The politics of fixity : a report on the ban of Hindi films in Manipur, Northeast India
Abstract
The more than half a century long armed conflicts in the Northeast of India have created a condition of existence in the region that is often described in pathological terms like ‘crisis’ or ‘disorder’. Such diagnostic attitude towards the region invites ‘solutions’ to ‘fix’ it. This has result in increasing militarization of the region on the one hand and opening up markets on the other. In the rush for a ‘solution’ we might have denied intelligibility to the everyday life of people in the region. The report examines some of the creative ways in which people constantly navigate and negotiate a field of contesting powers. In 2000, Hindi films were banned by militant Manipuri nationalist groups in an effort to stop what they have called the process of Indianization. The report explores the circumstances in which the ban took place as well as the trajectories that the ban has taken. In this engagement with the ban, the report uncovers that any attempt, by the Indian state as well as the militant Manipuri nationalist, to put bodies in fixed categories is often frustrated and negotiated in everyday practices.