Where Does Violence in Indian Cinema Come From? Explored at EIFF 2016

In Angry Indian Goddesses (2015), directed by Pan Nalin, one of the seven female protagonists asked the question: Why are women in India harassed and assaulted, when Hinduism worships female goddesses?  India’s recent female empowerment films question the embedded sexism in Hinduism, while highlighting other roots of the misogyny and violence women face.

The introduction of Angry Indian Goddesses shows how each of the seven women had to deal with harassment in their life ranging from being catcalled while wearing a traditional sari, being objectified in Bollywood film, and harassed during a concert.  They were unable to answer the question, but all of the characters agreed and as the film continued the violence they faced from men only increased.  This film was only one of the two “female empowerment” films from India shown during the 2016 Edinburgh International Film Festival.  The second was Parched (2015), directed by Leena Yadav, which focused on a group of three women in a more rural part of India facing violence and judgement from male members in their village.  No character ever explicitly questioned Hinduism, but during a sequence near the end the cross cutting between Manoj (Mahesh Balraj), an abusive husband, being burned alive while Lajjo (Radhika Apte), his wife, does nothing to help.  This sene is juxtaposed with the demon king being destroyed by a female goddess alludes to the question of Hinduism and sexism.

The title sequence of Angry Indian Goddesses primarily shows Kali with male heads surrounding her and Parched only mentions Hinduism during the Dussehra Festival which again centers around Shiva a female goddess destroying Mahishasur an evil male god.  So to a western audience who does not know about Hinduism, watching each of these films and questioning where sexism comes from in Hinduism, it appears that there are only female goddesses.  Yet there are also male gods who are good and worshipped, but the female goddesses tend to be worshipped more because they are seen as the “highest and purest.”  However, those female goddesses can be wives or “consorts,” while still being powerful. So even though they are divine, they still align with the extremes of the culture’s gender roles.

In some practices of Hinduism women do not have as large role, because their traditional role is to take care of the home and pray for their husband.  Men according to the traditional rules are supposed to, in return to the women, show her respect and provide her with what she needs to take care of herself and the family.  Hinduism does not allow men to mistreat women, but as scholar Jean Chapman states, the roles given by religion tied in with the “brahmanical patriarchy”[i] has created a lax government that convicts a severely low number of men who attack women.  While in other parts of the world where women practice Hinduism these traditional rules may not be followed as closely, but in relation to the question as to how a religion which prays to many female goddesses allows for the harassment of women becomes apparent to a Western moviegoer.

The films gives two perspectives of India from different genders, but both deal with misogyny and violence their female protagonists face. The first perspective is by male director Pan Nalin in Angry Indian Goddesses, all of the characters wear “modern, western” clothing and only one wears a traditional sari.  She also appears to be the only one who practices religion or following any of the traditional Hinduism rules, yet they boldly question how their country practices Hinduism.  They bring up the question and then abandon it in their discussion of Kali, an Indian Goddess who rids the world of evil, and do not give a western audience with a lack of knowledge on Hinduism and its traditions an answer.  Could it potentially be that as a male director he has not experienced what it is like to be a woman in a Hindu Indian society, and challenges it so directly as such? Nalin’s approach appears to be to broach the topic directly with little other insight into how Hinduism causes such issues.

When compared to Parched, directed by female director Leena Yadav, she depicts a rural patriarchal Indian village where societal and religious rules force women to quit school and marry young.  The women never directly question their society but subvert it in the end by running away.  Throughout the film, the traditions of the village are shown, the roles for men and women are established, and different religious events, such as weddings and festivals, are broached.  Yadav sets up a context for their religion and how it affects each of the characters’ lives.  The primary questions of society and religion occur through the direct juxtaposition of Lajjo and Manoj with the goddess Shiva and god Mahishasur during the Dussehra Festival, but because this is a comparison broached via editing, it is proposed by the director than the characters.

Gupta-Cassale talks about gender representation in relation to Indian independence in films from the 1980s and 90s, does not touch on religion.  She argues that women would have support as long as they were metaphorically tied with the nation and the women’s aggressors are representations of the nation’s oppressors.  However when films depict post-independence India and women are assaulted by people who they know, then opinions towards female representation in film change.[ii]  Before these films it is possible not many mentioned what the causes of violence against women in India was.

Each of the directors empower the female protagonists in their films against their patriarchal societies and situations in India.  The directors potentially approach the topic differently because of their different gendered relationship to society and religion.  Either way the misogyny and violence faced by the women in the film is something that occurs not only in India, but all over the world and it should be questioned.

[i] Chapman, Jean. “Violence against Women in Democratic India: Let’s Talk Misogyny.” Social Scientist 42.9/10 (2014): 49-61. Web.

[ii] Gupta-Cassale, Nira. “Bearing Witness: Rape, Female Resistance, Male Authority and the Problems of Gender Representation in Popular Indian Cinema.” Indian Journal of Gender Studies, vol. 7, Sage Publications, Sage CA: Thousand Oaks, CA, 2000..doi:10.1177/097152150000700206