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Week 1, Lecture 1 Video
Transcript (Defining
Bollywood, Defining
Citizenship)
[Dr. Ila Nagar] This is the first lecture of our class. So I want to establish
some ground reality, some foundations for us. The first thing I want to do is
I want to define Bollywood. Since this is a citizenship GE, I want to define
citizenship. Within citizenship, I want to set parameters of boundaries,
cultural identities and what both of these mean for citizenship. And the last
thing I want to do is draw connections between Bollywood and citizenship.
So let's start at the top. What is Bollywood? Bollywood is Hindi language
cinema. India has a lot of cinema and India has a lot of languages. India is a
very diverse country. There are about, there are more than 20 languages in
the constitution that are recognized as scheduled languages, which means
that these are languages you can do business in. You can fill a bank form in
these languages, not all of them across India but they are kind of regional,
right. So for example, in the western state of Gujarat, you could open a
bank account in Gujarati or in English. English kind of functions as the
"lingua franca," meaning the language of business. But there are a lot of
regional languages. There's also a lot of regional language cinema. So it's
not as if Bollywood is the only cinema coming out of India. Bollywood is
just Hindi language cinema. It's really important to know that. And
Bollywood is an industry that has kind of been in business for more than a
century now. So its a lot of cinema that is coming out of Bollywood. And
our goal here is to kind of understand that cinema and not just understand
that cinema but also understand how that interacts with other things like
citizenship. But before we get into citizenship, another thing about
Bollywood is it is its own thing, right? It's its own animal. It is not as if is
like any other type of cinema in the world. Of course it borrows from other
types of cinema. Of course there is- not only borrows, it actually also very
liberally copies from other cinema in the world. For example, I cannot name
the number of Hindi movies that are almost exact copies of Hollywood
movies. Some movies that come to mind are there's a there is a Hindi
version of Harry met Sally, there is a Hindi version of Forrest Gump, which
is actually a more recent version, but lots of things like that. There's a Hindi
version of ghost, etc. So actually there's a Hindi version, I think of
Ghostbusters. So it's really interesting to see. It's not as if cinema is not
tied to each other, but Bollywood, Bollywood is its own entity and it's Hindi
language cinema, important to note that. I also will say in your
assignments, when you're doing the writing, it's important that you know
that you know the distinction between Hindi, Hindi, which is the language
with with about 400 million native speakers and Hindu, which is a human
being, a person who follows the religion called Hinduism, right. So Hindu is
not a language. Hindu is a person who follows a particular religion. Hindi is
a language with about 400 million speakers, native speakers, which means
lots of people speak it as a second language too. So, that is Bollywood, like
just a very broad definition of Bollywood. Now let's get to citizenship.
What is citizenship? What does it mean to be a citizen? And what does it
mean to kind of have citizenship? Here what I want to do is I want to
reflect on the ways in which we talk about being a citizen. So think about it
this way. When we are talking about citizenship, what are we actually
talking about? Are we talking about borders, for example, in modern
civilizations- in the modern world, not even civilizations, in the modern
world, when we fly, if you have an American passport, you actually do not
need a visa to most countries in the world. You need a visa to some
countries. You actually do need a visa to go to India, but you don't need a
visa to go to France, Germany, England, Canada, Mexico. Actually Canada
and Mexico recently you need a passport. You don't need a visa. You don't
need the government of Mexico or Canada to say, yeah, you can come, it's
OK, right? But you need that for But if you are an Indian citizen, you need a
visa for the UK. You need it for France, you need it for Germany. You need
it for Switzerland. You need it for most of the world. You don't need it for
Nepal. What does that mean? Are we saying in some way that being a
citizen is about being a citizen of the United States? Or being a citizen of
India is about where you can move? As in, not move with all your bags and
all your family, but move? As in, can I go to a vacation on a whim if I'm
Indian to Switzerland? Not really. But can I go to a vacation to Switzerland
as a U.S. citizen on a whim? Like, can I fly out on Saturday? Any given
Saturday? Yeah, right. So what does that mean? It means something, right?
Beyond that, what else does citizenship mean? In general, citizenship is
understood as a rather modern concept. We were not talking as citizens of
a nation, of a nation state about like 200 years ago or so. We kind of were,
but really not, no. This is a far more recent idea, and this is a far more
recent idea because we are now talking about the contract that that an
individual has with the state, right? So that contract actually for a U.S.
citizen, what it means to be What it means to have a contract with the US
government. Part of that meaning is that you can travel to a lot of countries
without a visa, as a tourist visa. That is, you cannot work in these countries,
but you can travel. For an Indian citizen however, it does not have the
same meaning. So we are saying here a little bit, is that the idea of
citizenship is a little bit about movement. Who can go where, right? It is
not about who can settle where, but it is definitely about who can go
where. But there are other things, right? So for example, how does one get
citizenship in the United States? You are either born or you're naturalized.
As in you gain citizenship somehow. There are various ways of doing it.
But becoming a citizen of the United States as becoming a naturalized
citizen of the United States is a hard thing. But reflect on this What does it
mean to be a naturalized citizen of the United States? And what does it
mean to be a citizen of the United States? Beyond that, though, what does
it mean to be a citizen. Right. What are the ways in which the US
government or the Indian government interact with the individual? What
are my rights as a citizen of the United States? Or what are my rights as a
citizen of India? And it's not just that. It is also what can I do and what I
also cannot do, Right? That's also about citizenship, because it is very
possible that as a citizen of India, I can do certain things in India that I
cannot do in the United States, and vice versa. So in some ways,
citizenship is about rights. What do I have a right to do? Where do I have a
right to travel? Where do I have a right to vote? Who has a right to vote?
Actually, if you reflect on it historically, who has a right to vote is a big
thing about citizenship, right. Who is actually a full citizen? Till the 19th
Amendment in the United States, women did not have a right to vote.
Therefore, were they full citizens? Right. So we think about all of these
things when we think about citizenship. But this is not a citizenship class,
right? Although it is. How does Bollywood relate to citizenship? What is
the relationship between film and citizenship? Let's reflect on that a little
bit. Let us think about what these are. So in the next lecture we will talk a
little bit more about culture and what it means to be from a culture etc. But
for now, let us think about what citizenship means for cultural identities. So
a little bit ago I said that Bollywood is the film industry that is represented
by one language in India? If Bollywood is just Bollywood is just Hindi
language cinema, what about cultural identities of people who do not
speak Hindi, right? So for example, again, so many languages in India and
so many dialects. So how does language relate to cultural identity? And
more importantly, how do people who have different cultural identities? So
for example, a speaker of Hindi, a speaker of Bangla, a speaker of Telugu, a
speaker of Tamil, All Indian languages, do they have the same rights as
citizens of the country? Right? So the constitution says absolutely everyone
is equal. But we all know the US Constitution says that too, right? These
are modern democracies. We are built on the idea that everyone is equal
and created equal and has equal rights. But when we look around us, is
that true? I'm asking an open-ended question. I hope you reflect on that.
But the real answer, but a very simple answer is it's really not, right? So is
a person. Does does everyone have actually equal rights? I don't know, but
I don't think so. I don't think you think so too. And if you do, please come
talk to me. Let's talk. It'll be fun. So what is the relationship then between
these different cultural identities and citizenship? And we go one step
beyond and let's try to figure out what is the difference between, what is
the relationship between all these different cultural identities, citizenship
and film, right. And in the case of India, we are just talking about
Bollywood film. So the way I think about this relationship, the way I think
about Bollywood as related to citizenship, is Bollywood represents a
particular idea of who is a good citizen. This idea has changed historically
based on how cultural identities have changed and our idea of ideal
cultural identities, who is the best possible? What is the best possible way
to be a man? What is the best possible way to be a woman? What is the
best possible way to be an Indian? In a lot of ways, Bollywood kind of
shows a way to do that in really questionable ways, right? So the class is
going to be very much about how Bollywood does this highly questionable
representation of what a good citizen is supposed to be and a good citizen
is supposed to do how this has changed over decades. So the first film we
watch is actually going to be from the 1990s, but we are going to watch
films from 1960s, seventies, 80s, nineties and more contemporary film.
And we will see how this idea of who is a, who is a good citizen, who is a
Good man, who is a good woman, is someone who doesn't identify as
male or female actually able to be a good citizen, right. So what happens to
queer identities? What happens to gender identities that are not
conforming to these idealized male, female boxes? We learn about all of
that. And all of that is related to citizenship. All of that within Bollywood is
related to citizenship. Because Bollywood is basically saying, hey, if you
want to be a good Indian, behave this way, right? And if you don't do it,
well, then you are not the best of Indians. Being an Indian is categorically
about being a citizen. What else could it be about? Right. So. So we kind of
will see these connections. What I've tried to do here is give you snippets
of what these connections are. The picture is obviously far more
complicated. In a lot of ways, this class is going to be a not representative
of all of Bollywood. There is no way for us to do that in 15 weeks. In fact,
one of the problems of being representative is I am teaching this class. I am
coming in with a particular view of the world. And you know, I grew up in
India. I came here 20 years ago. I actually do happen to be a citizen of the
United States now. But I do go back to India as on a what is called an
Overseas Citizen of India card, right. So I carry a card with me that allows
me entering into India. Interesting things about citizenship, right? And then
those are really practical things about citizenship but beyond that things
get really murky and actually genuinely beautiful for someone like me who
likes to kind of study and think about the human experience. So coming
back to like cinema when we when we look at all of these things and we
kind of see how this is represented in film. There are certain examples, of
course, that I have picked and every film that I have picked is kind of an
example of something big that I'm trying to say. But can you find a film?
Can you, if you grew up with Bollywood or have friends who grew up with
Bollywood, can you come to my office hours and be like, hey, professor, I
saw this film that completely, you know, denies what you taught me last
week and I'll be like, yay, great, Let me talk about that film next week.
Right. So this is not a, hey, take my word for everything, but take my word
enough. And definitely take the word of the people you are reading enough
to understand that those are examples of certain things that form
connections between Bollywood citizenship, cultural identities, boundaries.
Right, film in India, Bollywood film is essentially a boundary keeping
exercise. Boundary keeping exercise meaning this is the limitations within
which ideal males perform. If you're outside these limitations, no good. And
the same can be said about a lot of things, right. So, we kind of will try to
form those connections. Another thing I should say here is nationalism. We
will kind of talk about this word as we go on in the course and as we talk
about different films in the course and different readings in the course as
well. How do nationalism and citizenship interact with each other?
Citizenship is a contract between the state and the individual. What can I
do? What can I not do? What am I allowed to do? What am I not allowed
to do? I'm a citizen, citizen of a democracy, therefore I'm able to question
those things. But beyond the questioning, I kind of have to follow what I'm
told, more or less. What is nationalism? Nationalism is a particular view, a
particular way in which somebody's saying this is how you should be a
citizen, right? And if you are not, then you are a bad citizen and bad citizen
is not allowed. It's not OK, right. So nationalism is more complicated and
nationalism is definitely something that Hindi language cinema, that
Bollywood cinema has done a lot of. In fact it is getting as an observer, it is
getting kind of more and more interesting as more and more nationalistic
dialogue is coming into Bollywood film, but even without, even when it
was not so prominent, so loud, nationalism is a very deeply tied part of
Bollywood film. of what Bollywood is trying to do, what Bollywood is
trying to say, what type of a citizenship, what type of a citizen one is
allowed to be. So we'll look at all of these wonderful things through film,
and I'm really excited about it.