Under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Hindu hardliners turn Indian theater into a battleground by AnujaJaiman
NEW DELHI - Five days after a suicide bomber killed 40 CRPF personnel in February in the Kashmir Valley, playwright and director Abhishek Majumdar was forced to cancel a play looking at the behaviour of Indian security forces in the disputed region.
“It wasn’t that people didn’t like our play, expressed their dismay and left. No. We were being hunted across the city,” said Ashwath Bhatt, an actor in the play. “We were informed of possible violence. So to avoid any violence and any harm from happening, we took action,” said sub-inspector Mukesh Kumar.Hindu activist Suraj Soni said he filed a police complaint against the play and joined the protests because it was “mocking” and “insulting” the nation’s armed forces at a time when India was mourning those killed in the suicide attack.
The number of verbal attacks on the BJP and its allies was illustrative of how much freedom the critics had, she said. Kumaramangalam compared it with India’s 21-month state of emergency in 1975-77 when then prime minister Indira Gandhi suspended civil liberties. Hundreds of journalists, artists and intellectuals were among those arrested at the time.
“There is a kind of legitimacy this government has provided to violence. It is okay to attack artists these days, only because their work does not suit the narrative being peddled for electoral gains,” said Majumdar.In January when a Tamil-language band ‘The Casteless Collective’ sang in Chennai, a police officer stopped the band soon after it started playing.
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