
Hindus. As soon as he joins the Mughals, he starts to wear dark-
colored, mostly black clothes. The deliberate selection of the white
and black colors for the two groups signifies a meaningful contrast
between hero and anti-hero, a contrast that shows every correct,
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positive and beautiful attribute on the side of the spectrum in which
Tanhaji stands, and every wrong, negative and ugly attribute on the
other side where Udaybhan stands. Simply speaking, one can
clearly see the contrast between good and evil.
Another interesting aspect that can be analyzed in the movie
relates to the lighting effects used in the movie: Hindus and
particularly Tanhaji and his family are mainly in day light; there is
a rather colorful décor and everything is full of joy, while most of
the settings in which Udaybhan and other Mughals play are in dark
and depressing. In addition, Mughals are always associated with
violent activities in which the life of Hindus are going to be
destroyed through burning and destroying houses and killing
innocent people. This gives an unconscious sense of fear from the
Muslims and Mughals.
4. Discussion and Conclusion
In recent years the number of movies portraying Hindu-Muslim
relat ions in different ways has been increasing, particularly, the
movies raising controversial discussions and narrations. Some of
these movies have been released rather recently during the first and
second round of Modi’s administration. This article sought to
investigate the ways in which Bollywood movies released during
Modi’s administration, particularly his second round of office,
contribute to the anti-Muslims discourse propagate by the BJP, the
ruling party that has conducted several harsh attacks and
discriminatory activities against Muslims. To this end, the most
recent movie in this topic i.e., Tanhaji (the unsung warrior) was
selected and analyzed. As explained in the analysis section, there
are some hints in the movie that show the superiority of Hindus in
terms of being stronger, braver, more diligent and more logical than
Moguls representing Muslims
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The disclaimer of the movie shown at the beginning, states
“makers do not intend in any manner to belittle, disrespect, impair
or disparage the beliefs, feelings, sentiments and susceptibilities of
any person(s), communities, societies and their culture, customs,
practices and traditions”. However, this statement is just a formal
clime and what the audience observes in practice is completely
different. Watching the movie provokes the thought to the
audience’s mind that ‘once upon a time in India, a group of
Muslims named Mughals attacked India in a very brutal way. They
killed their men, took their women as captive and destroyed and
burnt their houses wherever they went’. This provides an
unconscious justification for the Hindus and other non-Muslims
groups in India that the current discriminations against Muslims are
not impartial; in the most positive way, they are considered as a
type of historical revenge.
As mentioned earlier, these types of movies are increasing in
India; such depiction of Muslims in Tanhaji is therefore not
accidental. Similar evidences were found in the 2018 movie
Padmawat. The violent, Sultan Alauddin Khilji was going to obtain
the wife of a Rajput ruler. A common theme that can be seen in
both movies is that anti-heroes connected to Muslim Moguls reach
their goals by tricking others and not only do they want to dominate
the Indian motherland, but they also aim to seize and own their
women. Definitely, repeating these themes provokes a sense of
disgust and hatred against Muslims. When these themes are implied
repeatedly in various movies, they have greater potential to be
subconsciously accepted by the audience.
In addition, in current times, it is rather difficult for the general
public to find and read authentic and reliable historical books,
while it is easier and more accessible for them to watch historical
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movies. Yet, what they learn from these movies about the historical
relationships between Hindus and Muslims are not necessarily true
and complete. This issue can evidently be seen in the disclaimer of
the movie where the filmmakers confess “the film though made in
consultation with eminent historians, does not warrant to represent
or claim to be historically accurate”. However, in reality is the
movie’s storyline has a much stronger influence on the audience
than its disclaimer. Moreover, there is no guarantee that the movie
would be watched without any prejudgments against specific
groups, as for example the case of illiterate people who may not
even be able to read the disclaimer.
Tanhaji's running historical theme is portraying Mughals as
"foreigners". As Mughals lived in India for years and generations,
in the movie, Aurangzeb does not sound like a native Hindustani
speaker, he has a foreigner Hindi accent. Most Indian movies try to
portray Muslims as "others", although Muslims had a brilliant role
in Golkonda and Bijapur powers in the second half of the 17th
century. Tanhaji’s Hindu-Muslim narrative for the battle has been
repeatedly reinforced throughout the film subtly and overtly. In
fact, in the battle of Sinhagad in 1670 that later was known as
Kondhala, which is the movie's general backdrop, both sides of the
war- Udaybhan and Tanhaji- were Hindus. However, the battle was
on the basis of two rulers’ army over territory, and fought on the
basis of religion. This issue has been emphasized in several
dialogues in the film.
As a clear evidence, after releasing Tanhaji's trailer and poster,
Tanhaji played by Devgan, looked visibly like a Hindu with Tilak,
while Udaybhan, played by Saif Ali Khan, wears a beard and is
dressed in a way that reminds people of the image of Muslims. In
the film also, Udaybhan and his army are shown in Muslim
clothing styles, to illustrate that the battle was in fact fought
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between Hindus and Muslims. The movie is therefore clearly an
attempt to polarize Hindus and Muslims. Another significant
feature that highlights such polarization is the use of specific
colors during wars : saffron versus green, where green, worn by
the army of Udaybhan, is considered as the color of Muslims.
The final point that needs to be taken into consideration is that
looking at the current number of Muslims living in India shows that
they constitute an important religious group in the country. As
mentioned in the introduction, according to the Pew Research
Centre, by 2050, the number of Muslims in India will reach more
than 300 million people, making India the first country in terms of
the Muslim population (Hackett, 2015). In addition, throughout
history, Muslims have proved their contribution to the prosperity of
India in terms of literature, architecture and other cultural products
such as paintings. They have also had significant economic
contributions to the country. In this regard, rather than focusing on
the differences between Muslims and Hindus and trying to put
them in complete contrast with each other, as portrayed in the
aforementioned movies, it is better to open a constructive
intercultural dialogue between the two groups in order to find a
more fruitful way of using the potential of Muslims for the
prosperity of India. Definitely, the potentials of different types of
media, and in particular the movie industry as “the most important
form of popular entertainment in India” (Kasbekar, 2006) can be
invaluable in this regard.
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... These themes include the portrayal of Indian society in its films concerning Muslims with stereotypes of terrorism, negative minorities, and (Priya (154) & Ravi, 2013; Rajasekhar & Venkataraghavan, 2013), Fluctuating Muslim-Hindu relations in Bollywood films, which often depict romance, simultaneously exhibit a bias towards India by portraying Muslims as terrorists. (Ali et al., 2012;Falarti et al., 2019;Molaei & Hussain Babaei, 2020;Tiwary, 2011;Zafar, 2018), India's media employs a double standard in shaping the image of Muslims (Anwar et al., 2022;Rafi et al., 2017), and Indian media that creates digital warfare and produces false ideologies framing Muslims as terrorists (Anwar et al., 2022;Hussain Bhat & Hussain Bhat Scholar, 2019). ...
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Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)
  • Britannica
Britannica. (2020). Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Retrieved from https://www.britannica.com/topic/Bharatiya-Janata-Party
Prime Minister Modi Returns
  • R Bhattacharyya
  • V Pulla
Bhattacharyya, R., & Pulla, V. (2019). Prime Minister Modi Returns, 2019: New Governance Agenda. Space and Culture, India, 7(1), 1-14. https://doi.org/10.20896/saci.v7i1.569…
Religion Census India
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Censusindia. (2011). Religion Census India. Retrieved from https://web.archive.org/web/20150825155850/http://www.censusind ia.gov.in/2011census/C-01/DDW00C-01%20MDDS.XLS
Why is Govt Neglecting Bollywood, A Major Source of Soft Power? Hindustan Times
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Ellis-Petersen, H. (2020, Feb. 25). Delhi Rocked by Deadly Protests during Donald Trump's India Visit. The Guardian. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/feb/25/delhi-rocked-bydeadly-protests-during-donald-trumps-india-visit.