The controversial film is banned in the Southeast Asian city-state for its “provocative and one-sided portrayal” of Muslims.
Singapore has banned a controversial movie on the exodus of Hindus from Indian-administered Kashmir for its “provocative and one-sided portrayal” of Muslims that city-state officials fear has the “potential to cause enmity between different communities”.
Released in March, The Kashmir Files describes in harrowing detail how some 200,000 Kashmiri Hindus – known as pundits – fled the Muslim-majority region after rebel attacks in 1989 and 1990, when armed resistance began against the government in New Delhi.
As many as 219 Hindus may have died, according to official figures.
The 170-minute Hindi film was praised by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his right-wing Hindu nationalist supporters and is one of the highest-grossing films in India this year.
Shortly after the film’s release, Modi said it was showing the truth and “vested interests” were waging a campaign to discredit it.
“They are shocked that the truth that was hidden for so many years comes to light and is backed by facts,” said the indigenous leader, without clarifying who he was referring to.
But critics say the movie is loose with the facts and tackles issues close to the political agenda of Modi’s Hindu nationalist government, which has been accused of marginalizing and vilifying Muslims.
“The film will be rejected for classification due to its provocative and one-sided portrayal of Muslims and depictions of Hindus persecuted in the ongoing conflict in Kashmir,” the Singapore government said in a statement Monday in response to queries from critics. media.
“These depictions have the potential to cause enmity between different communities and disrupt social cohesion and religious harmony in our multi-racial and multi-religious society,” the statement added.
Singapore’s population of 5.5 million is mainly made up of ethnic Chinese, Malays and Indians. The tightly controlled Southeast Asian country has strict laws that punish any attempt to disturb interracial and religious harmony.
It occasionally bans movies and publications for fear of inflaming divisions, leading some to deride it as a “nanny state.”
The film’s director, Vivek Agnihotri, lashed out at the decision, tweeting that Singapore was the “most regressive censor in the world”.
Thousands of people, many of them Hindus, fled Kashmir after a violent uprising against Indian rule began in the valley in 1989.
The Kashmir Files revolves around a college student who learns of the death of his parents in the 1990s in Kashmir, a disputed region divided between India and Pakistan since 1947.
Supporters of the film say it sheds light on an often-overlooked chapter of the region’s history, while others see it as evidence of the growing religious polarization that Modi’s critics say he has fostered since he came to power. in 2014.