I am so happy to write this post. I’ve come close to it before but never really managed to have the kind of discussion I want to have. But I think now is the time! We have the right mix of people on the blog, and a good starting point.
In one of my graduate seminars on colonialism and orientalism and stuff, it talked about how among colonized writers and thinkers, the reaction to the Holocaust was very frustrating. Because similar events had been occurring for decades in colonized countries, situations where communities were rounded up and moved and eventually killed (through starvation, violence, all kinds of things). You can draw a direct line in terms of organizational structure from how the native people of many many colonized countries were treated to how the Nazis treated the Jews. So the reaction was this anger of “sure, now you are horrified, because it is happening in Europe to Europeans, but where were you for the past 100 years?”
To my mind, that is a justified anger and response. HOWEVER!!! It must go along with the basic “two wrongs don’t make a right” understanding. You can acknowledge that certain atrocities gain more attention than other atrocities and that is not fair. But you can also acknowledge that those are still atrocities and deserve the attention they got. America did terrible things to the people living here before America was settled, and continues to do terrible things to them. America also had slavery, which went on for hundreds of years and is an atrocity. I acknowledge all of those things. I also say that the Holocaust was a terrible thing that happened and Americans, as a whole, are right to treat it with deep reverence.
When I try to look at WWII from the Indian side, it is these absolutes and “two wrongs” arguments that I keep finding myself on. Yes, it was wrong for India to be colonized. Yes, the British did many terrible things large and small to India. But during WWII, that one moment in time, the Japanese and Germans were an immediate extreme Evil. I can acknowledge that the British were Evil in how they treated the people they controlled while still saying the British were on the right side in WWII. You can’t say “the British are wrong, so nothing else matters, might as well fight with this other side that is also wrong”. There are absolutes in this world. Germany and Japan during WWII were absolutely wrong.
Now here’s the other problem. I am saying this based on what I have learned living in America. All of the resources I have in America are biased in one way or the other, and obviously American history is going to support our position in WWII. If I say to you, person who is from a different cultural background, that the Nazis were the greatest evil the world has ever known and the Japanese of the 1930s and 40s weren’t far behind, you would be reasonable to doubt me, to think I am exaggerating because of misinformation and prejudice.
Ages ago on this blog I got into an argument about Taimur’s name. The argument was based on how deeply insulting and emotional it is to use the name of this monster. Timur, the historical figure, may well have been a monster. But he was around in the 1400s. It’s hard to see historical sins at the distance. WWII, historically speaking, JUST happened. We have photographs, audiotapes, and living humans even now who were there. When I say “Hitler was Evil”, this is not based on something I learned by rote in a textbook. It’s real lived experience.
Setting aside the reality of Evil, there is also the compassion for lived experience. This also, I think, came up with Taimur’s name. It’s triggering for people, it’s inconsiderate to remind them of this terrible thing that happened to their family. I do not find that a reasonable argument for something that happened 600 years ago. I do find that a reasonable argument for something that happened 2 generations ago. Even if I don’t convince you that Hitler was evil, I should be able to convince you that, for my family, where both my grandfathers suffered from PTSD from the war, where I have known multiple people through my life in America whose families were directly touched by the holocaust, that for me in particular it is not okay to minimize this person and these events.
Now, from the other side, there was a massive campaign of misinformation in India for hundreds of years, the remnants of which are still being cleared out. And of course now there is a new campaign of misinformation in India. So it is easy to assume anything you are told about history, read about history, anything at all is just a fiction. You can laugh about WWII the same way you can laugh about the British claiming they taught people how to bath. And there is the historical reality that part of the WWII story in India is arguments about whether it was a just war, from their side. Whether they should be either abstaining from fighting or supporting Japan. So from the India side, this is more British exaggeration and lies about someone who probably wasn’t that bad. And it’s sort of cool to just make fun of all that exaggeration and take the very basic parts of it, “Hitler means bossy”.
In the past, there have been lots of movies where “Hitler” is used as a joking nickname for someone who has a lot of rules. There have been a few serious movies dealing with Indian freedom fighters torn between the Allies and the Axis and which side is right. All of them make me feel uncomfortable. I can find a way to accept the “joking nickname” part in a movie, I understand where it is coming from, if someone used it in front of me in real life I would school them about why that is wrong. In a movie, there’s no one there for me to “school”, so I just close my ears and move on. The other part, the Serious Movies with Indian freedom fighters torn between the Allies and the Axis, I have a really hard time with those. I’ve only managed to see Indian and Rangoon. Part of what I really appreciated about Byomkesh Bakshy is that, in that moment in time, it showed the British as less of an evil than the Japanese. That’s a perspective that I have not seen much, and it is the only perspective I can really relate to for India in the WWII era.
And finally, I bring you to Bawaal! This is a very strange trailer. It starts with a silly married couple fights and stuff. And then they go on a Honeymoon which the husband jokingly calls a “World War”. And then suddenly we are in Germany, and there are black and white flashbacks to war, soldiers, and finally what is clearly a gas chamber.
There are two options for this movie. Either it uses WWII and “exotic” European history as a way to teach this young couple to be in love. In which case, this is one of the few times I believe in censorship. This movie should not be allowed to play outside of India, it is too painful for almost anyone to watch.
The other option is that, finally, someone in Indian pop culture is trying to address this big gap in knowledge within the country. Perhaps Varun is playing the “ignorant every man” and we will watch him go on a journey from “who is Hitler anyway?” to “oh whoa, this is bigger than anything ever and makes my life and my problems turn into nothing”. I am choosing to watch the trailer in that way. I still won’t see the movie, because Triggering, but I will be happy that it exists.
One final thing, just because I am curious if anyone else feels this way, there’s a lot of American pop culture content that treats WWII and WWI as “romantic”. That bothers me a lot. Ignore Hitler, ignore the Holocaust, this is still a terrible human tragedy. It’s a lot more than fun clothes and hair and music and passionate train station goodbyes. It pops up in the strangest places, sitcoms have a “very special episode” where they find old letters, or time travel, or something. If this movie is the second option, the “as an ignorant Indian, I came to Germany and finally grasped who Hitler really was”, I would actually find it less offensive than the “very special episode” where the teen lovers travel in time to WWII and the uniforms are so attractive and jitterbugging is fun.
