Slumdog Millionaire

When I was watching the Oscars on Sunday night I noticed that the movie Slumdog Millionaire kept winning for every category it was nominated in.  I kept seeing more and more clips and it made me want to re watch the movie.  In doing so I noticed that for one of the multiple choice questions that Jamal, the slumdog millionaire, had to answer was about depictions of God Rama.  Then the movie went on to show a group of people violently killing those who lived in the slum, which ended up being the cause of death for Jamal's mother.  Upon viewing this movie the first time it didn't click that this riot was due to the fact that the people living in Jamal's slum were all Muslim's and that they were being attacked.  One of the attackers even yells "get them, they are Muslim's" before violently beating and igniting the people of the slum.  So I kept re watching that scene in the movie to find out who was doing the  attacking and who God Rama was in the hopes to write a blog post in relation.  

After some research I found out that it was a group of Hindu's that came after the slum and that Muslim's have always been targeted by Hindu's.  While doing my research I also came across the fact that such riots really happen in India and that some were directed under state sponsorship.  That fact is also shown in the movie when Jamal and his brother run up to the police station and try to get them to intervene but the officers seem more interested in their card game then the mass killings happening around them.  Since we have been talking about the different religions in class I wanted to know more about the Hindu - Muslim conflict and who God Rama was since it was a figure shown in the movie clearly associated with the riot.

In Davies book Europe he describes the Islam religion as "meaning submission, it was a universal religion from the start."  However, now Hinduism makes up 80% of India, leaving a small percentage left for Islam and any other religion.  He goes on to say, "one of the most basic perceptions is that all Muslim's are brothers and sisters."  This gave me the impression that they are peaceful people.  After researching online I found out that the conflict of these two religions is because of a caste system, the various castes of Hindu's being at the top and Muslim's at the bottom.  The tension comes from the fact that Muslim's find it hard to accept Hindu's and Hinduism as being superior to Islam and they think that since Muslim's once ruled India for many decades that they should remain superior.  

As for God Rama I learned that he is a commonly adored God to the Hindu culture.  He always holds a bow and arrow symbolizing that he is always ready to destroy evils.  During the riot scene in the movie Jamal and his brother come across a child dressed as God Rama.  However, in response to this Hindu's have come forward and said that the movie depicts one of their God's in a bad light.  Many have come forward to justify that Lord Ram, also known as God Rama, has nothing to do with killing Muslim's and that part in the movie should be censored or banned in India.  They said that the director, Danny Boyle, used the years of 1992-1993 when there was genocide against Muslim's and that the movie gives a false impression of what their religion is about. 

I was not able to find that particular clip to show you but I have put the movies trailer below, which quickly shows the riot and the child dressed as God Rama.  It's a really good movie, you should go and see it!