BORDER (1997)

Roughly twenty Hindi films have been based on the concept of war, mostly against the good old neighbour, Pakistan. Historically, Indo-Pak wars stretch from as old as 1948 to most recent being in 1999, totally counting the number as 4. While 3 of them circulated around Kashmir issue, in 1971 it was the Bangladesh Liberation War or Bangladesh War of Independence, heavily backed up by the Indian government headed by the then Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi. Between 1947 to 1971, Bangladesh was an eastern frontier of Pakistan known as East Pakistan. The war was fought at 12 posts along India-West Pakistan border from Kashmir in the north to Gujarat in the south. Amongst many, the one key battle was fought in the desert state of Rajasthan, popularly known as Battle of Longewala. Bollywood’s inspiration took form in 1997 and the filmmaker J.P. Dutta created a milestone in Hindi cinema, known as Border. This post shall discuss the key features of the film and highlight why it is not just a war film.

Longewala, a tiny village in the sand dunes at the India-Pakistan border, arranging itself among three Indian villages in the south, east and north-east and one Pakistani in west and north, witnessed a major bloodbath for 4 days between 4th and 7th December 1971. Although factually Indian army lost only two soldiers and one anti-tank vehicle, the film glorified a battalion of 120 martyrs solely for dramatic purpose and to add cinematic effect to attract the audience. The film is undermined and is popularised only for its patriotic fervour. Fortunately, patriotism quotient here doesn’t cycle along any jingoist or religious extremism but is, on the contrary, a subtle blow on anti-war.

The film stars Sunny Deol, Akshaye Khanna, Jackie Shroff, Suniel Shetty, Kulbhushan Kharbanda, Puneet Issar and Sudesh Berry in male while Rakhee Gulzar, Tabu, Pooja Bhatt, Sharbani Mukherjee and Sapna Bedi in the female. There is no romantic or parting away songs and the only lengthy one is a homesickness song where soldiers get nostalgic about their villages and home and long to go back to their dear ones. But here’s the post shall highlight key scenes and try to explore areas beyond war and bloodshed.

Army or Airforce ?

Starting from one of the earliest scenes of the film, where Major Kuldeep Singh Chandpuri (played by Sunny Deol) discusses with Wing Commander Andy Bajwa (played by Jackie Shroff) strategies of war. The discussion proceeds as the age-old comparison of superiority between army and airforce come into the picture. The scene ends with Maj. Chandpuri’s quote :

“हम ही हम हैं तो क्या हम हैं, तुम ही तुम हो तो क्या तुम हो ” 

The quote means ‘there is no us without you, and there is no without us’, a symbolic statement as to understand that army or airforce is dependent on each other. It also means that there is no superiority complex in war times and both the teams behave equally as soldiers whose aim is solely to protect the country.

Thoughts on War

Next scene that discusses the deeper understanding of war and anti-war would be the conversation between Assistant Commander Bhairon Singh, Border Security Force (played by Suniel Shetty) and 2nd Lieutenant Dharam Veer (played by Akshaye Khanna). Dharam Veer is upset of joining the army and feels discontent towards war and has negatory feelings about it. He stresses the reason for him to join the army was solely a promise he made to his dying father who was also an army officer. On questioning as what is the need of war and bloodshed when men kill those who are sons of some mothers, Bhairon Singh replies back with the following quote :

“इसलिए, की अगर तुम उसे नहीं मारोगे, तो वो तुम्हें जान से मार डालेगा । तुम्हारी लाश से गुज़र कर तुम्हारी धरती माँ के सीने पर क़दम रखेगा । और तुम्हारी ये आज़ाद धरती माँ फिर से ग़ुलामी के ज़ंजीरो में जकड़ी जाएगी । “

Bhairon Singh stresses that to protect the motherland and to save it from getting into shackles of imperialism once again, a soldier has to kill the enemy. The scene here gives a logical reasoning as to why a war is necessary, directing towards not expansion of empires but only to defend one’s motherland.

A Good Leader

The next scene highlights leadership quality of Major Kuldeep Singh Chandpuri. A minor scuffle rose between Naib Subedar Mathura Das (played by Sudesh Berry) and Bhairon Singh. The issue has a sentimental attachment to Singh where Das abuses the desert as barren and rotten which the former embraces as his mother. The bitterness takes shape into physical when Major Chandpuri backed by Subedar Ratan Singh (played by Puneet Issar) manages to stop the fight. The decision which Chandpuri makes is appreciable as he orders Das to apologise to Bhairon Singh and then the latter to embrace the former as his own brother. The scene shows the quality an unit commander should have to handle minor and petty issues that stands nowhere in front of the actual war scene.

The Traitor

Perhaps the most celebrated scenes in the film where Kuldeep Singh Chandpuri blasts upon Naib Subedar Mathura Das when the latter celebrates his homecoming celebrations with other soldiers in the middle of wartime. Once again, Chandpuri shows his leadership quality where he angrily crushes Das’s joyous emotions by stressing on the fact that no one leaves the battlefield during wartime and to celebrate such an occasion with troops who have no idea about their return, is an unethical, cowardice and inhumane act. Das was given an urgent leave as his wife was sick with cancer, which he complains as a huge ‘problem’ for him. On this, Chandpuri reminds him that ‘problem is a synonym for life’ and questions him that if every soldier reasons his personal problem and take leave, how will anyone fight the war? The scene is beautiful as Chandpuri proves to be a good leader who not only commands orders but also cares for the entire troop as one family.

Company Fall-in

A commander-in-chief of any army has the full liberty and authority to take a decision. But a good leader consults his team before taking any, be it a major or minor. At the brink of war when the Pakistani army is at the Longewala post with its entire tank regiment, Major Chandpuri gets a call from the headquarters to surrender and leave the post. The order is made as the Pakistani troops heavily outnumbers Indian and the air support from Indian Airforce shall arrive the next morning. Chandpuri consults each soldier and then take a decision. He even gives them a choice of returning back and they shall not be considered as a traitor. Chandpuri does not want a war to happen nor does he wishes to see any mayhem. But the army is adamant to fight back the enemy and lay their lives of come what may.

Aftermath

The movie ends up with Indian Army winning the battle which is fought with blood and sweat whole night and gets air support only at sunrise. The movie shows the death of over 100 soldiers and a wipeout of Pakistani tanks. But the film ends also with a song that mourns the dead, questions war and ponders on the human atrocities done during that phase. The lyrics are deep and thought-provoking and gives a glimmer of hope that nations can choose to live in peace and harmony. The lyrics say that war doesn’t make any sense when children on either of the side of the border are hungry and crying.

The film won National Award for Best Lyrics (Javed Akhtar), Best Playback Singer (Hariharan), Nargis Dutt Award for Best Feature Film on National Integration, Filmfare Award for Best Director (J.P. Dutta), Best Action (Bhiku and Tinnu Verma) and Best Debutant (Akshaye Khanna). Sunny Deol and Suniel Shetty were nominated as Filmfare Best Actor and Best Actor in a Supporting Role respectively. The film is considered as one of the best of Hindi cinema, a milestone unmatched in the category of war movies and an inspiration for millions of Indians who got highly motivated and joined the Indian Army.

Source :

Snapshots from : Border (1997)
Border (1997) IMDB
Border (1997) Wikipedia

Hindu Caste System : Simplified

While the world is mincing itself under the clatter of differentiation on the basis of skin pigmentation, the Hindu society relies on a rather morbid yet complex structure known as Caste System. Dozens of articles have elaborated on the complexity of Hindu Caste System. A cohesive study of such a subject shall focus on various mythological origins which could be sourced to ancient Hindu textbooks known as Vedas and Upanishads. The post here shall simplify for readers belonging to both Hindu and non-Hindu societies. Starting from a highly untangled flowchart:

The entire caste system is branched into 4 major groups (or Varna) : Brahmin (the scholars and priests), Kshatriya (the warrior), Vaishya (accountants and tradesmen) and Shudra (the labourers). However, a fifth class of Harijan or ‘untouchables’ existed before its abolishment by the Indian constitution. Nevertheless, Harijan were never approved at any time under Hindu caste system. The flow from Brahmin to Shudra is according to priority basis and so, Brahmins are upper class citizen while Shudra are lower. Interestingly, Brahmin, Kshatriya and Vaishya are considered as upper classes leaving Shudra as the only lower class. To add to its complexity, some castes could be grouped under dual classes. Popularly, these includes Kayastha, Reddy, Maratha, Nayar etc. Each class consists of various surnames and clans summing upto 3000 castes and 25,000 sub-castes in total. This declratation of social groups dates back to as old as 1200 BC making the Hindu Caste System as roughly 3200 years old.

Rig Veda, the ancient Hindu text, reads the formation of caste system as deconstruction of body parts of a Hindu holy man Purush (which literally means ‘male’ in Sanskrit). To form the Hindu society, Purush destroyed himself and four Varnas were created from his four body parts :  Brahmanas (or Brahmins) from head, Kshatriyas from arms, Vaishyas from thighs and Shudras from feet. And thus establishing the social heiarchy : Brahmin -> Kshatriya -> Vaishya -> Shudra. Interestingly, the caste system didn’t restricts itself to human beings but extends also to animal classification as well. Broadly into two groups, animals are differentiated on the basis of spirituality and action-dominated. Hence cow is considered as a pious animal and hence belongs to Brahmans, while lions and tigers link with Kshatriyas.

The society at present has gulped the concept of ‘caste system’ as a subtext of racism and human descrimination. But originally castes were developed based on the concept of ‘division of labour’. True, the upper caste were forbidden to exist even in the circumference of lower and vice versa. Worse conditions were laid on Harijans so much so as they were not even considered as part of the society. The point at which things turned out to be sour is unclear and untouched and shall be further researched for some justification.

The convolution of nuptials among Hindu religion has been an ongoing battle embedded in the various directives of caste system. Inter-caste marriages (both arranged and romantic) are encouraged and monitored by elders pardoning the subtle impious and blasphemous meaning existing behind it. The anathema concept of unchastity is, by common sense, injected in similar caste socieities. Yet, this is encouraged over marriages outside the same caste. The term ‘inter-caste’ is so frequently used that the charm behind its negative charisma is never bothered to get proper attention. But anyone protesting against the system is maligned, discriminated and considered as blasphemous.

A lot can be written about such a complex social structure. But relying solely on digital texts shall be an insult to it. In short, judging and labeling Hindu Caste System under the umbrella of ‘racism’ without understanding it’s significance and origin is utter lack of intelligentia. But again, keeping the present scenario of racism apart, Hindu Caste System is pretty interesting and important to understand the structure of Hindu society.

The post is not meant to create any religious or communal uproar and neither to question the regulations laid by Hindu ancestors for over three thousand years ago. It’s a mere documentation of facts with sources attached at the bottom.

http://adaniel.tripod.com/confusion.htm
Forum of Hindu Awakening
https://www.britannica.com/topic/dvija