(cid:59) Founder: Vishva Nath (1917-2002) VOLUME 14 • ISSUE 6 Editor-in-Chief, Publisher & Printer: Paresh Nath JUNE 2022 cover story / film 28 The Warrior Queen Kangana Ranaut’s role in the BJP’s battle for Bollywood aathira konikkara Kangana Ranaut’s journey from Bollywood outsider to liberal icon to her present avatar as Hindutva warrior queen has been a dramatic one. The hyper-nationalist themes of her films are a recent phenomenon, and her public expressions of Hindu nationalism have become exponentially venomous. Her vitriol against other actors, as well as those outside the industry, has often descended into petty name-calling. The battles that Ranaut has jumped into—and, in many cases, instigated—have taken many forms. They have earned her the moniker the “mad queen of Bollywood.” But more troubling has been her role in advancing the Hindu Right’s agenda through incendiary statements, often on social-media platforms. Though this has allowed her to gain a lot of followers and media attention, her notoriety has not translated into actual success for her recent films. perspectives 28 12 politics 12 Silent Spring The Sri Lanka protests fail to reconcile with the country’s past or present viruben nandakumar politics 18 Slow Boil Patterns in everyday acts of public violence in 46 56 Modi’s India vedika inamdar and pooja george politics conflict caste 46 Marooned 56 False Flags 22 Fighting for Fair Praful Patel’s war on The Indian Army’s secretive Landmark victories show the growing strength Lakshadweep role in hyper-nationalist of the movement for caste equity in the United m rajshekhar protests in Kashmir States shahid tantray thenmozhi soundararajan JUNE 2022 3 the lede 66 photo essay / communities 8 66 March Past Memory and mourning in Lahore’s Shia processions gender nad-e-ali 8 Abducted Voices Afghan women fight the Taliban despite threats and forced detention deepa parent books 98 history 84 Statue of Impunity Monumentalisation under Modi rahul rao the bookshelf 96 84 editor’s pick 98 4 THE CARAVAN True media needs true allies. 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LTD payable at par editor Anant Nath executive editor Vinod K Jose political editor Hartosh Singh Bal senior editor Roman Gautam books editor Maya Palit creative director Sukruti Anah Staneley associate editor Puja Sen contributors web editor Surabhi Kanga senior assistant editor Ajachi Chakrabarti THE LEDE 8 D eepa Parent is an independent journalist who covers conflict and its consequences on assistant editors Akash Poyam, Tusha Mittal, Amrita Singh and Abhay Regi human rights. assistant editor (hindi) Vishnu Sharma staff writers Sagar, Nileena MS, PERSPECTIVES 12 Viruben Nandakumar is an editor at the Tamil Guardian, focussing on Sri Lanka and human Aathira Konikkara and Sunil Kashyap rights. contributing writers Dhirendra K Jha, Prabhjit Singh, Jatinder Kaur Tur and 18 Vedika Inamdar is a researcher at The Polis Project, a hybrid research and journalism Nikita Saxena collective, where she co-founded Watch the State, an initiative that documents and analyses editorial fellow (health) state violence in India. She also writes on development-related policy and programmes in Nayantara Narayanan India. reporting fellow (health) Chahat Rana Pooja George is a researcher at The Polis Project and a co-founder of Watch the State. editorial fellow (tech) Mehak Mahajan reporting fellow (tech) Rachna Khaira 22 Thenmozhi Soundararajan is a Dalit-American author, activist and artist. She is a co-founder reporting fellows Sujatha Sivagnanam and the executive director of Equality Labs. and Eram Agha multimedia producer CK Vijayakumar REPORTAGE 28 Aathira Konikkara is a staff writer at The Caravan. multimedia reporter Shahid Tantray AND ESSAYS multimedia editor Nabeela Paniyath 46 M Rajshekhar is a journalist who writes on energy, environment, oligarchy and Indian fact-checker Ahan Penkar democracy. His book Despite the State: Why India Lets Its People Down and How They Cope social media and audience editor was published in 2021 by Westland. Anandita Chandra senior software engineer 56 Shahid Tantray is a multimedia reporter at The Caravan. Anjaneya Sivan photo researcher Utkarsh PHOTO ESSAY 66 Nad-e-Ali is a photographer based in Pakistan. senior graphic designer Utkarsh is the photo researcher at The Caravan. Paramjeet Singh junior graphic designer BOOKS 84 Rahul Rao is a fellow in humanities and social sciences at the Netherlands Institute for Shagnik Chakraborty hindi translator Parijat P Advanced Study and a lecturer in international political thought at the University of St trainee journalist (hindi) Andrews. He is currently writing a book about statues. Ankita Chauhan editorial manager Haripriya KM COVER contributing editors Deborah Baker, Photo: Stringer / AFP / Getty Images Fatima Bhutto, Chandrahas Choudhury, Siddhartha Deb, Sadanand Dhume, Siddharth Dube, Christophe Jaffrelot, Mira Kamdar, Miranda Kennedy, Amitava Kumar, Basharat Peer, Samanth Subramanian and Salil Tripathi editorial interns Rahul Raj and Vishnu Prasad KP graphic design intern Varsha Govil photo intern Vinati Sehgal Correction: Akash Poyam’s “Identity Theft,” published last month, incorrectly stated that the mother of the kidnapped girl in SS Rajamouli’s RRR had been killed by a British soldier. The woman is shown to be alive during the film’s final musical sequence. [email protected] Due to a translation error, an earlier version of Yashica Dutt’s “The Tussle for Representation” mistakenly quoted Khabar Lahariya as stating that the protagonists of Writing with Fire were shown the film in December 2020. 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Ltd., a binding commitment in relation to an bangalore: Flat No. 001, Ravi Kiran Ashoka Garden, Bhopal - 462023 New Delhi - 110055. INDIA. advertisement. The Caravan magazine Apartments, No. 12, Plain Street, shall not be liable to any person for loss Off Infantry Road, Bangalore - 560001 Title The Caravan is registered with All materials published in this magazine or damage incurred as a result of his/her chennai: 14, First Floor, Cison’s Complex, Govt. of India as trade mark. (including, but not limited to articles, accepting or offering to accept an invitation Montieth Road, Chennai - 600008 quotations, extracts, or any parts of the contained in any advertisement published Phone: 044 - 28554448 ISSN 0971-0639 article, photographs, images, illustrations in The Caravan. 6 THE CARAVAN THE LEDE Abducted Voices Afghan women fight the Taliban despite threats and forced detention / Gender / deepa parent other. I won’t reveal it, but, when we marches. She was at the forefront of one receive a text like this, we know.” protest in Kabul, on 7 September, when “Salaam, Hello, Are you there?” “Are Months earlier, on 15 August, as the Taliban members armed with batons at- we meeting for the protest today?” press officer was getting ready for work, tacked them. She rushed home, packed “Where?” These were some of the mes- she scrolled through news flashes about her bags and fled the capital with her sages a 25-year-old press officer for an the Taliban’s takeover of Kabul. “My fam- family. They moved from one relative’s international company woke up to on ily was worried for me because they knew house to another. A Taliban officer a January morning in Mazar-i-Sharif, I was outspoken about Taliban’s takeover called her brother, she said, threatening the fourth largest city in Afghanistan. of other cities, like Ghazni and Kanda- violence if she kept protesting. “I kept She had spent the past few months in a har,” she said. “They were scared. I had a low profile for a few days and then, by safe house with other Afghan wom- worked with a company that was essen- the first week of November, I re-joined en, making placards and mobilising tially run by the former government.” the protests.” Other protesters soon be- for protests against the Taliban. She The family’s fear was not unfounded. gan disappearing. wondered who had sent these messag- Since the takeover, journalists, activists On 2 October, Alia Azizi, a member of es. Puzzled and scared, she called her and former security personnel have the Hazara community who managed a friends to check if they had received been arrested. In some cases, the Tali- women’s prison in Herat, left home for similar messages. Some had, others ban return only the bodies of those de- work. She has not been heard from since. had not, but the question remained. tained to their families. Human Rights Her family believes that she was abduct- How did the sender know they were Watch reported, in November, that over ed by the Taliban. On 19 January this secretly planning an indoor protest a hundred security personnel had been year, armed men forcibly entered the that noon? killed or forcibly disappeared in the past homes of Tamana Paryani and Parwana As they regroup to resist the Taliban three months. Ibrahimkhel, who had participated in regime, which seized power in August Amid the uncertainty of the capture an anti-Taliban protest at Kabul Univer- last year, Afghan women activists have of Kabul, the press officer’s family ini- sity three days earlier. The two women, been vetting everyone holding a placard tially forbade her from stepping out of as well as Paryani’s three sisters, were next to them. Threats and violence en- their home. For the next few days, she abducted, as were two others from their sured that the activists moved the pro- received messages from other Afghan network. Two weeks later, Zahra Mo- tests indoors and before they knew it, activists who planned protests. They hammadi, who had organised an indoor the Taliban was trying to infiltrate their wanted to make it clear that the country protest demanding the release of the two WhatsApp groups. By November 2021, would not backslide to a place where women, and Mursal Ayar, a journalist the Taliban knew the names and phone voices were silenced and freedoms and activist, also went missing. numbers of every protester. curbed. Within ten days, the Taliban The press officer told me that she and The messages from the unknown made its positions clear. Women were others on a Whatsapp group that had number kept the press officer awake at barred from leaving their homes with- included several of the arrested activists nights. “I know from my heart that it out a male guardian, stopped from promptly deleted their messages of dis- was the Taliban,” she told me. “They working and studying. When they sent and addresses for indoor protests, had started confiscating phones during crossed checkpoints, they were often and changed their profile pictures. “I protests and have been trying to break asked to show if they were wearing high even changed the names on my friends’ into secret message groups to abduct heels or nail polish. contact numbers and of the brave pro- us, silence us. They message in Pashto, Women-led protests soon erupted in testers who were abducted,” she said. in Farsi and in one-liners or send di- Kabul, Herat and Mazar-i-Sharif over The United Nations and several hu- rect questions. They try to trick us into the next month. The press officer—who, man-rights groups called upon the Tal- believing they are one of you. We girls like many in her generation, had never iban to release the activists. However, have a code, a way to recognise each lived under the Taliban—joined the in an interview with the BBC, Suhail 8 THE CARAVAN the lede s e g a m y i t t e g / s e m ti s e l e g n a s o l / m a y s u c r a m Shaheen, the regime’s nominee for Afghan ambas- wasn’t her, because she doesn’t speak in this tone above: Taliban sador to the United Nations, denied reports that or message about her prayers. A lot about what she fighters try to the Taliban had abducted the women. He accused texted was completely made up. I could tell.” stop the advance of protesters the protesters of faking their abductions in order Khamosh added that the activists had been in Kabul, on 8 to seek asylum in the West. made to sign guarantees to the Taliban—likely September 2021. When a Taliban delegation led by the acting undertaking not to participate in any further pro- Afghan women foreign minister, Amir Khan Muttaqi, visited tests. She had not been able to contact them or find activists want to Oslo in February, the journalist and activist Hoda out what the guarantees stipulated. “They were so make it clear that Khamosh was one of six Afghan women selected shaken and worried for their lives that they have the country will not backslide to a to attend the talks. “The moment I was told that I kept this a secret,” she told me. Azizi still remains place where voices would be representing Afghan women in front of missing. Even as the four women were released, a are silenced and the Taliban, I knew I had to demand the release of US envoy in Afghanistan tweeted that the Taliban freedoms curbed. arrested Afghan women activists,” she told me. At had detained 29 other protesters and their fami- the meeting, Khamosh shocked Muttaqi by hold- lies. More reports of forced detentions have been ing up photographs of Paryani and Ibrahimkhel. “I piling up on Khamosh’s desk. Girls are still banned shouted at him to pick up the phone right now and from higher secondary schools, and most women call for their release,” she said. “I wasn’t fearful, are out of work. nor do I fear them now.” The press officer told me that she has been Amid mounting international pressure and approved for evacuation to a European Union despite its repeated denials, the Taliban released country. However, evacuation officials have told Ibrahimkhel, Mohammadi, Ayar, Paryani and her her they cannot rescue her from Kabul. She has sisters a few days later. But Khamosh told me she been advised to cross the border into Pakistan. felt something was amiss. “A few days before their “I’m running out of time,” she said. “My passport release was announced, I received messages from expires in a few months, and each morning I wake the mobile number of one of the abducted activists up to threatening messages on my phone. It’s only who said she’s being treated by the Taliban with a matter of time till they come knocking on my dignity,” she said. “She also mentioned that she’s doors. I haven’t even revealed to my closest friends happy and was praying five times a day. I knew this that I’m leaving soon. I feel terribly about it.” s JUNE 2022 9