The Kerala Story: Fact Or Propaganda: The recent film The Kerala Story, directed by Sudipto Sen, which was released on May 5, has created a big storm in Kerala and Indian politics.
Even before the release of the film, some political parties predicted that the film was propaganda and that all efforts were being made to ban it, accusing the filmmakers of spreading misinformation. And not only this, the movie has been closed in more than half of the theatres in Kerala and banned in West Bengal, and whoever goes to watch it is getting police batons. Now, talking about the Kerala story, it is possible that the film has been shown in a somewhat biased way.
But why is all this happening, and why is the political party insisting more on this, which they are calling “propaganda?
The Kerala Story tells the story of girls who were brainwashed, converted to Islam, and then, after going to Afghanistan, even married ISIS fighters. But with this, the film wants to show another story, in which a god has grown up and saves the world from problems.
At the beginning of the last decade, a terrorist organisation named ISIS had come up, which occupied a large part of the Middle East. The purpose of ISIS was that the Islamic state, which was finished by Turkey’s secular leader, Kemal Ataturk, establish the Islamic caliphate again, in which only the law of Sharia will be considered. ISIS was a very dangerous and brutal organisation that abused a lot of human rights.
The organisation was also very active on social media and used to share its video messages all over the world. Inspired by those videos, many Muslims joined ISIS, including many Muslims from India.
And one of the states that was at the forefront of sending weapons to ISIS from India was Kerala. It is estimated by many that more than 150 people left Kerala and joined the organisation.
So it is clear that many people joined ISIS after being radicalised in Kerala, which means this is not propaganda, and many Indians are unaware of this history.
In fact, the premise of the Kerala story is that some non-Muslim girls were radicalized and converted, and after that, those girls got married to ISIS fighters in Afghanistan. This is not propaganda, it is absolutely true. One of the girls has revealed this herself. She said, “The reason we moved was to live an Islamic life under a caliphate, under Muslim rule.”
But how this kind of radicalization can happen in a state like Kerala which is well-educated is the biggest question mark.
Also read: Adah Sharma Performs Shiv Puja Amid ‘The Kerala Story’ Controversy
