Hyderabad: Right-wing Hindutva propaganda movie ‘Razakar: Silent Genocide of Hyderabad’ has won the best cinematography and best debut director awards at the Dadasaheb Phalke awards. The movie, produced by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Gudur Narayan Reddy, is about the Muslim militia Razakar (volunteers), which indulged in looting and violence in the days leading to the erstwhile Hyderabad state’s annexation by the Indian army on September 17, 1948.
The Razakar movie was supposed to release before the 2023 Assembly polls, but was delayed and was eventually released before the 2024 Lok Sabha elections in March. The movie’s screening had BJP leaders in attendance, and has been criticised by many for its portrayal of Muslims from the erstwhile Hyderabad state.
Gudur Narayan Reddy, a long time Congressman from Bhongir district who shifted to the BJP a few years ago, produced the Razakar film. In October 2023, he had written to the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) asking to allow his move to be released on November 17, 2023, stating that it was not made with the intention to create communal discord, given that many have accused him of spreading anti-Muslim hate through the film.
However, the movie did not release that year, and eventually got delayed. Apart from its communally overcharged tones, the movie is anything but accurate in terms of its portrayal of Muslims and the Nizam of Hyderabad. Narayan Reddy’s movie pushes the narrative that most or all Muslims, and the last Nizam Mir Osman Ali Khan, did not want the erstwhile state of Hyderabad to unify with India after independence. However, the truth is far from it.
The Razakar movie also majorly ignored the Telangana Armed Struggle (1946-51), a Communist Party of India (CPI)-led peasant rebellion against feudal landlords. It continued all the way till 1951. It was a bigger reason for the Indian army being sent. Many of the CPI’s leaders then were Muslims, and many amongst Muslims in fact also wanted the Nizam to peacefully accede to the Indian government through negotiations.
The rebellion against state-appointed feudal landlords in Telangana was a result of the oppression of peasants and other oppressed caste people who faced continuous harassment and lived in slavery-like situations in Telangana’s districts. The Hyderabad state, run by (initially Mughal-appointed) Nizams from 1724 to 1948, was one of the largest princely states under British India.
All of this, of course either did not make it to the film, or was showed in an entirely different way with communal overtones.
More importantly, the larger issue concerning Hyderabad’s annexation or Operation Polo is the killings of thousands of Muslims in the Marathwada and Karnataka parts of the Hyderabad state. While the annexation itself is an issue per se, an estimated 26,000 to 40,000 Muslims lost their lives due to communal violence inflicted on the populace in the aftermath. Given how emotional the entire issue is for people whose families have been affected, both the Razakar violence and the killings of Muslims are equally abhorrent and must be condemned.
Narayan Reddy, in previous conversations with this journalist, said that he hails from a community of land owners under the Nizam, and that his grandfather had faced Razakars when they were active from 1947-48. The trailer for his movie is clear about what he wants to propagate. The idea that there was a violent streak of anti-Hindu attacks on the majority community in the Hyderabad state.
From scenes of Razakars assaulting and disrespecting Hindus to dialogues like “you should change your religion or leave the state”, the movie is a big attempt to rewrite history by reimagining it from a right-wing Hindutva narrative.
However, this is not the only recent propaganda movie that won an award. The Kashmir Files, another propaganda movie directed by Vivek Agnihotri, also bagged the Best Film at the Dadasaheb Phalke Awards in 2023.
