A screening and discussion with Anand Patwardhan

Anand Patwardhan, documentary filmaker and activist who started his career in the 1970s has been making documentary movies and wnning awards for them since long. His famous documentaries are In the Name of God, Father Son and the Holy War, on Mumbai slums, and the recent one on nuclear weapons titled War and Peace which was screened at EFLU today in the afternoon and was interspersed with discussions, interactions with Anand himself. Anand started making the movie in 1998 following the Pokhran nuclear test,. It took him four years to complete. He shot extensively in India, and later in Japan, Pakistan and the US. In 2002 when it was completed, the then BJP Govt banned it and Anand went to court. After a year or two, it gained legal rights to screen it. It also won the National Award and DD showed the movie, but duped the public by changing the timing at the last minute so that not many could actually watch it. It was better received at Karachi, where they had a series of discussion on TV which was telecast over many days.
The documentary is clearly anti-nuclear, though it shows also the arguments made by the pro-nuclear party. It shows how euphoric people are and also how the bomb is actually causing more damage than harm, since the radiation is causing cancer in many. Most term it ironically the 'blast for peace'. Patwardhan juxtaposes images of the people's lives with that of those in the higher ups who have no clue how the testing of the bomb is affecting them. The Bishnoi tribe who live near the test site, have sold their lands at a mere 20 Rs per bigha to the Govt! They owned each up to 300 bighas of land. The Dalits are against the Govt using Buddha as code word for the bomb. WHy don't they use their other Hindu gods they cry? Buddha smiled was the term used to demote that the test was successful. The Bishnoi tribe is peace and animal loving. They have no aid from the Govt. But even in the villages there are two factions. The elders are anti-nuke while the youths buy into the Govt developement arguement. The BJP is posing the nuclear test as something of pride, and equating it with Hindu nationalism. Anand is making us question this very notion of patriotism which is where one does not love the people who are suffering by the nuke tests. Anand argues that it is the elite who have solved the problem of food water job house etc who need a sense of pride and they seek it in the nuclear 'power' which they think is good at the cost of the land, fauna and most importantly the people. The money which is spent in the nuclear tests and the uranium factories which are contaminating water, making deformed babies and giving cancer to people is diverted from education, food and other primary needs. This nuclear test is not power, nor is it a matter of security. Rather, as argues Anand it is about status. The scientist who are on the project also are not aware of the implications of the bomb. They all speak the discourse of the Govt which happens to the be Hindu nationalist discourse. Anand then films in Japan where the Ibakushas, the survivors of the Hiroshima Nagasaki bombings tell about the horrors of the nuclear blast. He also films in a museum in which some Americans are critical of their Govt's spending on defence. He also goes to Pakistan and talks to people in the streets and see that they too want peace and talks to girls in a school who have varied opinions on why Pakistan should have or shouldn't have have the nuclear tests right after India did. He shows people's efforts to educate others on the harms of the nuke, while others' obvious pride in the test. While Anand is critical of the Govt and the elite's position, he also shows how the ones marching for peace and against the nuke are met with opposition and shouts of 'go back traitors' and 'go to pakistan'. The film ends with a quote from Gandhi which extols non-violence.
There were various questions after the screening of the film. When I asked if the film had been translated into other Indian languages since it was Anand's wish to reach to as many people and spread awarness, he said they had been but that he needed the response from people themselves before spending money to translate it into languages such as Tamil.
There was further discussion where Anand made himself clear and told what he was intending to do through the movie.