Communalized Violence in Gujarat Riots: A Discourse Analytical Lens to Firaaq and Parzania

Abstract

The role of state in safeguarding human life has been recognized across constitutional and legislative settings of countries. Particularly in the context of conflict ridden territories the state’s active role in diffusing violence is very critical. South Asian history is marred with political, ethnicized, religious, and communal violence which is practiced, projected, and reasoned by the majority who feed on majoritarian and universalizing religious ideology against the minorities residing in different territories. Gujarat riots is one of the instances of communal violence which broke out in 2002 in contemporary India. Based on this subject, two films, Firaaq and Parzania were produced and released in cinemas. The paper has critically analyzed these two feature films using the tool of critical discourse analysis. This research, through textual, social, and discursive deconstruction of two films, explains the facilitator role of Indian state in 2002 Gujarat Riots. The existing scholarship is assertive that Indian state played an active part in premeditating violence against Muslim minorities residing in Muslim dominated areas of rural and urban Gujarat. The research explains that the state not only premeditated the communal violence but also exercised brute force, physical and coercive forms of power against Muslim communes with an intention of demolishing the Muslim identity from the politico-religious landscape of Gujarat. Regarding communal violence, the themes of networked hate, political economy of conflict, and militarised and sexualised violence against women are also identified.