The Kashmir Files movie billboard in Kolkata, India. March 2022. Photo: IMAGO / NurPhoto.
The Kashmir Files movie billboard in Kolkata, India. March 2022. Photo: IMAGO / NurPhoto.

Selective truths

Kashmiri reception to the controversial film ‘The Kashmir Files’.

Maknoon Wani is a former journalist who is currently pursuing a Master’s degree at the Oxford Internet Institute (University of Oxford). His research looks at technology policy and digital governance, and he has extensively covered the Kashmir conflict, internet shutdowns and online hate speech in India. He tweets @maknoonwani.

At Himal Southasian, we are aficionados of the long read, but we do understand that both attention (and time) are scarce. That's the thinking behind Himal Briefs – a new initiative that will bring crisp, informed, contextual analysis from across Southasia. As the series title suggests, we aim to keep it short (if not sweet!) It is also a nod to the Briefs section from our print magazine days, which long time readers may recall. Our aim is to capture recent developments that our longer pieces might sometimes miss.
Expect an insider's view from some former contributors (and a few new faces) on major developments as well as underreported topics from across the region, ranging from politics, to social issues, legislation, economic concerns, cultural debates, the environment, and media and the public sphere. We hope Himal Briefs makes it to your reading lists.
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Jammu and Kashmir is one of the few regions in India where Hindus are a minority. In 1990, when the insurgency was at its peak and pro-independence and pro-Pakistan militant groups were opposing India's presence in the region, members of the Kashmiri Pandit (Hindu) community were killed in targeted attacks. The attacks, however, were rarely communal. The popular uprising in Kashmir was largely against Indian rule and it wasn't a communal conflict as many in India have tried to portray it.
The Kashmir Files, a movie which has so far earned more than INR 3 billion (USD 38 million), claims to show the true story of "genocide" and "ethnic cleansing" of Kashmiri Pandits (Hindus) in Kashmir. The film was promoted by India's prime minister and several The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) legislators and ministers who asked people to watch it to know the "truth" about Kashmir. It was also made tax-free in many BJP-ruled states. But to what end was the film promoted by various arms of the ruling dispensation?
The BJP and various rightwing groups have long maintained that the killings were communally motivated, blaming the Muslim community for supporting the violence. They have declared it a "genocide". The film endorses these claims while selectively exaggerating the killings of Kashmiri Pandits and ignoring the deaths of Muslims. According to data made public by the Jammu and Kashmir police, 219 Kashmiri Pandits were killed in attacks following the inception of militancy in 1989. However, the director of the film falsely claimed that 4000 Pandits were killed, a number not supported by any official estimate.

The Kashmir Files, a movie which has so far earned more than INR 3 billion (USD 38 million), claims to show the true story of "genocide" and "ethnic cleansing" of Kashmiri Pandits (Hindus) in Kashmir.

Most of the film is set in Kashmir, a Muslim-majority region, with several scenes from New Delhi. Notably, all the Muslim characters – even the children – are shown as evil and anti-Hindu. The film lacks a single empathetic Muslim character. Interestingly, it also targets the Delhi-based Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), referred to as ANU in the film, specifically its left-leaning political culture, and insinuates that its leftist professors and students support "terrorism" in Kashmir. In the past, the government has arrested several academics and activists, accusing them of being 'Urban Naxals' or the ideologues of an armed leftist movement in the central and eastern states of India. JNU has been a bastion of democratic and progressive politics in India and, over the years, many of its students have been actively critical of the politics of Hindu nationalism.
Given the absence of theatres in Kashmir, there has been a muffled reaction to the film from Kashmir. Omar Abdullah, a pro-India Kashmiri politician and former chief minister of the erstwhile state, said that the film was far from the truth and ignored the realities of Muslims and Sikhs of Kashmir. He further stated that through the film Kashmiri Muslims were being vilified and hatred was being spread against them. Sajad Lone, another Kashmiri politician, accused the film of inciting hatred between various communities.
Sanjay Kak, a well-known filmmaker of Kashmiri Pandit origin, who has made several documentaries on Kashmir and other conflict zones in India, wrote in this article that what happened in Kashmir was not a conflict between Hindus and Muslims but rather an uprising against the Indian state. Kak also pointed to the demonisation of Kashmiri Muslims in the film and linked it to the RSS's vision of a Hindu homeland or 'Hindu Rashtra'. While discussing the complex rivalries between anti-India militant groups in Kashmir, Sanjay Tickoo, chief of the Kashmiri Pandit Sangharsh Samiti (KPSS) – a non-migrant Kashmiri Pandit organisation, said that it would have been impossible for the community to migrate if every Kashmiri Muslim was a "jihadi" as portrayed in the film. He also denied the government's claim that the region's special status (Article 370) was linked to their migration. Sanjay Tickoo claimed that the film had spread vulnerability and polarisation, making Pandits who chose to stay back in Kashmir prone to violence. Sunil Pandita, another prominent Pandit activist, alleged harassment from BJP workers over his remarks, which criticised the film for widening the gap between Muslims and Hindus, accusing the party of exploiting the tragedy of his community.

The film endorses these claims while selectively exaggerating the killings of Kashmiri Pandits and ignoring the deaths of Muslims.

The incumbent BJP and the affiliate organisations of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) have used the issue of Kashmiri Pandits to spread anti-Muslim hate across India. Factual errors aside, the cinema halls became theatres for Islamophobic rants and sloganeering. Videos of rightwing activists calling for physical violence and boycott against Muslims were widely circulated on social media. Some of the people identified in this report were actively involved in the anti-Muslim riots in Delhi in February 2020. The film was also screened on projectors in several villages and towns. Rightwing activists called for curbing the Muslim population, lest they outnumber Hindus and a Kashmir-like situation would be repeated. The rightwing has appropriated the cause of Kashmiri Pandits, using it to justify rising violence against Indian Muslims and a near-total criminalisation of dissent in Kashmir. Given the targeted killings of Kashmiri Hindus recently, the film's propagandistic conflation of such killings with concerted communal violence is likely to confuse the underlying problems of Kashmir.
Mohan Bhagwat, chief of RSS, the ideological parent of the BJP, recently stated that the Kashmiri Pandits will return to Kashmir as "Bharat Bhakts" or devout Indians – positioning the community against popular sentiment in the disputed region. In a video address to a group of Kashmiri Pandits on 3 April, Mohan Bhagwat cited Jews who "struggled" for 1800 years for their "homeland". While supporting the film for showing the "truth", he praised Israel for achieving its goal in the last 100 years and becoming one of the world's most influential countries. The RSS chief's statement points to the Indian government's plans for Kashmir – settling the pro-India population in Kashmir, changing the demographics and weaponising civilians against civilians. While India has historically supported the Palestinian cause, the ideological supremo of the incumbent party is heaping praise on Israel's policies in the region. In an analysis for Himal published in September 2020, I had drawn parallels between Israel's model of settler colonialism and India's policies in Kashmir after the abrogation of the special status – Mohan Bhagwat's statement seems to further confirm India's plans in the region. Bhagwat also mentioned a timeframe of one year for the return of Kashmiri Pandits to Kashmir. The overwhelming support that this film received from the Indian rightwing, including the prime minister, shows the seriousness of these efforts. Whether the supposed resettlement can be achieved in such a short period remains to be seen. The possibility for reconciliation and rehabilitation for Kashmiri Pandits was already quite low, but the rhetoric has stoked fear among the local population while negatively politicising the issue. Creating a political entity out of an uprooted minority is unlikely to help them resettle in their ancestral lands.

The incumbent BJP and the affiliate organisations of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) have used the issue of Kashmiri Pandits to spread anti-Muslim hate across India.

The film reinforces many demagogic and anti-minority narratives of the BJP – and similar such narratives have helped it create a sense of paranoia and victimhood among a large section of the majority population. These emotions are then channelised for polarisation, while the government's failures in Kashmir and elsewhere are also cloaked under the same rhetoric.
Last month in Kashmir
The local jails are running at capacity owing to the overuse of the extrajudicial Public Safety Act, which allows detention without trial for up to two years. Prayers were again disallowed at Srinagar's historic Jamia mosque on the last Friday of the holy month of Ramadan. The claims of "normalcy" by the government don't seem to be based in reality.
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This article was updated on 10 June 2022 for a stylistic change. 
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