With Explicit Calls For Violence, Kashmir Files Isn't About Empathy for Pandits.

More than filling you with empathy for the Kashmiri Pandits who suffered, it implores you to hate certain "others".

The Kashmir Files is a movie that weaponises the pain and suffering of Kashmiri Pandits to create an environment of disaffection against Muslims, against Muslims from Kashmir and Muslims from the rest of India, against universities like JNU, against professors and against journalists.

All the anti-Muslim hate you’re seeing in cinema halls in different parts of the country during and after people watching the film are not the unlikely but rather the seemingly intended consequence of the movie, but before we get into how and why The Kashmir Files achieves all of this, let’s make something abundantly clear.

Look, it is definitely important to highlight the pain and suffering of Kashmiri Pandits who fled the valley in 1990 and to talk about the violence and atrocities that led to their exodus. But The Kashmir Files does so with a lens of inciting hatred against Muslims, journalists and the like - more than filling you with empathy for the Kashmiri Pandits who lost their homes and loved ones, it implores you to hate these “others”.For example, anyone who is critical of internet being disconnected in Kashmir post the abrogation of Article 370, or children being unfairly detained by law enforcement, is painted with the same brush - either they are a terrorist or a terrorist sympathiser working against India.

And this is a ‘masterstroke’ by director Vivek Agnihotri in the movie, from a propaganda POV at least. Agnihotri gets the villains of the movie - terrorist Bitta Karate and professor Radhika Menon - to articulate several legitimate concerns affecting the people of Kashmir, and indeed of India.

But because these two are villains who are shown to be working against India, and they are the only people who are shown speaking about these issues, the logical connection that Agnihotri wants the audience to make is very clear.

That anyone speaking up about these issues, such as on the plight of ordinary Kashmiris in the post-370 crackdown, or the enforced disappearances that have plagued the region for decades, or the systematic infringement of political rights and the widespread detentions of leaders opposed to the BJP, anyone talking about ANY of these issues is to been as an anti-India agent working with Pakistan-backed terrorists.

Along with nuance, the first thing Agnihotri leaves the film devoid of is the space for legitimate disagreement, dissent and critical thought pertaining to Kashmir.

The film is replete with grave factual errors too, but we have other articles on The Quint that go into that. Let’s now get to the calls to violence in the mov

ie.At one point in The Kashmir Files, for example, one of the sensible and favoured protagonists of the movie proudly proclaims that one day, when the people of this country become wise, they will drag journalists onto the streets and thrash them in public view.

That’s a clear and direct incitement to violence, right?

If an individual were to make that statement publicly, say at a political event, to a whole crowd of people in attendance, it would amount to breaking the law. 

Just pause and underscore that - a civilian, and one of the key protagonists of the movie, is shown considering picking up arms to achieve his idea of justice.

It’s even referred to as prayaschit - the Hindi word for atonement, or the action of making amends for a wrong or injury. Through that scene, the film overtly suggests violence by civilians as a method for that atonement - or as the film describes it, as “justice”.