Secular Interventions / Hinduized Sovereignty: (Anti) Conversion and Religious Pluralism in Jodhaa Akbar

The controversy that accompanied the release of Jodhaa Akbar (2008) in Indian film theaters highlights the extent to which the terms of the debate in discourses of Hindu–Muslim relations are sharply polarized between an attempt to advocate religious pluralism and to cast Muslims as threatening, brutal others who have historically invaded a Hindu land.¹Jodhaa Akbar—an epic, period Hindi commercial film rendition of the historical figure of Akbar, a Mughal emperor, and his marriage to Jodhaa Bai, the Rajasthani princess of Amer (present-day Jaipur)—is an appeal to a secular nationalism based on the advocation of religious pluralism and tolerance. When it was released, Hindu nationalist groups like the Rajput Karni Sena protested the screening of the film, arguing that the film was historically inaccurate (“Jodhaa”).² The group was referring to the story that the historical character of Jodhaa Bai may have been the Emperor Akbar’s daughter-in-law, not his wife. Yet, this minor historical indeterminacy did not seem to be the reason for the protests. Judging from a number of blogs and media reports that discussed the controversy, the reason for the protests appeared to be the cinematic realization of a marriage between a Muslim king and a Hindu princess. Or as one comment on the Rediff News report of February 16, 2008, states, “[Y]ou cannot imagine the hatred that the hindu warrior community has for muslims. we have a history of 1400 years of bitter resistence [sic] spearheaded by rajputs. how can there be any compromise with a community which killed 30000 hindus one by one in chittorgarh because each one refused to convert to the evil religion” (“Jodhaa”). Responding to such comments, Prahlad Singh Shekawat writes that “the Rajput groups are quibbling over a historical accuracy of a name, but sadly the hidden agenda may well be to thwart the celebration of the glorious Rajput-Mughal, Hindu–Muslim syncretic culture and intercourse and the Din-I-Ilahi discourse.” The Din-I-Ilahi discourse that Shekawat refers to emerged from the Emperor Akbar’s efforts to create a new religion based on a composite of “good” elements from various religions. Jodhaa Akbar draws on the story of the emperor’s marriage to a Hindu princess to make a link between his reputation for religious tolerance and his experience of marrying a Hindu wife. As Shekawat states, “[H]istory is witness to the subsequent flowering of composite and secular Mughal culture in which the Rajput wives played a part, until the time of Aurengzeb.”

The controversy over Jodhaa Akbar raises a number of issues about the film’s attempt to represent religious pluralism. One of these issues has to do with the manner in which the terms of promoting religious pluralism may have shifted from earlier Hindi film renditions—a shift that is perhaps reflective of the rise of Hindu nationalism in the Indian context over the last few decades. Whereas in earlier Hindi films a secular, liberal ethos of religious pluralism could be conveyed through plot devices such as long lost brothers growing up with different religious beliefs, as in Amar, Akbar, Anthony (1977)—an ethos that was also problematic for reasons I discuss later—a contemporary expression of religious pluralism is expressed through discourses of overt Hindu nationalist pedagogy, even as religious tolerance and pluralism are advocated. In the narrative of Jodhaa Akbar, for example, it is Akbar’s Hindu wife who teaches him about tolerance through her own religious sensibilities. Linking this pedagogy with Jodhaa Bai’s fear and anxiety about conversion to Islam references the contemporary politics of anti-conversion campaigns and laws.³ One of the conditions of marriage that the Hindu princess lays before the emperor is her refusal to convert to Islam. While this may be considered laudable feminist politics in the narrative of the film (she stands up to the emperor), this move references contemporary Hindu nationalist anti-conversion campaigns and mediates the film’s representation of a secular ethos of religious pluralism. In order to examine how this mediation occurs, this paper uses the...