Padmavati and why I believe the Anger is Justified..!!

Is it quite late for this post..??
I don't know, but I had got to get this out of me..

I do honestly feel that the anger over the movie "Padmavati" is justified..

Now don't get me wrong I do believe that the threat messages against Ms. Padukone or Mr. Bhansali should be condemned in the strongest possible language, but it doesn't absolve them of the things they did in the first place..

They showed a women who is treated like a deity (not for nothing they call her "Devi") by a particular section of the Hindus and thus in extension by the whole Hindu Community as well, dancing to a song which is not particularly traditional or folk, wearing clothes which are not traditional or folk..!!

Now in a country as sensitive as India (which is nothing to be apologetic about though) you should be living in some kind of a Liberal ivory tower to think that this will not evoke any passion on the ground..

And to suit their own narrative some liberals are trying to project that Rani Maa Padmavati is a strong feminine character of history who stood against the barbaric and regressive patriarchy..
So the movie should be released to let the people know about her..

I don't know about you but I don't find the concept of a Queen performing in front of the King and his courtiers a shining example of feminine strength and valour..!!
Just so you get the gravity of this issue, imagine your mother dancing to a song in front of all your fathers and uncles..!!
And now imagine yourself in those curly toed Rajput shoes and watching the woman, who is etched in your collective consciousness as  "Maa" for the past 800 years, dancing on screen..!!

I do understand the concept of creative liberty in arts but I find it extremely dishonorable on the part of the director to not even take the Royal house of Chittorgarh in confidence while making the film..
I am fine with the fact that he is not paying attention to the protests on the streets by the various Rajput groups, but he could have atleast talked to the Royal family and explained his position while taking their suggestions on the movie, after all he is making a movie on a person who was a part of their family..right..??

Then there is the Hindu phobic academia which is ever ready to dismiss the historicity of anything Hindu..
So Ram is not a real person..
Thus automatically he was not born at Ayodhya..
Mahabharat never happened..
There is no existence of Saraswati river..
Sanskrit was a language of subjugation of the Dalits and the Dravidians..
These are some of the many things that are purported through the academic channels..
Now it is the turn of Rani Padmavati..
Because apparently she is a figment of imagination of the poet Jayasi..
So in this poem Padmavat, the House of Chittorgarh is real, the barbarian Khilji is real but only the Queen Padmavati (on whose name the poem is named) is false..!!
Lol..
The reason being..
There is no documented proof of her existence before that poem, which was written in 1500s..
I wonder whether there is any documented proof of existence of Jesus, Mohammed, Socrates or Buddha..
But we don't find these debates in the academic channels do we..??
The Hindu traditions are oral traditions and they have existed like this for thousands of years..
That is why we have a continuous narration of history even though every barbarian king who came to conquer us burnt our libraries and killed our learned men..
That is why there is no existence of equally old civilizations like the Egyptian, Greek or Mesopotamian..
Because they "forgot" their history..

I believe in the fact that India is a fair and progressive country which is also proud of its history..
We have our own way of deliberations and that is what the Hindus call as the "Manthan"..
The elite intelligentsia and the so called liberal bollywood who are physically in India and mentally in Western Europe or USA need to understand that the Indian idea of liberalism is very different from theirs and if they want that, they are free to go there..

Anurag Choudhari