The Kerala Story
It was more than 30 years ago, while I was studying in primary school in Ajmer (Rajasthan), I heard ‘adults’ discussing something named as ‘blackmail scandal’ which was exposed by a local Ajmer based newspaper. Talks about it were buzzing around the city of Ajmer. It involved the victimization of many dozens of young Hindu ladies by Muslim men.
The Ajmer Sharif Conspiracy: Unraveling the Truth Behind the 1992 Incident
These ladies were students in different schools and colleges of Ajmer, who mostly belonged to respectable middle-class families of the city and had a decent background. The way they were lured, trapped, victimized, and ‘rubbed off’ was alarming and surprising, as ladies back then were vigilantly supervised by their parents and their interactions with ‘unknown’ men were limited.
I would like to mention that women in those days in Ajmer (or in most of the other Indian cities) couldn’t even imagine wearing revealing clothes and had very limited freedom. There were no mobile phones, internet, gadgets, cable TV, and usage of landline phones too was very limited.
In a city like Ajmer, ‘something’ of this sort was outrageous and unheard of. ‘Dirty pictures’ of these ladies were used by perpetrators to blackmail them. This was done by the same men whom these women earlier trusted and befriended. People who call ‘love jihad’ a malicious hate campaign or propaganda, must note that all men were from ‘same community’ and all ‘targets’ were Hindus.
Kerala Story Is An Eye-Opener: Forced conversion By Fraud Must Stop
It was on Friday, 5th May 2023 that ‘The Kerala Story’ was released worldwide. The film was based on the depiction of honey trapping and exploitation of young non-Muslim women through a well-planned conspiracy that had the involvement of terrorist organizations having a global presence. I went for the first day, the first show of this movie, as the cause it stood for was way too provocative, sensitive, and brutally explicit.
The film was well-made and conveyed the message, ‘loud and clear’. I was happy to see Bollywood, which has been infamous for producing vulgar masala films, finally came up with something which made ‘sense’. It really takes guts to speak the truth and present it so seamlessly. Adah Sharma, film’s leading actress and lead character, made it ‘big’ after this superhit film received a warm welcome from the audience and film critics since the cause it stood for was chosen, researched, and created consciously.
Now, we live in the era of social media, reels, smartphones and time has drastically changed since the 1990s. It has its own advantages, but it has made women much more vulnerable, leading to their further degeneration. Almost every school, college, university, office and organization are now witnessing an increasingly alarming number of Hindu women dating, marrying and flirting with men from other communities.
This audacity may be termed as a right, rebellion or empowerment to make life choices, but the consequences and challenges faced by ladies who dare to abandon their religion, culture, food habits, beliefs and perspective to marry the man whom they love, are way too many.
Numerous cases of women being cheated, butchered, and harshly treated have been regularly highlighted by the media worldwide, as it’s a global phenomenon that has affected many millions of lives, and not a localized happening. Ordeals of many such horrifically handled women who were forced to eat beef, stopped from worshipping idols, made to hate their own religion’s scriptures, and pressurized to convert are available to go through and embark as eye-openers.
The Holistic Path: Empowering Women with Moral and Spiritual Growth
It is high time that young women are given the education to nourish them spiritually, culturally, morally, and ethically; so that their decisions are more conscientious and their perspective towards life is different. Empowering women without enriching them morally and spiritually will lead to disastrous outcomes. Valuing a girl child also means refining her standpoints.
We desire a better world and human society, which will not happen unless strenuous efforts are made in this direction, considering various options available and identifying and being wary of potential victims and lurking predators.
Also, filmmakers who have been hesitant to address social, cultural and religious issues in their films, can dare to come up with films that stir the well-accepted notions and fabric of society incessantly, as films like The Kashmir Files and The Kerala Story have been commercially very successful, despite the fact that they did not feature stars, superstars, item numbers, provocative attires, filthy language, and multiple masala songs. Rather than creating content that people want, content should aim at social upliftment, renaissance, and upheaval of the masses. Cinema, as a work of art, is essentially responsible for highlighting unnoticed or ignored issues to impact people positively.
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Pranjal Joshi
Pranjal Joshi is a Software Engineer and an MBA from IMT Ghaziabad. He has been passionately writing articles, blogs, essays etc. for different magazines, websites, newspapers and portals for more than 15 years. His areas of interest include politics, social causes, sports, current affairs, spirituality and general issues etc. He loves to express himself as a public speaker and a writer. He substantiates his writings by means of constructive criticism and satire, he is well-known for his ability to express the truth seamlessly, his thought provoking ways of judging and explaining characters and situations enlightens the audience. Pranjal loves to travel and socialize and is an avid art lover. Give your feedback to the writer at [email protected]
