Indian Narrative Setting of 1971 War: A Cinematic Memory Study

Abstract

Cinema acts as a soft power to narrate the story to the people irrespective of age and nationality. It is also a powerful tool to spread propaganda. In south Asia the Indian film industry is a very stronghold for making powerful cinema. They often compose cinema on historical events and narrate the story which they want to disseminate. Sometimes this narration of events creates distortion of historiography. In this study we examine carefully how the Indian films tell the story of the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War. We have used three Indian films for this study: Pippa, Children of War, and Gunday. This paper uses ideas from cultural memory studies and national cinema theory to show how these movies make India's military and political involvement seem bigger while downplaying the role and contributions of Bangladesh's political leaders, resistance fighters, and civilians. The study finds two main narrative strategies: leaving out Bangladeshi agency and making Indian humanitarian involvement sound bigger. The study also talks about how nationalist storytelling and themes from commercial movies build a version of history that backs India's geopolitical agenda. These movies are examples of soft power that support a dominant regional memory that sees India as a liberator and downplays Bangladesh's own fight. The results show that history-based movies need to be more balanced and include Bangladesh's own struggle for its freedom. This work adds to the academic dialogue about historical memory, how movies show events, and how culture affects South Asian geopolitics.