Non-state actors. That’s the term that wins the prize for the most innovative use of English for the year 2008 for me. If I were on a film festival jury, they (non-state actors) would have won my vote for the ‘Best Acting Performance (by an ensemble cast)’ by a wide margin. However, I am worried, as well, by their emergence and the possible fallouts. Yes, there has already been war-of-words between India and Pakistan, escalation and de-escalation of tensions, troops yo-yoing into and away from borders and the usual reading between the lines of what American diplomats are saying or not saying. But what worries me the most (and since this is a cinema site) is what the masters of Bollywood patriotic brigade are spinning based on all of this at this moment.

For, you see, Bollywood brand of patriotism, not unlike the Indian version of patriotism, leaves me thoroughly bemused. Patriotism is a complex emotion. Questioning established notions of patriotism is the easiest way of inviting brickbats. Regardless, I will question a few of these notions. To start with, what are these established notions? Like many other constructs in our society, Bollywood provides us with an easy template to study patriotism. This is not a lazy assumption to make. Patriotism, as a notion, has over the ages, been shaped by popular arts across the world. Be it the poetry (Tennyson’s Home They Brought Her Warrior Dead) or music (the appropriation of Wagner in Nazi Germany) or even cinema (Vietnam movies). That addressed, let’s move ahead.

Over time in Bollywood, we have evolved three distinct schools patriotism and I thoroughly enjoy the periodic upswing that one has over the other purely based on the flavor of the political season.

The first and the most pervasive among these schools is the ‘martyrdom’ or ‘revenge followed by martyrdom’ variety. The examples of this theme range from the excellent Haqeeqat (Chetan Anand) to the pedestrian LOC (J.P. Dutta). The other variant of this school is the Sunny Deol-with-handpump variety which doesn’t require any further explanation. The second school is that of ‘vigilante justice’ where ordinary citizens pushed against the wall show fine disregard for law and deliver justice against the enemy within. This has a long history in Bollywood – starting from the anti-hero of the 70s to the awakened generation of RDB and the angry ordinary man of ‘A Wednesday’. The last school is that of ‘feel-good being an Indian’ where we learn phir bhi dil hai Hindustani. This is a subtler form so the examples are rarer but the school has shown promise in recent years with Swades and Mumbai Meri Jaan.

All of which leaves us with possibly the most cinematic form of patriotism which has been rarely employed in Hindi cinema. That’s dissent as a form of patriotism. It makes for a more compelling story and, in addition, it has one significant advantage over all the other schools – the emotion it evokes. The ‘maytrdom’ school evokes gratefulness, the ‘vigilante justice’ school is merely vicarious pleasure of seeing something that we won’t ever do ourselves and the ‘feel-good we are Indian’ is a strictly urban sentiment without any bearing in real world (unity in diversity? Do you even know your neighbour?).

Dissent as a form of patriotism, on the other hand, can invoke action. And it is this form of patriotism that is either sorely lacking in today’s times or regretfully subjugated by authorities. I look around and find things not making sense – that the Editor of a leading Indian business newspaper has stepped down (allegedly because the media house came under political pressure), because he allowed an anonymous IAS officer to write an open letter which criticized the PM and the government on 26/11 (see more here); or the nature of dialogue in media shifting from questioning the efficacy of our intelligence networks or our ability to win diplomatic wars on the international scene to war rhetoric; or an A.R. Antulay cooking up conspiracy theories around an unfortunate incident.

We seem to have reverted to three schools almost unconsciously – war rhetoric (the ‘martyrdom’ school), damn the politicians (the ‘vigilante justice’ school) or we shall overcome (the ‘feel-good we are Indian’ school). I just hope that genuine dissent finds it place as well. May be Hindi cinema can make a start.