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Saturday, September 10, 2022

Indian Journalism and Indian Movies

“Indian journalism developed no reporting tradition; it often reported on India as on a foreign country.” ~ V. S. Naipaul, in his 1976 book, India: A Wounded Civilization 

Naipaul’s criticism of Indian journalism applies to Bollywood as well. Bollywood never developed an Indian tradition of film making. Most Bollywood film makers view Hinduism, which is India’s oldest religious and intellectual tradition, as a foreign doctrine. They view the Hindu festivals and rituals as pagan anachronisms which should be quickly forgotten or abolished. They prefer to study India through Islamic and Marxist eyes. 

In most Bollywood movies every single bad guy or clownish guy is someone who wears the symbols of Hindu religion. It seems that Bollywood’s idea of India is of a country which is Islamic and Marxist, and where Hindus are politically and culturally marginalized.

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