AhlulBayt News Agency (ABNA): YouTube has removed an award-winning documentary examining the roots of anti-Muslim violence and Hindu nationalist mobilization in India, reviving longstanding concerns over the shrinking space for works that critically examine majoritarian politics in the world’s largest democracy.
The documentary, Father, Son and Holy War, by veteran Indian filmmaker Anand Patwardhan, explores how religious nationalism, hypermasculinity and patriarchal ideas of manhood intersect with anti-Muslim violence.
Released in 1995 after seven years of production, the two-part film examines the political climate surrounding the demolition of the 16th-century Babri Masjid by Hindu mobs in 1992 and the deadly communal riots that followed in Mumbai, events widely seen as a turning point in the rise of Hindutva politics in India.
Patwardhan announced the removal in a Facebook post, saying YouTube had flagged the documentary for violent content despite its decades-long public recognition. The film had received a U/A certificate from India’s state censor board, won two National Film Awards and was later ordered to be broadcast during prime time by India’s Supreme Court in the public interest.
“Thirty years later, YouTube has decided that it is too ‘violent’,” Patwardhan wrote.
Rejecting the platform’s reasoning, the filmmaker argued that the documentary records violence rather than glorifies it.
“It is a documentary that records the violence caused by religious fanatics and politicians vying for power. It is an expose of violence, not an endorsement of it,” he said.
Although the film disappeared from Patwardhan’s official YouTube channel, copies remained accessible elsewhere on the platform.
Father, Son and Holy War won the 1995 National Film Awards for Best Investigative Documentary and Best Film on Social Issues, as well as the International Jury Prize at the Bombay International Film Festival the following year.
The documentary has a long history of censorship battles. In the late 1990s, India’s state broadcaster, Doordarshan, refused to air the film despite its national recognition.
Patwardhan challenged the decision in court and eventually secured a landmark victory, with the Supreme Court directing the broadcaster to telecast the documentary, ruling that suppressing such work was contrary to the public interest.
The latest removal also echoes earlier attempts to restrict Patwardhan’s films dealing with Hindu nationalism and communal violence.
In 2019, YouTube imposed an age restriction on his 1992 documentary Ram Ke Naam, which examined the campaign led by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, a Hindu extremist organization, to build a Hindu temple at the site of the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya and the violence that followed the demotion of the mosque.
Despite carrying an unrestricted certificate from India’s censor board, the documentary became inaccessible to users under 18.
At the time, Patwardhan accused the platform of yielding to pressure from Hindutva groups.
For supporters of the filmmaker, YouTube’s decision is not merely a dispute over content moderation. They argue it reflects a broader struggle over who gets to document, archive and publicly remember episodes of communal violence and the ideological forces that shaped modern India’s political landscape.
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