A language war!

Parasakthi (Tamil, 2026)

Director: Sudha Kongara

https://letterboxd.com/film/parasakthi-2026/watch/

2026 is an election year for Tamil Nadu. The year started with a bang with two Tamil movies with explosive political themes. The highly anticipated Vijay of the newly minted party TVK, and his alleged last film, Jana Nayagan, is stuck with the censors for unknown reasons. Some insiders reckon that the dialogue is highly spiced with political innuendo or outright condemnation of his opponents, such as the DMK and the BJP.

The second movie, which did not pose a threat to Vijay’s heavyweight, not surprisingly, was cleared easily. This movie, starring Sivakarthikeyan, the game show host who found fame through sheer grit, is a historical drama based on the 1965 riots in Tamil Nadu against the imposition of Hindi as the national language. This film turned out to be a propaganda movie through and through, putting DMK and their former leaders as the sole defenders of the Tamil language. As DMK controls the whole of Kollywood, movies are and have been the mouthpiece of the ruling class. By controlling movie distribution, production and theatres, they maintain cultural and political dominance in Tamil Nadu. Through this movie, the ruling party hopes to present a false narrative to new voters, the Gen Zs, that only DMK can keep the Tamil language 'alive'.

DMK and its predecessor, DK, have been thriving on the same ‘divide and rule’ policy that the British employed to quell Indian resistance. DMK makes the Northerners their bogeyman. They subscribe to the now-defunct Aryan Invasion theory and create an aura that the Hindi-speaking people from North India are out to wipe out the Tamil language and culture. Within the state, they also accuse Brahmins of usurping others' opportunities with their perceived oppression of the rest of Tamil Nadu with Brahminical ideologies. 

The scenario for the 2026 state election is like this. With the spate of BJP wins in recent state elections, increasing the BJP’s popularity and the entry of actor Joseph Vijay into politics, are making DMK stakwart Stalin feel hot under his tall collar. His party has promised to eradicate Sanathana Dharma, but continues to be seen performing poojas for blessings. 

Recently, the perennial issue of teaching Hindi in schools resurfaced. DMK, the self-appointed defender of the Tamil language, had categorically put their foot down to deny compulsory teaching of Hindi in government schools. 

With the same rebel yell that they shrieked in 1965, DMK is entering the latest elections, and this movie lays the groundwork of their campaign.

Resistance to the introduction of Hindi into the Tamil Nadu school system has persisted for the longest time, even when the region was under the Madras Presidency. In 1937, under British rule in India, the Indian National Congress ruled this region, led by Rajaji. Congress, in preparation for self-rule, was toyying the idea of Hindi as the National language. The issue came up again just before Independence and again when the Constitution was drafted in 1950. Nehru promised Tamil Nadu that a grace period of fifteen years would be given before Hindi was made the official language. 

EV Ramaswamy, revered by DMK as the champion of Tamil, is also affectionately known as 'Periyar' (the Elder) and is anything but a bastion of the Tamil language. He had once condemned the language as barbaric¹, and it is not compatible as a modern lingua franca or for scientific purposes. 

It is ironic that in the 1930s and throughout the 1960s, the Dravida Party was hell-bent on opposing the Indian Congress Party over the language issue. Now, it has joined forces with Congress and is opposing the Central Government led by the BJP. Regardless of which party is in power, the DMK will oppose the Central Government. Remember, in the years before Partition, the Dravidian Party wanted to accede to Pakistan? And EV Ramasamy declared 15th August 1947 as a day of mourning.

https://www.reddit.com/r/IndianHistory/comments/1qcmlrf/1
965_tamil_student_protest_against_hindi/

This movie tries to retell events that led to the 1965 Hindi imposition riots. Nehru died in 1964, as the deadline to make Hindi the official language of the country approached. University students, instigated by Annadurai and Karunanithi, initiated demonstrations in multiple cities. The story tells a romanticised version of a docile elder brother who tries to save his young brother from harm. The elder brother has a violent past that resurfaces as a vengeful IPS officer who wants to squash the Tamil rebellion once and for all. In the midst of all this, a few figures from the past are shown, painting a DMK-friendly picture of them saving the Tamil language and its culture from being overrun by enemies from the North.

Historians and people who lived through the 1960s vehemently oppose the movie's alternative history of what actually transpired during that time. Others, including the Youth Congress group, are 'up in arms' about the negative portrayal of their former leaders. They scream for the film's banning.

(P.S. In the modern world, people are expected to learn as much as they can, including all the languages of the world. Alternatively, use Google Translate! Also, language is not everything, as seen in the later years. Andhra Pradesh, which was created along linguistic lines, was divided into Andhra Pradesh and Telangana because of economic imbalances.)

1. https://www.telegraphindia.com/india/nirmala-sitharaman-says-periyar-dismissed-tamil-as-a-language-his-was-a-push-for-reform/cid/2088564#goog_rewarded

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About falling and the moustache...

A jocular Tamil proverb sarcastically portrays a man who denies losing his balance and falling flat on his face on the ground. He would show the people around him a clean moustache devoid of sand. The man hoped the others would believe he was a macho man who never fell. (குப்புற விழுந்தாலும் மீசையில் மண் ஒட்டவில்லை - the said proverb.)

This proverb has been playing in my mind over the past few days during the recently paused India-Pakistan War. 

It started with a band of terrorists crossing over from Pakistan, killing 26 tourists just because they were not Muslims and retreating back into Pakistan. Pakistan vehemently denied being part of the killing or even harbouring any terrorists at all in their country. This heart-wrenching moment, especially the one involving a 6-day married honeymooning couple and a father shot in front of his wife and young son, stirred India to take retaliatory actions.

Both sides flaunted their military toys, and the war games were flagged off. The only thing is that these were not games. People actually died.

Then, the media war started. Both sides were quick to announce their kills and successes. Loud cries of jingoism filled the air. Visuals of destroyed enemy planes and sites filled cyberspace. The only thing is that, as pointed out by their enemies, much of the footage was old pictures of unrelated events. Citing military secrecy, many images of damaged sites were kept under wraps. So what actually happened is anybody's guess.

Finally, both sides seem to be congratulating themselves on a well-done job. Both boast of inflicting much pain and destruction. They claim to be on the side of truth, and truth prevails in the end. Perhaps, time would be the best judge. In time, all the putrefying rots would start stinking. Maybe then, we would know where each country stands. 

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Still a white man's burden?

BBC on Trial (Documentary; 2024)

Produced by: Global Hindu Federation

Remember when Malaysians depended on Radio Television Malaysia (RTM) for our news fix? If one remembers well, the headlines on each vernacular channel emphasised different topics to keep each ethnicity happy and give the illusion that their needs were being considered.

They would have picked this up from their colonial masters, who perfected the art of diplomacy and ruling with the doctrine of 'divide and rule'. Goebbels is not the person who invented the propaganda. It was the British and their propaganda machine, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). In fact, the Germans learnt it from BBC, which was incorporated into its current form in 1927.

In the 1930s, the BBC management was singing praises of the Nazi's attempt to clear off its enemies. BBC perfected the art of choosing the perfect word to sugarcoat a potential disaster. They broadcast 24/7 in 25 languages and three bandwidths to tell the right message that their audience wanted to hear. Like the Piped Piper leading the children of Hamelin into the mountain, BBC and its propaganda news drew and killed 100 million Indians in one way or another in 40 years. BBC drew in fiction writers and performers to seduce its crowd to believe their stories. George Orwell was recruited to write scripts for the news on India.

Of late, people worldwide have to realise the BBC's nefarious agenda. With its clever play with semantics, it managed to successfully demonise people and humanise terrorists. There is an overt anti-India bias. They were quick to paint India as a ridiculous nation of poverty, ignorance and sexual perverts.

A year before Modi's third-term election, BBC thought it appropriate to bring a 20-year-old squashed conspiracy linking Modi to the 2002 Gujerat Riots. Even though the Courts investigated and cleared Modi of any wrongdoing, BBC, in its self-professed role of the bearer of the white media's burden, released its controversial documentary, 'The Modi Question'. Elsewhere, it decided to vilify Indian social fibre; BBC made a hero of an accused rapist in the 'Nirbhaya Case' by having a one-on-one interview with him after paying him handsomely.

Pandit Satish Sharma,
Interfaith Speaker and Pandit of
Dharmic traditions
Brainchild behind the documentary.

The BBC has a very unique way of whitewashing crimes of a particular community of society when it comes to people of the Indian subcontinent. In the Leicester unrest recently, there is evidence of biased reporting, painting the Islamic aggressors as victims. Even Shamima Begum, who gave up her British citizenship to fight for ISIS, is portrayed as an innocent victim. Majid Freeman, an instigator of violence and a terrorist sympathiser, is labelled as a political activist.

BBC has been a prime mover of regime changes around the world. It is said they had assisted in 42 regime changes since 1945, starting with the assassination of Mosaddegh, the democratically elected Prime Minister of Iran, when he nationalised British oil holdings in 1953. Their shenanigans continued with Gaddafi, Saddam Hussein and the non-existent Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD).

Even though BBC is good at 'exposing' the shortcomings of third-world countries, even the post-colonial nations have leapt forward, surpassing their master; they have, within their establishment, people of questionable morals. Cases of BBC executives like Jimmy Saville and Stuart Hall getting mangled with child sexual abuse are no secret. In his capacity as the Public Prosecutor, Keir Starmer, the current PM, thought the case did not merit further action.

There are many sepoys, chronic victims of Stockholm Syndrome, who are still in awe of their former colonial masters and are under the impression the sun still has not set on the empire. They worked with local associated companies to churn out denigrating news of their own countries.

BBC has manipulated information to serve its agenda, creating division and mistrust among global audiences. It raises critical questions about the ethical responsibilities of media institutions and challenges viewers to consider whether the BBC should be held accountable for its actions. Impartial reporting is not in the equation. Their ultimate aim is to balkanise nations, making them weak and unsustainable. That is when the next wave of imperialism moves in. The concept of 'divide and rule' never left the table.

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A patriotic poem.

Full River Red (China; 2023)

Director: Zhang Yimou

'Full River Red' is a patriotic poem written by Yue Fei, a Chinese general during the reign of the Southern Song Dynasty. There was a time when the Jin Dynasty overpowered the Northern Song Dynasty from the area now known as Manchuria. Yue Fei was assigned to recapture the northern capital from the intruders. Just as he was about to overpower the invader, he was told to retreat.

The Southern King thought the released Northern King may have a claim to the throne. Yue Fei was called back to the southern capital, charged with trumped-up charges, and executed or died in prison. He was a victim of an internal political imbroglio. An established poet, Yue Fei wrote the poem to stir patriotic fervour among the people. It portrays his hatred towards the invading northern army and his frustration toward the peace accord with the Jin dynasty from the north. 'Full River Red' has become a masterpiece in the history of Chinese literature.

To put cold water into the sense of Chinese patriotism, a renowned Song scholar from Princeton, James T. C. Liu, says that the poem may have been written in the 16th century, looking at the words used. Yue Fei lived between 1103 and 1142! So, the poem may not be his at all.

As complicated as Chinese history was when we studied it in school, with similar-sounding names and convoluted turns of events, this movie follows the same trajectory. It should have occurred five years after Yue Fei's demise.

The Chancellor, who worked under the umbrella of the Southern Song emperor, had made a secret agreement with the Jin Dynasty representative. Yue Fei's supporters (the people) intercepted the papers by killing the Jin's messenger. The Chancellor had to prevent his maleficence from being out in the open. He assigns two men to find the culprit.

That snowballs into a sword unsheathing, head decapitating, violence-filled dark comedy. The film's climax is the poem's recital by all the prisoners. The entire army rises to the occasion with the inspiring patriotic hair-raising words of the poem.

This film turned out to be one of the highest-grossing Chinese movies. It is nothing more than using a common heritage to spur nationalism. But then, do they really share a common heritage when the People's Republic of China may be viewed as the rule of the Han people over other ethnicities like the Manchus, Uighurs, Tibetans, Mongols, and more. I am not sure whether the Chinese living in the areas bordering Central Asia and Tibetans share the same romantic views on a shared history.

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Things we may have to unlearn!

Malu apa bossku? Apparently, all the things I may have learnt from childhood may be wrong after all. Sometimes, I wonder whether I thought the wrong thing or may have been hoodwinked to believe obviously wrong things. Perhaps values changed while we were napping. I always assumed that when one loses any of his properties via public auction, he is said to have lost not only his wealth but also his dignity. The mark of a true man is his ability to acquire wealth and provide for his dependents; his inability to retain his finances is a colossal failure. At a time when pride was everything, abscondment and suicide were standard outlets. My legal eagle friends remain nonchalant about their clients or opponents declaring themselves bankrupt or their properties auctioned off. To them, that is a cost of doing business. Overlooking the inconveniences of bankruptcy, it remains a legitimate 'get out of jail' sort of card. Nothing Earth-shattering, they say, and definitely no shame. I remember a time in my childhood when two policemen came knocking at one of my neighbours' doors. The next thing I saw was my neighbour being escorted out with his hands at the back, handcuffed. My neighbour's mother was wailing, and the other neighbours on the flat floor were busy concocting their own theories of what had transpired before the arrest. Forget that they all had not an iota of clue of what the accused was in for. That left an indelible impression on the young me of how a clash with authorities would affect the people around me. Then came an epiphany. Great world leaders immortalised in our history books spent a big chunk of their lives behind bars. Gandhi was practically behind bars all through the Second World War. Mandela spent 27 years in solitary confinement on Robben Island and other prisons.

In my mind, that is how I thought ex-PM Najib's supporters looked at him when all the legal minds of the country decided that he was guilty of hoodwinking the people's money for whatever reasons. His supporters viewed him as a saviour wronged in a hostile environment when he claimed what was rightfully his. It did not matter that the leader took full responsibility for the duties shouldered upon him in the line of national duty or, like the ship's captain, was the last person to leave a sinking ship. In their eyes, he is a sacrificial lamb of a system supposed to protect him. Whichever way one sees it, their statement just becomes more and more pervasive.

"No, no," reassured the ex-PM's supporters. They insist he was just a pawn in an intricate political ploy to discredit him. "There is no reason to be ashamed, my boss!" (Malu apa Boss ku?) 

I was nurtured to believe that education is a sure way to succeed. Hence, as children, we were told that nothing was more important in life than sitting down and absorbing everything in the books to regurgitate at the appropriate times. Then, it dawned upon me. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. Every bit of exposure maketh a boy a complete being. As I learnt from Steve Jobs's autobiography, everything one learns is useful somewhere in one's life. There were many roads to Rome. What is the truth?

Shakuni's temple in Kerala. Homage to his

determination to seek revenge against the

greatest empire of the land. Allegedly attained

moksha here.

Now, the world tells us that we were taken for a ride. All the so-called history taught to us was fraud by the voice of the victors who wanted to paint a favourable view of themselves. The truth was multifaceted. Only until the lion tells his side of the story will every tale glorify the hunter.

To put the cherry on the icing on my cake of confusion, lately, a scholar completely shattered the image of Shakuni, a character in Mahabharata. My understanding is that Shakuni was the villain of the whole tale. He allegedly had a special dice that helped him to cheat the Pandavas of their kingdom and humiliate their wife, Kunti. He walked with a limp that inspired a distasteful proverb in Tamil, which suggested that all handicapped people have evil in their hearts.

Now, they say that it is the Pandavas who instigated the situation. By nature, Shakuni was a skilled gamer. He had an abnormal gait but an able body with no handicap of any kind. Shakuni did not have a limp or had no trouble walking, running or even scaling high mountains. What he had was unbridled loyalty to his sister, Gandhari, and far-sightedness. Gandhari's father, with his kingdom in Afghanistan, had learned from his soothsayers that his daughter had a curse. Her astrological chart suggested her husband would die soon after marriage. So, the family got her married to a goat, which was quickly slaughtered to break the curse. Gandhari was then married off to the blind king of Hastinapura, Dhritrashtra. After discovering that Gandhari was technically a widow, Dhriashtra's father and brother sieged Gandhari's father's kingdom. They imprisoned the male members, who subsequently succumbed to their torture. The family was parsimonious with their food supply to ensure the youngest, Shakuni, thrived through the ordeal to avenge the Pandavas on a later date.

Shakuni later comes to live with his sister to protect her. The rest of what happened afterwards is left to our interpretation.

P.S. The aunties I was exposed to in my childhood did not filter much of what they thought of others. My mother was no different. They called a spade a spade and had no qualms about speaking their mind. Being politically correct was an alien concept. I have often heard my mother cursing people behind their backs for wronging her. She even cursed a handicapped lady who congenitally had an underdeveloped right leg as being as evil as Shakuni. That is when I heard her often mentioned in Tamil, implying that a limping person has a dirty heart!

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A philosopher's stone?

The Vaccine War (Hindi, 2023)

Written, Directed by Vivek Agnihotri

This is a sort of victory lap, a valedictorian dance to celebrate their success, a pat on the back for a job well done. It is also a proud moment to have stayed resilient when no one had any confidence that India would survive the COVID-19 pandemic. It gives them the bragging rights to flaunt their success story in thumping the virus that took the world by storm. They persevered when the rest of the world shook their heads, disapproving and sneering at their moves. When everyone, including their own people, mocked their actions and shamed them via media and toolkits, they stood their ground. 

Even though India had an excellent track record in the pharmaceutical industry, its experience in making vaccines was in its infancy at best. With the pressures of impending doom and possible annihilation of mankind, Big Pharma had all to lose by not selling its vaccines to the most populous country on the planet. 

Maybe it was politics or national pride, but the powers that be decided to put their trust in science and local scientists. India became one track in wanting to roll out its own home-researched vaccine. 

This film narrates the trials and tribulations that the Government of India, the researchers and the scientists of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) endured from the time they worked on the virus and finally rolled out to vaccinate the entire nation in record times. Along the way, they had to fight the lobbyists calling for the entry of foreign vaccines, primarily from Pfizer and the paid local babus; they spoke people. Pressures from the Fourth and even Fifth Estates, who merely fulfilled their roles in check and balance, appear unpatriotic during this exercise. 

Finally, after a few ups and downs, the ICMR managed to churn out their indigenous vaccine with inactivated whole-virion, which elicits a neutralising antibody response. They upheld their stance that it is superior to the mRNA vaccine. History has proven them right in retrospect, as India was the first country to put the ghost of the Wuhan virus behind them and move forward economy-wise. The whole pandemic had improved their standing in the eyes of the world as they went to donate their Covaxin to the world like a big brother would. 

Despite WHO's initial hesitation to allow India's COVID-19 vaccines to be approved for mass utilisation, it later relented. Unlike Pfizer, which only provided its vaccines to the highest bidders, India decided to portray itself as a saviour to mankind by sending its vaccines to the remotest and poorest regions of the world.

It is a feel-good film for the right-wing-leaning supporters of the current government. The left-leaning liberals label it as a self-aggrandisement exercise and are quick to point out everything that is imprecise in this presentation. The proof of the pudding is that India swiftly recovered from the COVID lockdown and has gone on to 'business-as-usual' mode in record time.

P.S. A philosopher's stone is actually a metaphor for the enlightenment experience. When we obtain the Philosophers' Stone, we achieve what the Buddha achieved. We find what was lost when we fell. We recover who and what we truly are.

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