Cinema and the Indian Freedom Struggle: Covering the Subcontinent

This is a pioneering effort in Indian literature on the subject of contribution of audiovisual media in the Indian freedom struggle. It introduces international readership to this contribution in a subcontinental perspective. The first book in English language to bring within its covers some existing work done on the subject in regional languages; to trace evidence on Mahatma Gandhi’s aversion to cinema; to list the ‘freedom films’ made during the freedom movement with production details; to list film songs directly emoting the freedom theme; to highlight the British censors’ response to nationalist statements in cinema and hostility towards the republican messages in American cinema. Between 1905 and 1947, the struggle of Indian freedom in the media is a long litany of censorhip to curb the spread of information. Arguably the only audiovisual medium, which developed along with the events of India’s own freedom struggle, Indian cinema has reacted and recorded the national sentiment. The next mentions personalities from the world of cinema who were part of the freedom struggle. There were others for whom it was on obsession to use the media to further the message of national leaders beyond the limits of movie houses. The state worked against such filmmakers. There were also individuals who came from the freedom struggle into cinema either by design or accidentally. Some of these freedom fighters were unknown names but in cinema they attempted to leave some evidence of their sacrifices and then went back into oblivion. Also, some very well known political personalities took their own stand on Indian cinema, with Mahatma Gandhi being the most hostile on one end, and B.G. Tilak, being the most enthusiastic, on the other. The book holds ‘strong’ as a reference material for students of cinema and researchers.