Nationalistic Discourse in Hindi Cinema and Caste Question

Hindi Cinema explicitly supported the Upper Caste Hindu Values by overlooking the plural nature of Indian Society. With the inception of Indian Cinema and when the indigenous cinema flourished, the nature of the Indian movies was purely religious inspired by Hindu mythologies. Epics like Ramayana and Mahabharata continue to influence the theme and plot of the Contemporary Indian Cinema. Instead of dealing with the important question of Indian social order, it has consciously evaded to engage the social embedded in Indian Society. Hindi cinema is commonly used as a synonym with national popular cinema and it had also received a central position among other cinema in the country.

However the recent scholarship in the field of Indian Cinema studies is in contestation with the idea of dominant Hindi cinema and regional cinema. These scholarships in the field of Indian Cinema is one way challenge the dominant discourse on Indian cinema and also explore the interconnection, and intersection of nation in Indian cinema scholarship. The cinema that is produced in Mumbai (Bombay) in Hindi- Urdu (Hindustani) language is called as National Cinema.

This paper explore the role of Hindi Cinema in defining a nation in terms of exclusion and fracturing. This paper will further deal with the theoretical aspects of nationalism discourse and national cinema. While focusing on nationalism it will look at how cinema and nationalism are intertwined with each other and how Indian social elites are imposing their imaginary on the excluded minorities.