{"id":49,"date":"2016-07-14T17:55:36","date_gmt":"2016-07-14T17:55:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/filmwriting.wordpress.com\/?p=49"},"modified":"2016-07-14T17:55:36","modified_gmt":"2016-07-14T17:55:36","slug":"towards-a-more-inclusive-indian-identity-a-case-study-of-the-bollywood-film-swades","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tharkuri.in\/index.php\/2016\/07\/14\/towards-a-more-inclusive-indian-identity-a-case-study-of-the-bollywood-film-swades\/","title":{"rendered":"Towards a more inclusive Indian identity? A case study of the Bollywood film Swades"},"content":{"rendered":"

National Identities, 12:1, 41-59<\/em><\/p>\n

If there is anything I\u2019ve learned from Maya Ranganathan, it is to place whatever you are arguing \u201csquarely\u201d\u00b9 within social, political, and economic context. And that the ability to build said context comes from extensive reading.\u00b2<\/p>\n

In this paper \u2014 Towards a more inclusive Indian identity? A case study of the Bollywood film Swades, I find her doing what she does best \u2014 make an argument within the context of reality. As a film that released within a year of passing of the Dual Citizenship Act, she reads Swades as an attempt at propagating a more inclusive Indian identity.<\/p>\n

She takes her time outlining the idea of national identity, its manifestation on the diaspora, India\u2019s history with Indians migrating to countries abroad, the need then for liberalisation and the resultant need to be more inclusive and inviting of NRIs, the expanding market for Bollywood films abroad, among other things. This is so rich, that is there is one reason I\u2019d want to live 200 years is to be able to read all the papers and books she\u2019s referenced in this section.<\/p>\n

Strong on the foundation of context, she gets to Swades. She explores the idea of parampara<\/em> in understanding one\u2019s identity; and conflict in the film. She argues \u2014 “that it falls in line with what Chatterjee identified as a unique feature of anticolonial resistance: the creation of an \u2018inner\u2019 culturally sovereign realm while competing with the West in the \u2018outer\u2019 realm of politics and economy.\u201d<\/p>\n

The stereotypical media image of the callous and selfish Indian abroad of the 1980s when the Indian economy appeared to be doing well had to give way to a more tolerant image of the NRI following the waking up of the Indian government to the need of involving the huge NRI population in the process of nation-making.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

She recounts one after another the various ways in which the film uses familiar images and symbolism to nudge the importance of returning to one’s homeland. She draws meaning from the film\u2019s name and how it\u2019s used, the names of the characters \u2014 the Kaveriamma in rural UP, \u201cCharanpur\u201d \u2014 the land that offers refuge. She reads Kaveriamma as metaphoric of (mother) India. But she returns to the Dual Citizenship Act and the need to be domicile in India to contribute to nation-building.<\/p>\n

In the end, she also finds that, by the film’s logic, Mohan’s returning to settle in India might be useless.<\/p>\n

Link to full-text on Academia.edu<\/a>.<\/p>\n

More reading<\/strong><\/h4>\n