'Tamas', once in the eye of the storm, is back

Is anyone watching Tamas? It’s at prime time, but on the History channel. When it was first telecast in 1988, a Hindu and a Muslim separately went to court asking for a ban, the BJP protested on the streets, progressive groups held counter demonstrations in support, and director Govind Nihalani received threats.

This was a different country then. The air was toxic after the Shah Bano judgment and the opening of the locks to the Babri Masjid; Operation Blue Star, Indira Gandhi’s assassination and the massacre of Sikhs; Khalistanis on the rampage and innocent Sikhs being killed off in “encounters’’, the Meerut riots and the Maliana massacre; and 18-year-old Roop Kanwar’s ‘sati’ in Rajasthan. Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Rajputs, were all being instigated by self-styled leaders.

In such an atmosphere, right into our homes, came never-before seen images of Partition, a period no film-maker had dared portray. These weren’t general visuals, but very specific ones with definite communal overtones: a pig being killed to be thrown outside a mosque; a leader initiating a hesitant teenager wearing those giveaway khaki shorts, into violence against neighbours who belonged to another community; open communal hostility between Muslim Leaguers and Congressmen.

We saw all this over two consecutive days last week. In 1988, we had one episode a week, that too at 10pm, not prime time. Does the absence of any reaction today mean that no one’s watching Tamas, or that we’ve grown up, or both?

For viewers used to the flashy, unreal soaps of the last decade, Tamas is that rare thing: a TV serial that actually leaves you disturbed, full of doubts and questions. Too much brainwork is involved viewing it. Also, it cuts too close. Why rake up old, awful memories, the generation that had witnessed Partition had asked then. Twenty five years later, there may be few left of that generation. But their children have seen some pretty gruesome things too. The bloodshed leading to the demolition of the Babri Masjid, and its aftermath, that left no one untouched, may have occurred 20 years back, but it’s hardly been a popular theme among film-makers. Ditto for the 2002 Gujarat violence. Not all the TV discussions on communal violence can come close to seeing Hindu-Muslim-Sikh hatreds acted out on screen by artists known for getting under the skin of their characters, under a director who has never cared to dress up ugly situations. Tamas today is as exceptional a serial as it was in 1988, and leaves you as shaken as it did then.

Is it as relevant? Aren’t the same khaki-shorts occupying centre-stage in politics today? For all his appeal, Narendra Modi wouldn’t have become the star campaigner against the Congress without the approval of those old RSS men. The starry-eyed youngsters following him may find it worthwhile to watch Tamas to understand the ideology that has moulded him. So may their counterparts, who listen with awe to the recordings of the Owaisi brothers’ incendiary speeches.

Asaduddin and Akbaruddin Owaisi, in whom many young Muslims see the promise of a bold new leadership, are the true inheritors of the Muslim League ideology that sees Indian Muslims as having a political identity separate from Hindus.

Alas, there are no secular do-gooders left in the Congress of today. All the more reason to learn what Gandhiji, now much reviled, was capable of inspiring among ordinary Indians, and also how the tallest Congressmen betrayed their followers by accepting Partition.

If you haven’t yet, watch Tamas today.

The author is a Mumbai-based freelance journalist.