What impression one gets from many Hindi TV serials
Friday, 17 April 2009
Ever since the advent of cable television, many in this country have been watching Hindi TV serials. What struck me a few days ago were the innumerable scenes of Hindu religious rituals in those serials. Most of them show (pujas) and other rituals round the year. Most have idealistic protagonists who because of various twist and turns in their lives suffer for being righteous but in the end they 'win'. Some don't win, they just die, but they are 'avenged'. And so on. But the rituals are omnipresent, however the story twist or turn or eventually end. Also the Hindu (pujari) or priest occupies a very important position in the society depicted in those serials.
What one doesn't see are Muslims or anything to do with their religion. There are of course the celebration of Muslim Eid (to demonstrate the 'unity' of India perhaps) in these otherwise wholly Hindu serials but that is only once a year. Also there may be a few Muslim characters adorning the serial like the driver or chief accountant or the paan-wallah. I don't have to say how many times you are going to see them. A number of times, Gujrati families are shown but there was never ever any mention of the atrocities committed against Muslims in that state. It doesn't exist in the world of those serials.
In contrast there is almost a complete absence of Islamic rituals in our own television serials. This could mean that the people responsible for those serials are at least more 'secular' than their counterparts in India. Though we have a less number of rituals we are supposed to pray five times a day, but most do not so in that sense one could say that the 'secularism' advanced in our serials is a reflection of reality. I am not suggesting for a moment that irreligiousness is secularism, but I am certainly saying that here the so-called Indian secularism takes a beating.
Ali Haider
Mirpur, Dhaka.
What one doesn't see are Muslims or anything to do with their religion. There are of course the celebration of Muslim Eid (to demonstrate the 'unity' of India perhaps) in these otherwise wholly Hindu serials but that is only once a year. Also there may be a few Muslim characters adorning the serial like the driver or chief accountant or the paan-wallah. I don't have to say how many times you are going to see them. A number of times, Gujrati families are shown but there was never ever any mention of the atrocities committed against Muslims in that state. It doesn't exist in the world of those serials.
In contrast there is almost a complete absence of Islamic rituals in our own television serials. This could mean that the people responsible for those serials are at least more 'secular' than their counterparts in India. Though we have a less number of rituals we are supposed to pray five times a day, but most do not so in that sense one could say that the 'secularism' advanced in our serials is a reflection of reality. I am not suggesting for a moment that irreligiousness is secularism, but I am certainly saying that here the so-called Indian secularism takes a beating.
Ali Haider
Mirpur, Dhaka.