NEW DELHI, 8 August 2004 — India has banned an internationally acclaimed film documenting bloody anti-Muslim riots in 2002 in the Hindu fundamentalist-ruled state of Gujarat, the director said yesterday.
Rakesh Sharma said the censor board told him it would not issue a certificate for public screening of his three-hour documentary, “The Final Solution,” because the film could incite fresh religious tension.
Sharma said he would fight the ban by distributing thousands of video CDs to be shown in private homes, which are not affected by the censor board.
He said he also hoped to organize illegal public screenings with prominent directors to “challenge the authorities to come and arrest us.”
“When we are faced with this kind of action, we have to find innovative methods of civil disobedience,” Sharma told AFP.
“The Final Solution” — the title a reference to the Holocaust — uses interviews and archive footage to recount the grisly violence and continued religious polarization in the western state, where 2,000 people died in riots.
“The Final Solution” won two awards at the Berlin International Film Festival in February and has since been screened extensively overseas. Sharma will tour with the movie across the United States and Canada from mid-September to late October.
The Gujarat violence broke out after an allegedly Muslim mob torched a train carrying Hindu activists, killing 59 people. Most of the subsequent victims were Muslim and human rights groups accused the right-wing state government of abetting the vigilante violence.
Sharma said the censor board was dominated by allies of India’s former Hindu fundamentalist government which lost power in April-May election. No censor board official was immediately available for comment.
The director said he would appeal against the ban either through the courts or India’s new left-leaning government, which has vowed to speed up prosecution of perpetrators of the Gujarat bloodletting.
Sharma said he had already held up to 100 private screenings of “The Final Solution” in India without incident, belying censor board claims that the movie could stir trouble.
The director said he hoped to force a debate about censorship in India. The censor board regularly asks Bombay film producers to cut out material, particularly of a sexual nature, although outright bans on films are rare.
