Portrayal of Muslims in the Bollywood Movies PDF

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Portrayal of Muslims in the Bollywood Movies  Abid Zafar  Maria Amjad Abstract The objective of this study is to examine the portrayal of Muslims in Bollywood movies from 2009-2013. Muslims are being stereotyped with negative characters since 9/11, through Bollywood movies. As course of time, the...

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Portrayal of Muslims in the Bollywood Movies 

Abid Zafar Maria Amjad



Abstract The objective of this study is to examine the portrayal of Muslims in Bollywood movies from 2009-2013. Muslims are being stereotyped with negative characters since 9/11, through Bollywood movies. As course of time, these movies have been started to misrepresent Muslims, not only in a severe manner but also to a large extent. This negative portrayal of Muslims in these movies has been raised sharply since Mumbai attacks of 26/11. Now, Bollywood continuously portray non-Indian Muslims and some time Indian Muslims adverse to society. To many extent Muslims are being portrayed as disloyal, adverse, cruel, evil, terrorist, distrustful and anti-national sort of person. This film industry has seen a huge growth during last decade or so and having a significant global penetration with large international audience. Popular superstars mostly Muslims are casted in antiIslam movies and have strong effects on viewer’s minds. This study is being performed to systematically discover that how and to what extent Bollywood is portraying the Muslims’ image. This research is based on content analysis of ten Bollywood movies and 90 Muslim characters are selected from these movies. Eleven categories are formulated to justify the hypothesis. Framing theory is used to analyze the media contents. Coding sheet has been formed which consists of three slants positive, negative and neutral to check the content and to obtain the result statistically. The overall findings reveal that 24.66% Muslim characters are positively portrayed, 31.81% are neutral and 43.23% are negatively represented. Those Muslim characters that are negatively portrayed are sometimes conservative and sometimes modern but positive Muslim character is always portrayed as modern. The results demonstrate that Bollywood is setting agenda to misrepresent the image of Muslims and Islam not only in India but all over the world. Key Words: Muslim, Islam, Bollywood Movies, 26/11 Introduction The Muslim world is approximately one fifth of the world population. Its politics, economics, and culture play a very important role at the world stage. 1 The 9/11 attacks are considered as the most important turning point for Arabs. The responsibility of these attacks was laid upon to Muslims. They were presented as terrorists, extremists, suspicious and dangerous people by the international media. The aftermath of 9/11 also brought an alteration in portrayal regarding Muslims in Hollywood as compare to prior 9/11. The Image of Muslims and Islam is no longer as unproblematic as they used to be and this is highly related to the role of 9/11 violent attacks. 2 Islam was misrepresented and portrayed

 Researcher, Centre for Research on Islam and Global Media, Department of Media Studies, International Islamic University (IIU), Islamabad, Pakistan  M.Phil. Scholar, International Islamic University (IIU), Islamabad, Pakistan 1 Mohammed, Javed. "Muslim cinema: An introduction." My Favorite Review: Changing The World One Story at A Time(2010): 1-20. 2 Elouardaoui, Ouidyane. "Arabs in Post-9/11 Hollywood Films: a Move towards a More Realistic Depiction?." (2011).

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as not a religion of peace but as a religion of terror and terrorism. After 9/11, 75% of media coverage in West and America was about Islam and almost 60 percent of the media content was negative.3 Following the footprints of Hollywood, Bollywood also exploit the character of Muslims immensely by portraying them as terrorists. Generally, many movies were made on this subject to portray the Muslims as villain and being presented as extremists, terrorists and dangerous people not only for India but for the whole world. In Bollywood, Muslims are shown as traitors, terrorists, disloyal, and cruel people. 4 Muslims have been portrayed negatively in Bollywood since 9/11. But this trend incalculably increased after 26/11 attacks.5 After that incident, Muslims are stared as suspicious people and depicting as terrorists and adversary for society in Indian media especially in Bollywood movies. After the incident of 26/11, Bollywood Movies consistently trying to inject the people against Islam and Muslims and to make this more effective it is using super stars in anti-Islam movies. Not only super stars but Muslims super stars are also being used by Bollywood in portraying Muslims adversary for society. 6 The main purpose of conducting this study is to examine the portrayal of Islam and Muslims in Bollywood. A considerable depiction of Muslims and Islam is observed in Bollywood movies and researchers desire to explore the nature and extent of this representation of Islam and Muslims in Bollywood, especially after the incident of 26/11. It is aimed to examine the percentage of positivity and negativity in Muslim characters in Bollywood to check whether Muslims and Islam are actually portrayed in a negative or supplementary manner or it’s just a perception. The intention is to determine that which sorts of rudiments Bollywood uses to misrepresent Islam and Muslims. This study examines the construction and stereotyping of Muslims in Bollywood Movies by applying the emphasis framing technique of Semetko for analyzing the Muslim characters which are mostly shown in Bollywood movies. 7 Ten Bollywood Movies have been selected by applying the convenient sampling technique which are launched after the incident of 26/11 to examine the representation of Islam and Muslims. Indian movies have great viewership not only in Asia but also in western and African continents.8 It is important to check the portrayal of Islam and Muslims in Bollywood Movies because Muslim countries do not have strong film industries to present their actual image or religion. 9 Both Quantitative and qualitative methods of content analysis are used in this study to examine the portrayal of Islam and Muslims in Bollywood movies. 90 Muslim 3

Sobolewska, Maria, and Sundas Ali. "Who speaks for Muslims? The role of the press in the creation and reporting of Muslim public opinion polls in the aftermath of London bombings in July 2005." Ethnicities 15, no. 5 (2015): 675-695. 4 (Khan, Portrayal of Muslims in Indian Cinema: A Content Analysis of Movies during (2002-8) 2011) 5 Islam, Maidul. "Imagining Indian Muslims: Looking through the Lens of Bollywood Cinema." Indian Journal of Human Development 1, no. 2 (2007): 403-422. 6 Mitra, Antara. "All for brownie points!: reappraising the new commercial media and media– terrorism nexus in the context of the Mumbai attacks of 26/11." Asia Europe Journal 7, no. 3-4 (2009): 433. 7 Semetko, Holli A., and Patti M. Valkenburg. "Framing European politics: A content analysis of press and television news." Journal of communication 50, no. 2 (2000): 93-109. 8 Rao, Shakuntala. "The globalization of Bollywood: An ethnography of non-elite audiences in India." The Communication Review 10, no. 1 (2007): 57-76. 9 Mohammed, Javed. "Muslim cinema: An introduction." My Favorite Review: Changing The World One Story at A Time(2010): 1-20.

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characters have been represented in the selected movies. Positivity and negativity of these characters is checked by applying the emphasis framing technique. 10 Eleven frames have been used to understand the representation of Muslims in these movies. These frames are dressing, dialogue, dialect, appearance, body language, activities religious practice, patriotism, behavior profession and overall view. Problem Statement Islam and Muslims are always portrayed negatively in Indian Media more specifically in the Bollywood movies. This situation becomes worse after the 26/11 attacks. The study examine the portrayal of Islam and Muslims in Bollywood Movies after 26/11 incidents. Objective •

To analyze the portrayal of Islam and Muslims in Bollywood movies

Literature Review Many studies prove that media representation make the identity of specific issues in public’s mind by conforming information about different cultures and religions.11 Films are considered as an important medium to make the specific images of a society or a community and these images prevail in every society which are transmitted culture to culture.12 Muslims can promote their culture and values by using these medium but unfortunately, they do not have strong film industries to represent their culture. 13 Bollywood has now become the world’s largest film industry in producing films having international audience.14 It plays an important role in building public opinion. At the same time, it becomes a primary source to understand Islam and Muslims at national and International level.15 Many Block buster movies of Bollywood are exported to UK, USA with their subtitle prints. The reviews of Bollywood movies are now circulate in “New York Times “and “Washington post”.16 Portrayal of Muslims in Indian movies is more negative than positive. These movies are considered against the Muslims and try to stereotype Muslims negatively not only in Indian society but all over the world. Through the effective medium, Bollywood is demolishing the Image of Islam and Muslims across the globe.17 10

Semetko, Holli A., and Patti M. Valkenburg. "Framing European politics: A content analysis of press and television news." Journal of communication 50, no. 2 (2000): 93-109. 11 Oumlil, Kenza. "Arabs and Muslims in Hollywood Breaking Down the Siege." Understanding Violence (2009) 12 Biagi, Shirley. Media impact: An introduction to mass media. Cengage Learning, 2012. 13 Mohammed, Javed. "Muslim cinema: An introduction." My Favorite Review: Changing The World One Story at A Time(2010): 1-20. 14 Pillania, Rajesh K. "The Globalization of Indian Hindi Movie Industry." Management (18544223) 3, no. 2 (2008). 15 Abdalla, Mohamad, and Halim Rane. "The impact of media representations on the understanding of Islam and attitudes toward Muslims in Queensland." Report prepared by Griffith Islamic Research Unit, Griffith University, for Multicultural Affairs Queensland, http://www. griffith. edu. au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0018/52083/MAQ. pdf (2007). 16 Rao, Shakuntala. "The globalization of Bollywood: An ethnography of non-elite audiences in India." The Communication Review 10, no. 1 (2007): 57-76. 17 Khan, Muhammad Ashraf, and Syeda Zuria Bokhari. "Portrayal of Muslims in Indian Cinema: A Content Analysis of Movies during (2002-8)." Pakistan Journal of Islamic Research8 (2011): 1-15.

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There is a great presence of Muslims in Indian cinemas. First, they were portrayed as king of Mughal period then as a Qawali singers or side heroes and from 1990’s to present; the depiction of Muslims is to demonize them by fragmenting Bigotry, hate and Racism.18 Leading characters of Muslims in Bollywood are misrepresented as anti-social characters, terrorists and conservative that relates Muslims identity as villain and as a terrorist through narration, texts and other behaviors. 19 Significant number of Bollywood films show Muslims as criminals, crooks, and every day people who cannot be trusted.20 Muslims are portrayed as anti-national and outsider whose patriotism is missing by constructing their loyalty only with Islam, supporting the enemies of the nation across the border.21 In Hollywood, Muslims are also scripted as dangerous, uncivilized and pre-modern in American culture.22 Bollywood not only constructing a specific image of Muslims and Islam but sometimes it construct and conform different Muslim countries and Nations as it represents Kashmir as a house of terrorists where Kashmiri Muslims are happy for violence and Pakistan a Muslim country also represented as a Villain.23 In most of the movies ISI symbolizes the role of Villain. These movies directly and indirectly try to show that Pakistan is a wild, lawless country and supporter of terrorists. 24 In Hollywood, Muslims and Arabs are stereotyped as terrorists by representing Palestine negatively.25 Hollywood identifies Arabs as terrorists, using chemical, hijacked plane and setting of stolen nuclear weapons specifically the Middle Eastern nations such as Lebanon, the Palestinian territory and Iraq having ethnic backgrounds of Greek, Pakistani, Israeli, Latino, South Africa, Iranian, Indian and Cuban. 26 Indian media also portray Islamic culture and Muslims identity negatively. They represent Muslims as adverse people or probably terrorist.27 Muslims are shown to justify evil deeds by praying and through religion. British media represent Muslims through their behaviors, dressings, praying and reciting Quran in mosques by reflecting the negative images of Muslims. Muslims are the people who always busy in evil activities like bombing

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Kavoori, Anandam P., and Aswin Punathambekar, eds. Global bollywood. NYU Press, 2008. Islam, Maidul. "Imagining Indian Muslims: Looking through the Lens of Bollywood Cinema." Indian Journal of Human Development 1, no. 2 (2007): 403-422. 20 Lohia, Yamini. "Anandam P. Kavoori and Aswin Punathambekar (Eds.): Global Bollywood." International Journal of Communication 4 (2010): 3. 21 Kattarwala, Nafisa. "The portrayal of Islam in the Indian mass media." SVKM’s NMIMS University paper, Mumbai (2009). 22 Aguayo, Michelle. "Representations of Muslim bodies in the Kingdom: Deconstructing discourses in Hollywood." Global Media Journal 2, no. 2 (2009): 41-56. 23 Baba, T. A. "Kashmir through Bollywood lenses: A study of selected films post 1989." Unpublished Master’s thesis), Islamic University of Science and Technology, Awantipora, Jammu & Kashmir, India (2011). 24 Hasan, Khalid. Indian film festival to screen anti-Pakistan films . Daily times , 2004. 19

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Oumlil, Kenza. "Arabs and Muslims in Hollywood Breaking Down the Siege." Understanding Violence (2009): 15. 26 Yin, Tung. "Through a screen darkly: Hollywood as a measure of discrimination against Arabs and Muslims." Duke FL & Soc. Change 2 (2010): 103. 27 Kazmi, Fareed, and Sanjeev Kumar. "The Politics of Muslim Identity and the Nature of Public Imagination in India: Media and Films as Potential Determinants." European Journal of Economic and Political Studies 4, no. 1 (2011): 171-187.

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and murdering innocent citizens. Most Queenslanders have negative attitude toward Muslims due to media misrepresentation about Muslims and Islam.28 This study examines the portrayal of Islam and Muslims in Bollywood Movies after the incident of 26/11. It indicates that not only conservative but modern Muslims are also stereotyped as terrorists and adverse for society in Bollywood movies. Many studies designate the portrayal of Islam and Muslims in Indian movies as Muslims are adversaries for society having duel personality and can’t be trusted. Framing Theory Framing Theory is applied to realize the media frames and the viewer’s frames to comprehend the edifices and the consequences on unambiguous issues. Framing is considered as the addition of Agenda Setting theory. This theory discusses that how a medium construct a specific issue in a particular way to manipulate the public opinion. This concept was first introduced by Erving Goffman by designing “Schemata of Interpretation” in 1974.29 However, this theory became the part of Communication Research in 1993.30 It consists on three rudiments which include language, deliberation and consideration.31 Some researchers argue that some time frames are replaced with representation, script, argument or any other label to avoid the confusion.32 In present study, frames are replaced with representation or portrayal of Muslims in Bollywood movies. Bollywood frame Islam and Muslims in a specific eye which reflects elevated bigotry and hate against Muslims in different Muslims characters such as bombing, smuggling, killing innocents which demonstrate Muslims as terrible and awful people. This theory is highly significant to understand the framing of Muslims characters in these movies. Through this, the researchers observe the ideological causes which highly affect on Muslims depiction in Bollywood movies. Research Question •

How Islam and Muslims are portrayed in Bollywood movies?

Methodology Content analysis research method is used to understand the portrayal of Muslims and Islam in Bollywood movies which helps to examine media contents directly. In this research, both qualitative and quantitative phases of content analysis are used. This kind of combination of two methods is called Triangulation which is possible and a good way to reap the benefits of both qualitative and quantitative methods. 33 Data is collected from the Bollywood movies related to Muslims released during 2009-2012. Ten framing categories 28

Ameli, Saied Reza. The British media and Muslim representation: The ideology of demonisation. Vol. 6. Islamic Human Rights Commission, 2004. 29 Goffman, Erving. Frame analysis: An essay on the organization of experience. Cambridge, MA, US: Harvard University Press, 1974. 30 Entman, Robert M. "Framing: Toward clarification of a fractured paradigm." Journal of communication 43, no. 4 (1993): 51-58. 31 Fairhurst, Gail Theus, and Robert A. Sarr. The art of framing: Managing the language of leadership. Vol. 50. Jossey-Bass, 1996. 32 Van Gorp, Baldwin. "The constructionist approach to framing: Bringing culture back in." Journal of communication 57, no. 1 (2007): 60-78. 33 Yeasmin, Sabina, and Khan Ferdousour Rahman. "Triangulation'research method as the tool of social science research." BUP journal 1, no. 1 (2012): 154-163.

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have been generated to examine the content by applying the emphasis framing technique of Semetko.34 These categories are Dressing, dialogue, dialect, appearance, body language and activities religious practice, patriotism, behavior and profession. Through this, researchers get the answers by designing the positive, negative and neutral coding categories. Variables • •

Independent variables: Independent variable in present study is portrayal or representation of Muslims in Bollywood movies. Dependent variables: Dependent variable in this study is Muslim’s image.

Universe of study Universe of study is Bollywood movies related Muslims released during the time period of 2009-2012.This time period is selected to check the portrayal of Muslims and Islam after the incident of 26/11. Sample It is not possible for researchers to examine all Bollywood movies which are released during 2009-2012. Convenient sampling technique has been used and ten movies are selected as a sample which has strong Muslim characters. These ten movies are representative of all Bollywood movies related to Muslims. Unit of Analysis Each Muslim character presented in selected Bollywood movies is considered as the unit of analysis. Coding Coding sheet has been formulated with further mentioned factors to put the unit of analysis in it. Three slants are classified as coding categories to check the factors which are positive, negative and neutral. I. Dressing Dressing is a good way to represent a person because through dressing one tries to judge the behavior of other. Dressing of Muslim characters is considered. Muslims, wearing typical shalwar, qameez, check scarf on shoulders and cap for male and Burka, veil or typical hijab for female is conservative and wearing modern dress, simple shalwarqameez for male and shalwar-qameez wearing dupata or simple hijab for female consider modern while others considered neutral. II. Dialogue Words or lines spoken by a Muslim character in a movie are considered dialogue for coding. Dialogue which talk about Islam and Jihad in negative way and talking against other religion are considered conservative/negative and talking about Islam in light way and something in favor of Islam against violation will be consider modern/positive. Other dialogues which are ...