Amid the torrent of ‘expert’ advice and suggestions that S Jaishankar routinely receives for doing his job better, the Indian External Affairs Minister has received yet another recommendation that touts itself as the solution for India’s vexed problems with its neighbour, most notably Pakistan.
Jyoti Malhotra, a senior journalist with Shekhar Gupta’s ThePrint, has advised S Jaishankar to watch Pathaan, a recently released Bollywood movie with Shah Rukh Khan in the lead, to navigate the complexities of geopolitics and managing relationships with neighbours known for harbouring chronic ill-will towards India and for unabashedly sponsoring terror attacks in the country.
Published on 31 January 2023, the article titled ‘Jaishankar should watch Pathaan. He is working on Modi’s ambition to be the leader of South Asia’ talks about how the Indian Foreign Affairs Minister can learn a thing or two from Bollywood’s latest fictional thriller ‘Pathaan’ to manage India’s complex relations with her obdurate neighbours.
According to the author, Pathaan’s stunning success at the box office affirms India’s middle-of-the-road message, ‘Live and Let Live’, and it is a stinging reply to the ‘Hindutva Groups’ believing that “Pakistan” is a synonym for everything gone wrong in the subcontinent.
However, she fails to explain that the animosity between India and Pakistan is chiefly due to the latter’s unreasonable behaviour and propensity to wage asymmetrical war against India with the help of Islamic terrorists. India has never initiated a war with Pakistan, has always affirmed its existence as a sovereign country and always has been the first to extend a hand of friendship with its perennially acrimonious neighbour.
Ms Malhotra goes on to explain that ‘Pathaan’ has been an AfPak movie, an abbreviation for Afghanistan and Pakistan. She goes into raptures about the movie, emphasising how Afghans helped SRK, the good guy, in his mission to defeat the bad ones. She also gushes over the role of Deepika Padukone, who plays the character of an ISI agent who shifts her loyalty at the right time to join Pathaan aka SRK.
The article then goes on to list down challenges faced by India in navigating foreign relations in a restive region of South Asia, where India plans to assert itself as a regional power. It also talks about the opportunities that India has going into the year when it is hosting the G20 summit and plans to launch overtures in its neighbourhood to cement existing ties and build new partnerships.
Towards the end, Ms Malhotra stresses the point that Pathaan serves as a lesson for the Ministry of External Affairs and the Indian diplomats, including Foreign Minister S Jaishankar, who could gain valuable inputs from the movie.
“…Pathaan is an unabashed attempt at, at least partially, taking another look at the India-Pakistan relationship. The movie’s amazing success not only demonstrates India’s soft power — a subject much discussed in the Ministry of External Affairs – but could well make the MEA learn a few things from it,” Ms Malhotra concludes in her article for ThePrint.
Bollywood has long ceased to depict reality. It shows what is politically correct, what helps them sell their movie with minimal resistance from disparate groups picturised in the film, which explains why ‘Pathaan’ goes to great lengths to distort the actual reality and showcase Pakistan, the cradle of terrorism and anti-India activities, in a positive light. In this way, the movie not only manages to adhere to the liberal worldview but also appeases Pakistan by characterising them as a nation with predominantly peace-loving population (which is contrary to reality).
Contrarily, the movie shows an ex-RAW officer, played by John Abraham, to be corrupt, immoral, and wicked, and who plans to launch terror attacks in India—with money and not ideology being the driving factor behind the attacks.
For people who flock to theatres to watch a masala movie, the fact that Abraham served in the Indian intelligence agency may be lost in the numerous twists and turns the film offers. But for a discerning eye, it is yet another reminder of how Bollywood shields Pakistan and portrays Indians as corrupt and vile.
Just like the ‘liberals’ claim that a few rotten apples do not represent an entire society, they should be comfortable with it when movies show a few Islamists driven by religious extremism, killing infidels. But that wasn’t the case during the screening of The Kashmir Files, a film that depicted the harsh reality endured by Kashmiri Hindus.
Why Pakistan continues to treat India as its archenemy and why there is no reconciliation in sight
Those who have studied the Indo-Pakistan relationship for the last 75 years would know that Islamabad’s campaign against India—to bleed the country through 1,000 cuts is not underpinned by a mercantilist objective as ‘Pathaan’ projects it to be—terrorists attacking India for financial motives. It glosses over the ideological and religious differences that buttress Pakistan’s animosity toward India. Though it is currently economically weak, Pakistan still harbours to launch Ghazwa-e-Hind against India and bring her under Islamic dominance. For Pakistan, a quasi-republic created in the name of Islam, a Hindu-majority India is Dar-al-Harb (House of War), meaning a country where Muslims only reside in it but are not rulers.
The chief architect of the Indian Constitution Dr BR Ambedkar, in his seminal book ‘Pakistan Or The Partition Of India‘ explained in great detail the ideology that powers Pakistan and those who fought for the creation of Pakistan.
“According to Muslim Canon Law, the world is divided into two camps, Dar-ul-lslam (abode of Islam), and Dar-ul-Harb (abode of war). A country is Dar-ul-Islam when it is ruled by Muslims. A country is Dar-ul-Harb when Muslims only reside in it but are not rulers of it. That being the Canon Law of the Muslims, India cannot be the common motherland of the Hindus and the Musalmans. It can be the land of the Musalmans—but it cannot be the land of the ‘Hindus and the Musalmans living as equals.’ Further, it can be the land of the Musalmans only when it is governed by the Muslims. The moment the land becomes subject to the authority of a non-Muslim power, it ceases to be the land of the Muslims. Instead of being Dar-ul-lslam, it becomes Dar-ul-Harb,” he said.
However, apologists in India continue to disregard grave facts about Pakistan and its raison d’être and instead choose to live in an alternative reality informed by Bollywood’s idealist movies—where Pakistan is a benevolent country, its population is India-friendly, and its objective is mutual development—misconceptions that take root in the minds of ‘liberals’ until another Mumbai 26/11 or Pulwama attack strikes—yanking them back to reality, albeit fleetingly, until another Bollywood movie such as ‘Pathaan’ arrives.
‘Pathaan’ has undoubtedly become a massive hit, right at the top of the list of highest-grossing movies in India, alongside KGF-I, KGF-II, and Baahubali, even though it may not be as profound and robust as other movies in the list.
Detractors would keep whining, S Jaishankar should continue buckling down on what he has started
Nonetheless, this article does not attempt to discredit the phenomenal run that ‘Pathaan’ has had at the box office or point out its many lacunas. It also does not seek to dissuade the Indian Foreign Minister from watching the film if he so wishes. Instead, it is an attempt to emphasise how India’s foreign relations ought to be built with self-interest, national security, and mutual co-existence in mind and not premised on some Bollywood fantasy film devoid of realpolitik and geopolitical considerations.
S Jaishankar has been one of the finest foreign ministers in decades. He has been excellent in representing Indian aspirations on global forums and unrepentant in exposing the hypocrisy of the West. Under him, India saw a radical shift in its foreign policy, from once being timid in expressing its needs and desires to oozing supreme confidence in laying down its demands, befitting its growth and strength. Mr Jaishankar is doing an outstanding job. He needs to chug along instead of paying heed to senseless suggestions by Pakistani apologists.
As for Pathaan, it became a superhit not because it holds some geopolitical message for the Indian government or because it had an extraordinary screenplay. It probably had a spectacular run at the box office because of Shah Rukh Khan’s rabid fan following or maybe it was just a quirk of luck. The ‘liberals’ should stop viewing its success as some sort of epiphany for the Indian government.
