“The internet is a sport. It’s all about who can whine the loudest.” – Filthy Frank
The Overview Of The Movie
Right now, many people have a lot of things to say about ‘The Kashmir Files’. It’s the movie currently trending, and it has created a series of debates, memes, and screams. It’s about the issues of the Kashmiri Pandits and their tragic exodus during the initial stages of the Kashmir Insurgency.
It revolves around Krishna Pandit, a Kashmiri Pandit, who left the region as an infant and has now returned to Kashmir to scatter his grandfather’s ashes. When he meets his grandfather’s friends, his identity starts to clash, like Naruto vs Sasuke. On the one hand, he was influenced by his professor and peers who’ve given their side of Kashmir’s story, despite not even going to Kashmir. But on the other hand, his grandfather’s friends gave an insight into how things have transpired (which includes the fate of his parents).
Although the critics clash with the movie’s reviews, the audience has loved it. The movie has made almost Rs 80 crores at the box office as of writing this article. Pretty impressive for a movie that was released on limited screens. Like every major socio-political event, both sides of the political spectrum have to make an issue over a movie. While most believe that the movie supports the cause of the Kashmiri Pandits, others believe that the movie serves as an Islamophobic propaganda movie. I’m here to talk about both sides of the argument, and I also want to point out the most obnoxious aspects of it.
Before I start, I just want to let you know that I’ve watched the movie. It’s a great movie that heavily deals with the themes of violence, deaths, trauma, and identity. In my opinion, the movie is on par with HBO’s mini-series Chernobyl and 2017 satirical comedy movie ‘The Death of Stalin’. It’s also a great non-conventional Indian movie I’ve ever watched since Gangs of Wasseypur and AK vs AK.
And I don’t know jack about Vivek Agnihotri. I don’t care about his movies or his opinions. I’ve watched this movie because it’s the talk of the town. I was initially skeptical when I saw the trailer because hyped products can often disappoint people like Cyberpunk 2077, and I must say it’s a great movie.
The Idiocy Of Both Sides Of The Political Spectrum
The internet age gave birth to social media, which connected people all over the globe. The social media age of the internet has become closer and more inclusive. For example, I can easily talk to someone living in the US, Europe, Latin America, and so on.
This isn’t to say that social media is all sunshine and rainbows. As we’re living in a polarized socio-political climate of the world, the priorities of social media have changed from connecting people to:
- Turning into police states where anyone with a different opinion or an edgy behaviour can be easily shut down.
- Selling private data to the advertisers, the oligarchs of Silicon Valley, or China.
- Destroying someone’s life over out-of-context jokes or opinions that cause controversies or are simply against the status quo. The mob would then use cancel culture and political correctness to silence people because they have a warped sense of justice.
This is the world we are living in. Like fossil fuels, the right to privacy is disappearing. The loudest and the most counter-productive social media platform right now is Twitter. If you want to see the angry mob attacking someone for trivial reasons, then Twitter is your place.
Anyway, our two political spectra (liberals and bhakts) took “The Kashmir Files” out of proportion and made it into a political war of words (we’re living in HG Wells’s Book now). Let’s start with the bhakts because they’re the ones who can react with swear words on Twitter.
According to the bhakts, the movie represents the plight of the Kashmiri Pandits (even calling their exodus a “genocide”, that’s up for debate) and serves as an answer to Bollywood’s Hinduphobia. We all know about Bollywood’s decaying quality in their movies. Although The Lunchbox, Gangs of Wasseypur, Piku, Haider, etc., are hidden gems, they’re only a few in a million.
Most of the commercial Bollywood movies are pure garbage in terms of story and character development. Bollywood has also been criticized for promoting anti-Hindu content that enrages most people. To some extent, it’s understandable why people believe Bollywood is Hinduphobic, especially with the case of PK.
The Kashmir Files was a cinematic win for the Bhakts. Then all of a sudden, they have to ruin their victory by demonizing the people of the Muslim community. It’s a grave misconception that the Bhakts fail to understand. The actions of the few do not represent the many.
I get it watching the movie might anger them, but anger can be used for the wrong reasons and targeting a community with no fault of their own does not make things easier. The Bhakts behave the worst way on the internet by attacking people who criticize the movie by either swearing or just bringing up facts that can be proven wrong.
Look, there are always bad actors in every community. However, the work of some bad actors cannot justify hating or dehumanizing an entire community. It’s just downright pathetic. So think before you say something regrettable.
Now let’s talk about liberals because they’re the ones who can write big paragraphs on Twitter. According to them, the movie is an Islamophobic propaganda film. The film does nothing but demonizes the people in the Muslim community. Some even say that it’s a historic revisionist film. I guess that may be true to some extent. The problem is, they’re being obnoxious about it.
I think the word propaganda has lost its meaning. If you google it, propaganda means, “information, especially of a biased or misleading nature, used to promote a political cause or point of view.” If you’ve watched ‘Triumph of the Will’ by Leni Riefenstahl, or any of the speeches by Adolf Hitler in your 9th class history books, you would understand how the Nazis used propaganda to become more powerful.
They’ve used their propaganda machine to make the Jewish people scapegoats of Germany’s problems. The Kashmir Files might be uncomfortable or, at worst problematic, but simply dismissing it as propaganda is not a good move. It does not hold any candle against Triumph of the Will or The Birth of a Nation (an extremely racist movie considered as one of the most influential movies of all time. Let that sink in).
If you’ve read or watched the Marley Arc on the Attack on Titan, you’ll see how the Marleyans and even the Eldians (living in Marley) were indoctrinated and brainwashed to hate the Paradis Island and their people, the Eldians. They called the Eldians in Paradis “Akuma” or “Devil”. Keep in mind the Marleyans heavily discriminate against the Eldians living in Marley. They lived in the internment zones akin to the Jewish Ghettos in Nazi-occupied Europe.
The Kashmir Files, in most cases, deals with the tragedies of a community that was forced to leave their homes and have not returned for more than 30 years. Regardless of what anyone thinks of the director Vivek Agnihotri, I have to admit that he did his homework. Certain scenes were authentic and accurate. In a nutshell, he made a great movie (although some scenes were long and tedious, he dissed the liberals because he dislikes them).
I think most liberals don’t understand something called ‘perspective’. I’ve watched Haider, a great movie in its own right. It gives me the perspective of Haider, a Kashmiri Muslim, and how he deals with 21st century Kashmir while avenging his father. At the same time, The Kashmir Files gives me a perspective of Krishna and how he came to terms with his trauma and identity post-exodus.
I get it. Both Hinduphobia and Islamophobia exist in our society. And we must do everything to make it better. But simply dismissing the movie for being Islamophobic is not a very good look. There are matters that are more pressing than The Kashmir Files. The Hijab case in Karnataka, the love-jihad law in UP (which harm the social relations of Hindus and Muslims), the handling of post-Covid life, our ineffective and useless education system, and every other socio-political, religious, economic, and administrative matter. These matters need more attention than the movie itself.
Analysis On Historical Revisionism And Creative Liberty
I also want to talk about historical revisionism and creative (or artistic) liberty. By definition, these two words mean-
“Historical revisionism” (also but less often in English called “negationism”) is a phrase that describes the process that attempts to rewrite history by “minimizing, denying, or simply ignoring essential facts.”
For example, David Irwin is a famous pseudo-historian who believes that the Holocaust never happened. Sixteen years ago, he went to jail for denying the existence of the Holocaust. As of 2017, he claims he still has support from the new generation of followers.
Artistic liberty: “A favored term of filmmakers who create films based on or around a historical event/person/era that holds little historical accuracy, usually for the sake of making the film seem more interesting than the reality it’s based on, and by extension, possibly drawing in larger crowds and making more money at the box office.”
Some of the film’s reviews call it a ‘historical revisionism’, while the director uses the plight of Kashmiri Pandits for his communal agenda. Maybe the movie has historical revisionism but at this point which historical movie doesn’t have historical revisionism? Look at World War 2 movies. Most show the Allies as the good guys, whereas the Nazis or the Axis powers themselves are the bad guys even though the Allies have committed war crimes. Not to mention the Soviet Union was a totalitarian state, the UK was an imperialist country that we’d love to condemn for their horrible treatment of their colonies, and the US was a segregated society.
Did I forget to mention that the Western Allies bombed the ever loving hell out of Germany and Japan (including two nukes at Hiroshima and Nagasaki)? Or when the Soviet Red Army committed mass rapes over Germany during the waning stages of the European Theatre of World War II? How about Operation Paperclip, where Nazi scientists were hired by the CIA? (Like Wernher Braun, who was a Nazi scientist responsible for German V-2 rockets. The United States recruited him for NASA missions like the Apollo Lunar Program). How about the Japanese Unit 731? The unit conducted various inhumane experiments on the Chinese, Koreans, Russians, and the Allied POWs. Did you know the US gave them immunity from the prosecution of war crimes?
Why does historical revisionism happen in movies or any other medium, and why do movie makers take creative liberty? It’s because they want to entertain the audience. That is the main reason why Vivek Agnihotri has this in mind. He’s a movie director, not a historical analyst.
I like Steven Spielberg for his movies and series like Schindler’s List, Saving Private Ryan, Band of Brothers, and The Pacific. These are all World War 2 movies and series, yet Spielberg took many creative liberties in those said movies and series. The reason is he’s a movie director, not a historical analyst. He wants to entertain people.
I even cried in those movies and series, like in Episode 9 of The Pacific when Eugene Sledge tries to comfort a dying Okinawan civilian during the Battle of Okinawa. I also know it did not happen (they changed the scene to make it emotional). Sledge tried to get a medic, but the Okinawan civilian was shot dead by another US Marine.
I cried even more in Episode 10 when Sledge and his father (the war was over at that point) went for pigeon shooting, but Sledge broke down in tears because the horrors of war overwhelmed him. His empathetic father comforted him. In actuality, Sledge broke down when he mercy killed the pigeon. Read The Old Breed at Peleliu and Okinawa to know more.
As for movie reviews, please don’t take them seriously. My faith in movie critics has gone downhill since Star Wars- The Last Jedi came out. Don’t believe everything on Rotten Tomatoes, IMDB, or any other media outlet because most of them don’t give an accurate description of the movie.
The point is that you see almost no medium has portrayed the historical subject matter well on any historical movie, novel, series, video game, etc. The main aim of the said mediums is to entertain the audience. The Kashmir Files is no exception to this. Only a few mediums like Call of Duty: World at War (Video Game), Letters from Iwo Jima (WWII war movie on Japanese perspective), Come and See (WWII anti-war movie), Generation War (Iraq War Series) have come closer to accuracy.
I don’t know if the entire movie (The Kashmir Files) is entirely accurate because some of the scenes are, and some scenes have been dramatized, but it’s excellent nevertheless because of the story and character. I can sympathize with Krishna, who his professor and peers manipulated about their version of Kashmir (despite never going there themselves). When he found out about his family’s fate, the whole ordeal changed him entirely. That is one hell of character development.
Problem With Internet Whataboutism
By definition, “a conversational tactic in which a person responds to an argument or attack by changing the subject to focus on someone else’s misconduct, implying that all criticism is invalid because no one is completely blameless.”
To explain it in layman’s terms, let me give you an example. Imagine yourself being a politician and under extreme scrutiny for embellishment and corruption. Then you try to change the subject by blaming your opponents by bringing up their mess-ups. That’s the meaning of whataboutism. You try to deflect your mistake by changing the subject and blaming other people.
The word itself has a mixed reception. Many people praise the word for addressing other issues like in the ongoing Russian-Ukrainian war; people were focusing on the war going on in Ukraine while ignoring Palestine, Syria, Yemen, etc. At the same time, most people criticize it because it gives the person to deflect their mistake. For example, during the Trump Administration, President Trump popularly used whataboutism to deflect his wrongdoings.
I feel mixed about the word too. While it’s good to point out the hypocrisy of someone like in Carryminati’s case when he dropped a diss track on PewDiepie when the latter was taken out of context during the T-Series vs PewDiePie feud. But when he was taken out of context during the YouTube vs TikTok feud, he defended himself by telling his audience not to take his jokes out of context.
Whataboutism is a powerful weapon to discredit someone, but I’ve learned something in history. Powerful weapons can be misused. Whataboutism can be used to hide and justify your mistakes. What was once a Soviet tactic can now be used by an average Joe on Twitter?
Whatboutism on Twitter can be summed by: people with no knowledge of the event whatsoever. It’s what going on right now. During the Ukraine war or any terrorist attack, people bring up the wars in Syria or Yemen. Although it’s good to mention them because all wars are never moral (not black and white but ugly shades of grey), it’s annoying that some of them mention it just to gain clout.
I’ve seen people typing #PreyForSyria or #PreyForYemen, despite never knowing the conflict itself, let alone going there (understandably, you can’t go to a war zone but at least do a simple Wikipedia search). Hashtags are worth nothing in the warzones; people will die, countries will be in ruin. You’ll gain nothing but followers on Twitter or Instagram.
That’s what’s going with The Kashmir Files. Many people dismiss the people simply because it does not focus on the plight of the Kashmiri Muslims who have also suffered in the insurgency, and it creates more disharmony. Do you realize that more than dozens of movies focus on Kashmiri Muslims’?
No, I’m not saying that the Kashmiri Muslims didn’t suffer. They, too, were the victims of the insurgency. Haider is one of those movies which gave me a perspective of the Kashmir Muslims. It’s just that I’m saddened and confused with Kashmir’s tragic history and the impact it has on both Kashmiri Pandits and Muslims, respectively.
As much I use whataboutism in my articles, I feel like the people on the internet are obnoxious about it.
Criticism Of Rana Ayyub
When the Farmers’ Protest was at its height last year, I published an article on YKA where I criticized all parties involved, including Kangana Ranaut. This year, there’s someone whose behaviour is akin to Kangana despite their differences in politics, cultural background, and profession. I’m talking about Rana Ayyub.
If you live under a rock, then props to you, unless Eren Jaeger manipulates you. If you still want to know about Ms Ayyub, then here’s a summary: An opinion columnist at Washington Post, Ms Ayyub is mostly popular for the book- Gujarat Files: The Anatomy of Cover-Up, which is based on the aftermath of the Gujarat Riots (which by the way is under extreme scrutiny as the Supreme Court called it an unreliable source of evidence. Read the Haren Pandya Case, Paragraph 248. I know the judiciary is severely flawed, but modern-day journalists aren’t trustworthy either.)
It’s public knowledge that Ms Ayyub is a hardline critic of the Indian PM Narendra Modi and his party. She also claims that she’s fighting for the truth. While some find her a brave yet credible journalist, her critics find her a hypocrite with questionable credibility. In an Al Jazeera interview, when Sadanand Dhume of The Wall Street Journal questioned her for the tapes, including interviews with the upper echelon of the Gujarat Government, Ms Ayyub refused to publish it because her safety might be jeopardized. When Mr Dhume asked her to publish it on media outlets, she replied the outlets rejected her tapes.
The interview raises some eyebrows regarding her credibility as a journalist. Whether the tapes exist at all is open to interpretation. One Quora comment even states that public opinion would’ve turned against the PM and his party if the tapes had been published and proven credible. His credibility would’ve been damaged, and his opponents would take the opportunity to gain the momentum.
Well, dealing with Ms Ayyub’s tweets is like dealing with PETA (which has euthanized 73% to 90% of animals after they’ve supposedly saved them). I’ve brought up Ms Ayyub in this article because she’s one of the people who’s highly critical of the Kashmir Files. She believes that the government and the people of the right-wing endorses an Islamophobic movie.
Although it’s her opinion, and we should respect her freedom of speech and expression, I believe that her tweets are rage-baiting because she knows that people will be toxic enough to respond “in-kind”. I think it’s an annoying yet clever tactic that gives her more clout and followers on her social media handles (the tactic resembles Kamra, Vir Das, Ranaut, and Swara Bhaskar).
At the same time, I also believe that in India’s polarised socio-political climate, Ms Ayyub is adding more kerosene to the fire alongside Kunal Kamra, Swara Bhaskar, Elvish Yadav, Vir Das, Arnab Goswami, and Kangana Ranaut. They’re not making the situation any better. There’s one thing about Ms Ayyub that irks me the most. It’s something that I’ve even written about it on OpIndia. While Ms Ayyub is speaking for the plight of the Uighur Muslims, she’s also working under the man who’s making fortunes from the backs of the Uighur Forced labourers. Interesting right? Let me elucidate.
Ms Ayyub is an opinion columnist at Washington Post. Do you know who owns Washington Post? Nash Holdings, which is owned by none other than Jeff Bezos. And Jeff Bezos’s Amazon is working with the Chinese government (the government conducting atrocities against the Uighur Muslims).
Amazon is also accused of using Chinese suppliers who have links to Uighur Forced Laborers. Let’s not forget that Amazon’s sweatshop operations in China are also under extreme scrutiny. Not exactly good luck for the journalist. It also makes me question Ms Ayyub’s credibility as a journalist. The woman who speaks for the Uighur Muslims is working under the man who’s working with the abusers of the Uighur Muslims. How ironic and hypocritical.
I don’t hate Ms Ayyub. Not simply because of the reasons mentioned. Besides, I will gain nothing from hating her. Instead, I want her to take this piece as a mode of criticism and be better because I’ve been proven wrong.
I’m just disappointed with everything wrong with modern journalism. We might never see another journalist like Sachita Dalal again, let alone another whistleblower like Edward Snowden or Julian Assange. The Indian media outlets and the foreign media outlets are nothing but a bunch of jokes.
Conclusion
People once said that Stanley Kubrick directed the Apollo 11 moon landing in the aftermath of 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), which was released a year before the moon landing. Many people believe the US Government has something to do with this because they want to divert the public attention from the already unpopular Vietnam War (many other reasons too). This led to many people believing it to be conspiracy propaganda.
I know nothing about Kashmir. I’m sure most of you don’t know as well except the Kashmiris who’ve stayed there (Pandits and Muslims). Unfortunately, some of them only bring up the issue to get clout from social media.
I only went to Srinagar in 2019, when a family member of mine had an interview in the BSF. I’ve seen soldiers on every part of the road as well as snow. The people too are friendly. Although it was a two-day trip, I enjoyed it. Sadly the trip happened a month before the Pulwama attacks.The snowball I’ve made in Srinagar. Anyway, the Kashmir Files has shown the worst aspects of internet polarisation. People who support or are against this film are entirely raging over it. I’ve seen people bringing up the death tolls of Kashmiri Pandits and Muslims in the Insurgency. It made me cringe because people use deaths to counter an argument. Unfortunately, the numbers don’t change anything about the tragic event that still haunts the Kashmiri Pandit community.
We don’t know anything about Kashmir, and here we are on Twitter, trying to be a bunch of experts. To people who find my article one-sided because I praised The Kashmir Files. I’ve also watched Parzania and Firaaq (Naseeruddin Shah was in both movies. He also worked with Agnihotri in The Tashkent Files) because these two movies are trending.
And I liked them. The two movies have good stories, actors, and characters, especially with Nawazuddin Siddiqui in Firaaq. I liked the Kashmir Files was because of how it dealt with a tragic event.
I’ve also watched 1947 Earth. It’s a tragic story about a group of friends from various religious backgrounds who started to come for each other’s throats during the Partition of India. It doesn’t side with any community; rather, it shows how people (especially women) from various communities can be affected by the horrors of the Partition. It’s a good movie, and it’s on YouTube.
The Last Temptation of Christ also received backlash from some Christians (While sending death threats to Martin Scorsese, one of the greatest movie directors of all time). Countries like Argentina, Chile, Greece, The Philippines have banned the movie. Come to think of it now, The Kashmir Files, Parzania, Firaaq, 1947 Earth, Haider, etc., are great movies under extreme protests. So it’s understandable why people don’t like it because people get angry when something they like gets under critique. But we still don’t know how to deal with such critiques. Maybe soon, we’ll learn that.
I pray that this insurgency ends soon so that people of both Pandit and Muslim (and other minorities too) communities can live in harmony. And I also hope that the people on the internet stop arguing over trivial narratives and come up with a better solution so that this polarized world might have some morality and not repeat past mistakes.
That’s all I have to say. Peace Dattebayo