‘The Kashmir Files’ banned in Singapore: “potential to cause enmity’

Singapore bans The Kashmir Files, saying that it has the “Potential To Cause Enmity…” showing a ‘One-sided portrayal of Muslims’.

“The Kashmir Files” In Singapore: Singapore said under its film classification guidelines, “any material that is denigrating to racial or religious communities in Singapore” will be refused classification.

The Kashmir Files, a controversial film on the exodus of Hindus from the Kashmir Valley in the 1990s, has been banned by Singapore, which has cited concerns over its “potential to cause enmity between different communities”.

The film has been assessed to be “beyond” Singapore’s film classification guidelines, news agency PTI has reported.

“The film will be refused classification for its provocative and one-sided portrayal of Muslims and the depictions of Hindus being persecuted in the ongoing conflict in Kashmir,” the Singapore government said in a statement on Monday.

“These representations 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.

The city-state said under its film classification guidelines, “any material that is denigrating to racial or religious communities in Singapore” will be refused classification.

Released on March 11, the Kashmir Files, directed by Vivek Agnihotri, has been praised by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and several BJP leaders and has also been rated a Box Office hit, but critics say it plays to anti-Muslim sentiment and is easygoing with hard facts.

In fact, it is said that terrorists in Kashmir over the years were never able to divide the Hindu-Muslim unity in Kashmir as Vivek Ranjan Agnihotri, the Indian film director who created The Kashmir Files did.

Pri writes, “Singapore stands firm on its multi-racial and multi-religious values & bans #KashmirFiles!  “The film is refused classification for its provocative and one-sided portrayal of Muslims.”  The rising tide of majoritarianism is fast changing the very secular ethos of this nation!”

Singapore stands firm on its multi-racial and multi-religious values & bans #KashmirFiles!

"The film is refused classification for its provocative and one-sided portrayal of Muslims." 

The rising tide of majoritarianism is fast changing the very secular ethos of this nation! pic.twitter.com/CFBDNK4ZR3

— Pri | پرینکا (@PriyankaSamy) May 10, 2022

Congress MP Shashi Tharoor shared the Singapore government statement, given to Channel News Asia, and wrote: “Film promoted by India’s ruling party, Kashmir Files, banned in Singapore.”

Film promoted by India’s ruling party, #KashmirFiles, banned in Singapore: https://t.co/S6TBjglele pic.twitter.com/RuaoTReuAH

— Shashi Tharoor (@ShashiTharoor) May 10, 2022

The Ethos of Singapore

Ethnic Chinese at 75.9% form the largest group, followed by ethnic Malays (15.0%) and ethnic Indians (7.5%), collectively making up virtually the entirety of its citizen population (98.4%). The remaining 1.6% consists of those classified as “Other” or are Eurasians.

According to the data, approximately 33.2 percent of the population of citizens and permanent residents are Buddhist, 18.8 percent Christian (including 6.7 percent Catholic), 14 percent Muslim (predominantly Sunni), 10 percent Taoist, 5 percent Hindu, and 18.5 percent identify as having no religion.

In the mixed racial and religious ethos of Singapore, they very clearly want to maintain their multi-racial and multi-religious values and therefore took a strong stand to ban Kashmir Files which displayed the Kashmiri Muslims in a poor light evoking right-wing hatred over India and the movie also fails to reveal that more Muslims were killed by the terrorists.

As Pri rightly said, “The rising tide of majoritarianism is fast changing the very secular ethos of this nation!”