A FEW days ago, I made the mistake of posting a simple question on X. I had just seen the Indian film Dhurandhar, which attempts to connect Karachi’s Lyari gang wars of the 1990s to the Mumbai terrorist attack many years later. My question was simple and legitimate: “Why are Indians so obsessed with Pakistan?” I posed the question out of genuine bafflement. Pakistan has been attacked by India numerous times, yet one would have to look incredibly hard to find Pakistani television or film media focus on proving Indian villainy. India, and Dhurandar is evidence of this, is utterly obsessed with presenting mono-dimensional characters of Pakistanis and of Muslims, all of whom seem to be intent on attacking India.
Unsurprisingly, the second I posed the question, the troll farms set about hurling insults of the worst kind at me. The level of vitriol in these comments was further evidence of nationalist anger. No Pakistani wakes up thinking about insulting random Indian columnists who write for Indian papers — the converse sadly is not true. I had also posed the question for a second reason: as those who have watched the film will notice, the film is well made. Bollywood filmmakers have made advances in cinematography, scriptwriting, the musical score, action sequences and production in general. How then can they be so retrogressive and backward in producing well-rounded characters if they are Muslim?
This time it is not Pakistanis alone who are fed up with such long productions of what is essentially Islamophobia. While the film is doing well in India — understandable given the kind of vitriolic anti-Pakistan narrative that is fed by the state to an entire generation — it has already been blocked in a number of Gulf countries. Given that millions of South Asians live in that region, this means that the film’s earnings have now been majorly hit. It appears that the state-driven narrative of animosity in India against Muslims might be getting in the way of the eagerness of many of its citizens to work in the Muslim countries of the Gulf. It is also likely that such actions will be repeated in the future as Pakistan increases its security presence in the Gulf.
How did India, once a secular and admired democracy, fall into such a deep pit of propaganda and historical mistruths? Some clues can be found in a dataset and article released by one of the few remaining esteemed and independent news sources in India. CERI-SciencesPo and The Caravan magazine — whose staff has faced harassment at the hands of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s supporters — released an incredible initiative titled ‘Seeing the Sangh: The RSS Project’. The initiative, which features an eye-opening map reveals how the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, which Modi has deceptively called “the largest NGO in the world” is actually “the largest far right network in history”.
How did India, once a secular and admired democracy, fall into such a deep pit of propaganda and historical mistruths?
The RSS along with its nasty propaganda against Muslims and minorities and its constant whetting of religious hatred has managed to become huge. The “RSS formally acknowledges only about three dozen affiliates, even though it is widely understood to coordinate a sprawling network,” ‘Seeing the Sangh’ explains. As is evident from the map, there are in fact a vast number of organisations in India that apparently do what the RSS wants — from organising mobs to lynch Muslims to developing campaigns to destroy mosques, to changing the names of cities and streets, to harassing ordinary Muslims to all manner of other hate-filled actions.
In the words of Christophe Jaffrelot, the research director at Sciences-Po in Paris and an esteemed scholar of South Asian history, “Hindutva is often equated with BJP, the Hindu nationalist party, but this ethno-religious movement has also developed deep roots in civil society since the creation of RSS in 1925. This dataset [on which the project is based], by revealing connections between the RSS, the mother organisation, and a myriad of more or less acknowledged subsidiaries which go much beyond what is known as the ‘Sangh Parivar’ (the RSS family), makes it very clear: extreme Hindu nationalist activists have reached out to almost every social and professional milieu. This network is not confined to India but is expanding globally thanks to the support of the diaspora, something this database captures also in great detail.”
Bollywood films are no exception to the rule. Nothing, it seems, happens in India today without the blessings and accommodation of the Hindutva mindset. It follows that even talented filmmakers who may have wished to make a more evolved film focused on story rather than propaganda have to produce slick and smartly produced garbage. If Dhurandhar did not have to fit into that box it could have competed with the best Hollywood film. But this is the story of India under Modi. Such is the toxic grip of Hindutva that potential and talent are being destroyed. Unfortunately, a large section of the Indian diaspora appears to have embraced Hindutva. This has led major US academic institutions like Rutgers and Stanford to focus on the poison being spread through this far right ideology.
The cost of hatred is that it eats a country whole from the inside. The ‘Seeing the Sangh’ map reveals just how this has happened in India. Even as a large section of Indians may be oblivious to the cost that the Modi regime has incurred, the rest of the world can see the tragedy clearly. Ironically, despite their general eagerness to underscore how awful all Pakistanis are — the Indian audience watching Dhurandar appears to have fallen in love not with the Indian spy character who roams Karachi for RAW but the character of Rehman Dakait. Whether they admit it consciously or not everyone knows a lie when they encounter one.
Published in Dawn, December 13th, 2025
Rafia Zakaria is an attorney and human rights activist. She is a columnist for DAWN Pakistan and a regular contributor for Al Jazeera America, Dissent, Guernica and many other publications.
She is the author of The Upstairs Wife: An Intimate History of Pakistan (Beacon Press 2015). She tweets @rafiazakaria
INDIA
Sectarian Nationalism and Concept of ‘Duties & Rights’
Image Courtesy: Sabrang India
India’s journey from a feudal society toward a potential democratic society based on modern industries and equality began during the colonial period. This was the period when the rise of modern industries created the working class.
Modern education introduced by Lord Macaulay in India laid the foundation of the education system that had the potential of bringing in the liberal open society where the concept of rights was also ingrained.
The feudal, semi-feudal and similar societies did not have the concept of rights and it was based on ‘divine’ power to rule over the lower sections of society. It was during this period that the tendencies which emerged articulated the rights of the emerging sections of society.
While the freedom movement was led by leaders who had imbibed the values with potential of democratic values, they led the movement against colonial rule. The likes of Sardar Patel, Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad and Subhash Chandra Bose articulated the values with inherent rights for the nation. They took the lead with great cost to their personal life. One of the examples was the inspiration derived by Jyotirao Phule from Thomas Penn’s book, Rights of Man. Ambedkar was an ardent follower of John Dewey. who was steeped in democratic values.
Recently, Prime Minister Narendra Modi went on to criticise Lord Macaulay for this transition to the values of rights, when he emphasised the traditional knowledge system as a dog whistle to highlight the concept of duty over rights.
Interestingly, Modi and his ilk, and the Muslim League, both expressed the values of ‘declining classes of landlords, Nawabs and Kings’. Modi’s Hindutva presented the ancient period where ‘dharma’ was the core, the dharma which the followers of Hindutva claim to be very great and the core of Hinduism.
Dharma stands for the religiously-ordained duties. Hindu ideologues claim there is no equivalent of dharma in other religions. There is Shudra Dhrama, Stree Dharma, Kshatriya Dharma and what have you. At its core was duties that dominated the scene.
The Muslim League emerged from the nawabs/landlords and their leaders eulogised the great rule of Muslim kings, starting from Mohammad bin Kasim, who ruled for some time in Sind. Their model was based on feudal values, looking down on the lower levels of society. The dominant sections were blessed with ‘divine power’ trickling down to these feudal lords etc. Pakistan saw the good definition of secularism by Muhammad Ali Jinnah, but in practice, feudal elements were dominant around him and after his death they came out openly to impose their feudal-semi feudal values on the society.
Read Also: Traditional Knowledge & Modern Knowledge: Is There a Binary?
As Hindu Nationalism is marching in India, the concept of ‘rights’ inherent in our national movement and Constitution have to be gradually undermined by Hindutva politics. This is where the ‘non-biological’ Modi begins the journey to achieve the goal of undermining rights and highlighting duties. His call for a dumping the education system introduced by Lord Macaulay was a subtle attempt in this direction.
Now, putting it more overtly on the Constitution Day, November 26, “In a recent letter to Indian citizens on Constitution Day (November 26, 2025), Prime Minister Narendra Modi heavily emphasised the importance of citizens fulfilling their Fundamental Duties. He argued that performing these duties is the foundation for a strong democracy and national progress towards his "Viksit Bharat" (Developed India) vision for 2047. Modi urged citizens to place their "duties towards the nation foremost in our minds". This aligns with his previous statements where he suggested that "rights are embedded in duties" and that "real rights are a result of the performance of duty,".
Modi also tweeted: “On Constitution Day, wrote a letter to my fellow citizens in which I’ve highlighted the greatness of our Constitution, the importance of Fundamental Duties in our lives…”
Writer Shravasti Dasgupta writes “While this is not the first time that Modi has laid emphasis on citizens duties, or interlinked them with rights to suggest that duties correspond to rights, the constitution shows that such interlinking is incorrect. According to constitutional experts and political scientists, an invocation of duties, placing primacy on them above rights, is a subtle attempt to recast the constitution, ensure compliance in a manner seen in authoritarian regimes, and signals a danger to democratic principles”
Modi went on to invoke Gandhi on this. “…and that "real rights are a result of the performance of duty,". Invoking Gandhi is totally off the mark, as Zoya Hasan (Professor Emerita, Jawaharlal Nehru University) says, “Gandhi often spoke of duties, but he never treated them as a substitute for rights; duties did not supersede rights. For him, duties were a moral path for individuals, while Fundamental Rights remained essential and must be protected by the state. Gandhi’s commitment to duties did not diminish rights in any way,”
Incidentally, to emphasise the concept of rights, many of these were underlined during the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) regime (2004-2014). The first and major amongst these was the "Right to Information”, a mechanism to root democracy in a deeper way. This was followed by the Right to Education, Right to Food and Right to Health. After the UPA government lost in the 2014 elections, the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) came into power, with full majority for Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The rights-based approach to public policy has now gone into the freezer and duties are being made a major part of our national policies.
Even our Constitution emphasises on rights in itself. In a way, in Article 21, ‘Right to Life’ incorporates the Right to Health and the Right to Education. The UPA government underlined these in a very appropriate way.
Today, Hindu Nationalism is totally suppressing rights, such as freedom of religion, freedom of expression, among others. Many of these are incorporated in the concept of human rights as well.
What Modi is saying in his letter is the way of suppressing the concept of ‘rights’, which is clear in his policy of relegating the religious minorities to second class status, coining the term ‘Urban Naxals’ for the public intellectuals, among others.
Incidentally, authoritarian states’ constitutions also emphasise more on duties, at the cost of rights.
The writer is a human rights activist, who taught at IIT Bombay. The views are personal.
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