In Maharashtra, the Indian state where Mumbai is located, a film caused a lot of riots: there were clashes, one person died and dozens were arrested. The film, which was released in early May, is titled The Kerala Story and tells the story of a group of young Hindu and Christian women from the state of Kerala who convert to Islam and decide to join ISIS. The reason why it has been criticized is that it has been judged by some to be an Islamophobic propaganda film, i.e. aimed at arousing a feeling of hatred towards people of the Muslim religion, who number several million in India but constitute a minority compared to those of Hindu religion (which are about 80%).
In fact, both the plot and the promotional campaign take up a conspiracy theory called “love jihad” and supported by some Hindu nationalist politicians but not confirmed by the data, according to which in recent years tens of thousands of women have been seduced and forced by militants of the ‘ISIS to convert to Islam and join jihadist groups in Syria and Yemen. The Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi, who leads the nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and who had already taken very clear-cut positions against the Indian Islamic community in the past, praised the film claiming that it denounces “a new form of terrorism ».
Other BJP politicians have spoken very favorably towards the film: the prime minister of Assam, a state in northeastern India, wrote on Twitter that everyone should see it with their daughters. On the contrary, the prime minister of Kerala, belonging to the Communist Party, described it as a propaganda product of the Sangh Parivar, an association that brings together all the right-wing nationalist organizations in the country. In the state of Tamil Nadu, cinemas withdrew it and in West Bengal the film was banned, only to be readmitted by a Supreme Court ruling.
Today I went to see the #KeralaStory along with my Cabinet colleagues. Everyone should see this film with their daughter, it is my humble request. pic.twitter.com/5mzHkVHeDs
— Himanta Biswa Sarma (@himantabiswa) May 11, 2023
The city where there have been more clashes is Akola, in the state of Maharashtra: here a person died during a clash between groups for and against the film’s message. The police intervened by arresting over one hundred people and cutting off the internet connection in some areas of the city to prevent new protests from being organised. As is often the case with films and series that align with the BJP’s vision of India, The Kerala Story has been exempt from taxes in two states (Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh).
In fact, The Kerala Story is not an isolated case: since Modi became head of government (2014) within Bollywood, the Hindi-language popular cinema industry historically the bearer of rather liberal values, it has become increasingly difficult tell stories that do not conform to the right-wing worldview of Hindu nationalists. The most successful film at the box office in 2022, for example, was The Kashmir Files, which was itself criticized for distorting a historical fact – the eviction of tens of thousands of Hindus from the Kashmir valley, starting in 1989 – to blame the Congress party and leftist intellectuals of the time for what happened.
