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m\e, 1948
FILM INDIA
dha Rao has reason to look askance at the world "Kuchh Naya", Shanti Pictures' maiden production.
Stop This Slander
What is the aim of these documentaries? We uld like to ask. Is it to acquaint Indian social rkers with the nature of the problems they are ely to face in the villages? Is it to teach the lagers themselves better ways of life? Or is it to jadcast to the world (a la Miss Katherine Mayo i her "Mother India") how "backward" and "unilized" the Indians are? If these films were prc;ed (as a UNO Press release stated i "for training lian social welfare workers", and "at the request
of the Indian Government as a part of the (U. N.) organisation's advisory social welfare programme which provides for assistance in this line to member countries", then what is the point in having the original commentary in English and flying the prints to America for exhibition abroad?
If these films are shown abroad, the conclusion is inescapable that the UNO is interested in proclaiming India's alleged backwardness to the world at large. All countries (including the USA which has some of the worst slums, slave labour in the South, and thousands of homes where there are .10 bath rooms or even lavatories) have their sore spots which must be removed by Governmental action and public education. Thanks to a century and a half of imperialist rule, which kept us so backward, India has even more than her proper share of these ugly patches of superstition and ignorance, unhygienic living and lack of sanitation. Our Government and our social workers must fight out these evils. Films can serve a useful purpose by indicating the best remedies for unhygienic living. But what purpose is served by exhibiting these films in foreign countries Unless it be to degrade and disgrace India?
In this connection, it will be recalled that the U. S. Government discourages exhibition abroad of films containing exposures and criticism of social conditions in U. S. A. Only the other day they protested against the production on the stage of the play "Deep Are The Roots" in a theatre in the Russian zone of Germany, because it exposes the uncivilized race complex of America and the brutal treatment given to Negroes!
Why then, is our Government silent about this matter? We appeal to the Prime Minister, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, and the Deputy Prime Minister, Sardar Patel, to take immediate steps to forbid the exhibition of these films abroad. After ten years, once again "filmindia" launches a crusade to save the honour of our country, and raises the old fighting slogan: STOP THIS SLANDER !
CHAMPION TYRES