By TwoCircles.net Staff Reporter,
New Delhi: Activists of right wing students’ body Akhil Bharaitya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) stalled the screening of a documentary film on the Mzuaffarnagar riots on Saturday afternoon.
‘Muzaffarnagar Baaqi Hai…’ (Muzaffarnagar Eventually) is over two hours long documentary film about the anti-Muslim massacre that broke out in September, 2013 in Muzaffarnagar and Shamli districts of Western Uttar Pradesh. The film is directed by award winning film maker Nakul Singh Sawhney, an alumnus of the Pune based Film and Television Institute of India (FTII).
Courtesy: Facebook Page of New Socialist Initiative
The film has been screened at several places across the country, including Delhi’s JNU, Jamia Millia Islamia, Kolkata, Lucknow, Patna, Hyderabad, SOAS in London, etc.
Film-maker Nakul Sawhney, who was also present at the venue, told TwoCircles.net, “About 150 students of the college, and few teachers were quietly sitting and watching the film for about an hour when around 25-30 ABVP activists, none of whom were from the college barged in and after sitting through for 10 minutes objected to its screening.”
He informed that when some senior professors of the college who were also sitting there try to explain to them that if they have any objections they can raise it during the Q-A session, some of them became very aggressive and threatened to slap the teacher.
The film screening was organised by the Film Society of Kirori Mal College, located in the North Campus of the University of Delhi, at its seminar hall on Saturday afternoon. According to eye witnesses, around 25-30 rowdy members belonging to the right wing ABVP started shouting slogans and threatened everyone present in the hall, besides stopping the screening.
In September, 2013, Muzaffarnagar and Shamli districts of Western Uttar Pradesh, witnessed their worst ever anti-Muslim pogrom since Indian Independence. More than 100 people were killed and close to 80,000 people were displaced.
‘Muzaffarnagar Baaqi Hai…’ (Muzaffarnagar eventually…) explores as to why a relatively harmonious hinterland erupted into communal rioting in 2013, examining the many facets of the massacre- the question of women’s ‘honour’, which was used by organisations of the Hindu right, including BJP-RSS, to orchestrate communal violence, the merging of caste identity politics within the larger Hindutva fold, the breakdown of the once powerful farmers’ union, the Bhartiya Kissan Union, whose survival hinged on the unity of Hindu and Muslim peasants, the various aspects of Dalit politics in the districts, the dubious role of the Samajwadi Party, the ruling party in Uttar Pradesh and the feeling of complete alienation and marginalisation of the Muslim community.
The film looks at how the massacre found its resonance in the 2014 Indian General Election campaign. Finally, it tells of the continued and growing resistance in Muzaffarnagar and Shamli districts against the corporate- communal nexus.
Sawhney’s films include the award winning ‘With a little help from my friends’ (2005), Agaurav and Undecided (both in 2006), Once upon a time in Chheharta and the acclaimed Izzatnagari Ki Asabhya Betiyaan (2012) on “honour” crimes in Haryana.