Disclaimer 1: The first letter of the name of one hostile nation has not been written in Capital. So, we apologise if we end up offending someone unintentionally. In all probability, it was distinctively intentional.
Disclaimer 2: Read the entire article before attacking us with your opinion or argument otherwise you will end up making a fool out of yourself.
Authors – Parth Khare and Vivek Ranjan
Just after a few hours of release of the trailer of the upcoming movie ‘Uri: The Surgical Strike’ to be released in January 2019 starring Vicky Kaushal, Yami Gautam, Paresh Rawal, Mohit Raina and others, a news website by the name ‘The Wire’ came out with an article with title ‘Uri Trailer: Brace Yourself, More Toxic Hyper-Nationalism is Coming’.
Just by watching the trailer the ‘liberal’ journalists of The Wire have already given their verdict about the film being “Hyper-Nationalist” and “Toxic”. A similar phenomenon was observed during the controversy over the movie ‘Padmavat’. It’s just that the Karni Sena knew only violence as a way which they used quite brazenly to threaten, The Wire which only knows exaggeration combined with distortion and topping it with hypocrisy- did what it does best, i.e. mislead. Some people may find this comparison exaggerated and out of place, but it mirrors what The Wire has been doing with its opinion pieces.
Also, initially the article went to the extent of calling the terror attack in Uri as ‘alleged terror attack’. Following is the screenshot. Although it was later edited when there was outrage in the social media in general and Twitter in particular.
Applying the same rationale, it can be argued that the Kargil War was also a show of “Toxic Hyper-Nationalism” because India retorted in a language that Pakistan understands. In 1971 also when some cities were bombed by the Pakistani Defence establishment, India answered back. So, most probably it was also a show of “Toxic-Hyper Nationalism” of Indira Gandhi according to The Wire.
After some days, if some of the media houses comes up with a piece of article saying that if Indians get killed by Pakistani Terrorists or Defence Establishment (which in most cases are difficult to distinguish) and they don’t reply back with a similar response, it is “Liberalism” but if they do it is “Toxic Hyper-Nationalism”, we would not be surprised.
Nothing surprising here as it has become a habit of some people to connect everything to “Toxic Nationalism” from dance forms to attires. In an article published a few months back in The Wire had a title – ‘Bharatanatyam as an Object of Majoritarian Cultural Nationalism’. The screenshot of the heading is given below.
Source: The Wire
In the whole article, it is just the superficial and unsavoury quips and jibes trying to prove a great dance form of India as some sort of “Toxicity”.
In another article, although not published in The Wire but in New York Times titled ‘In India, Fashion Has Become a Nationalist Cause’. The whole idea of the article is to project traditional wear of Indians whether it is Saree or Kurta Pyjama or Dhoti or any other local traditional dress of different states, it leads to some sort of “Toxic Nationalism”.
We will not be surprised, if after some days an article says that eating Dosa, Vada, Idli, Samar, Roti, Rice, Dhokla, Pav-Bhaji, Poha, Chole Bhature, etc all are signs of “Toxic Hyper-Nationalism”. Indians should rather eat only Brown Bread with Ham & Cheese Spread or some Pizza or Burger to become “Liberal”.
We particularly don’t find any difference between this sort of calling out and implying everything as “Toxic Hyper-Nationalism” and BJP and Sangh Parivar calling and going for a ban on beef and sometimes calling on the dress of Indians in general and women in particular.
Maybe The Wire should know that “Liberalism” does not come from ranting against the Indian Army, common culture of India, its food, its dress, or hating one party or ideology. It is something which seems very alien to them and escaped them for quite a long time as is evident in their article.
Some other parts of the article are as follows in the screenshots with the phrases like “full of abuses, calls for patriotism and national flag icons”, “Beast-like soldiers” and “a full-fledged three-hour film on a contested, highly politicised and acrimonious issue is only going to stoke the already-rising flames of toxic hyper-nationalism”. (Credit : The Wire)
The larger question we want to raise is that what is so wrong with a movie celebrating an operation that required exceptional levels of planning, intel, and above all, courage. What of the 19 soldiers who were killed in the incident in Uri by state-sponsored terrorists? Where is the article denouncing the attack by ‘The Wire’? what we instead got was an attempt to convince people why further covert action was futile. The hyper-nationalism that is alleged here seems to be detrimental only to Pakistanis and Indian Liberals, and not to any other country in the world, with India pulling off brilliant diplomatic wins, from Waivers by the USA on the Iran oil imports, to extradition of Christian Michel. We have extremely strong ties with superpowers like Russia, Japan, and the even USA due to our soft power. And it may be worth mentioning that all of those countries have strong nationalist identities and never shy away from asserting them. Celebrating our defence forces is not wrong, when it is those same forces who are an example of national integrity and unity in diversity with soldiers from all parts of the social fabric of India bravely fighting to secure our borders, so that the very people they protect can then denounce them and say that what they did was toxic and hyper national.
And what of the pakistani movie released in June 2018 and insidiously titled ‘Azaadi’ (directed by Imran Malik and starring Moammar Rana and Sonya Husain) which was essentially glorified propaganda of militancy, exhorting people in the valley to take up arms against India. Here is the trailer. It showed gruesome deaths of Indian soldiers and portrayed India as some villain that has taken what was rightfully theirs. It went to the extent of depicting an Indian minister with a long ‘teeka’ on the forehead threatening to burn down an entire village in Kashmir. Was that not hyper-nationalist and toxic? Or was that just freedom fighters trying to win back their lands? Hard to believe that pakistan wasn’t involved when the protagonist fights with the pakistani national flag in his hand
So, this would not be unwise to call the piece a collection of rants to prove the ‘Liberal’ credential of the writer in particular and The Wire in general.
But was it the first time? If the headlines of The Wire is looked upon with some other movies as well:
Here is the screenshot of one those headlines (Credit: The Wire)
For movie ‘Gold’ The Wire writes – “Gold Sacrifices Complexity and Detail at the Altar of Patriotism”. The content of the article is just like someone teaching moral science lessons to Bollywood. The irony is here ‘The Wire’ is teaching to ‘Bollywood’. That itself is good enough to guess it, but definitely, I would recommend people to read it unlike The Wire or Karni Sena which gives its opinion of a 2+hour movie from a 2+ minute trailer.
Having said that, we must say that Gold was not a controversial movie, neither did it talk bad about anything. It was just about the energy, feeling and love of sportsmen and common people for one’s own country (and of other countries including Pakistan) which howsoever hard any comrade or ‘liberal’ may try is going to exist till the time the concept of nation-state exists and of course it will exist because the patrons of all these people were the ones who devised this whole idea of ‘nation-state’.
Now, coming to the next movie ‘Parmanu’. Following is the screenshot (Credit: The Wire) –
It says “Parmanu is a nationalist drama That Ends Like a Horror Film”. A film which is just describing the event of conducting the Pokhran Tests. A film which does not have any slogans which ‘The Wire’ considers as some hyper-nationalist trope. It is just a simple film celebrating ordinary Indians with extra-ordinary guile and courage. Nuclear Tests for all practical purposes is not a good idea in the current times, but the same pragmatism can also suggest that “If you want peace, prepare for war” and this becomes even more apt when we have a hostile neighbour like Pakistan which wants to bleed India by ‘1000 cuts’ which ‘The Wire’ seems to have forgotten or is ignorant about. Whatever be the case, we are not surprised because in case of ‘Liberals’ and ‘comrades’, both are complementary to each other and becomes what Naseem Talib in his book Black Swan calls ‘Hotel Journalism’ when combined with their sophistry infested arrogance.
In conclusion, a soldier facing harsh weather conditions and risk of death by an enemy that knows no code of honour in war does not care of these flowery ideas of just enough nationalism hyper-nationalism or too much nationalism. He does not do it for money. Most of us would not be able to or willing to do that even if the salary is at par with highly paid jobs in MNCs. It is absolutely deplorable to not support our forces. The soldiers have some guidance, some source of energy, some passion that makes them march into battle facing death. Until we find a better word for it, patriotism and nationalism will have to do, of the hyper kind or the normal.