On the River Bank (1985)
_Directed by Satyajit Ray
Written by Santha Rama Rau
Based on the unpublished novella by EM Forster _
20 years following the events of A Passage to India , during the Second World War, Dr. Aziz Ahmed (Victor Banerjee) was expelled from the state of Mau by the newly Hindutva sympathetic monarch, and held in a concentration camp with other Muslims. However, Akhand Bharat Commander Ambedkhar Godbole (Om Puri) (the nephew of Narayan Godbole) recognizes Aziz from the Chandrapore trial.
Sympathetic to Aziz as a victim of colonialism (albeit not sympathetic to Muslims as a whole) and a friend of his uncle, Godbole arranges for Aziz to become his personal physician, sparing him from the gruelling work most other Muslims endure in the camp. Godbole is assisted by a Japanese advisor, Hiroshi ( Tatsuya Nakadai), who arranges for Godbole to command a POW camp near Chandrapore, with Aziz serving under him.
While tending to Godbole and the other officers, Aziz also begins secretly treating the Indian POWs in the camp (fellow Muslims, communists, and even lower caste Hindus) for their injuries.
The camp gets a new load of prisoners from the city of Chandrapore, and Dr. Aziz is shocked to see Ronny Heaslop (Nigel Havers), his British nemesis from the trial.
While a formidable force as magistrate of Chandrapore before the war, his vicious racism and rudeness make him a target in the camp, both by the guards and even other prisoners. Dr. Aziz is very reluctant to help Ronny (who in turn disparages Aziz as a rapist), but eventually relents after a guard brutally beats him for not working, and Aziz saves Ronny from death.
Ronny warms to Aziz a bit after saving his life, and even admits that he may have been wrong the entire time about Aziz. However, after his release, to avoid the further wrath of the Indians, Ronny appeals to Hiroshi to act as an informant on the prisoners.
Much to Aziz’s disappointment, Heaslop ends up regressing, only now serving the Hindutva officers with great zeal. Godbole dislikes having to trust a former colonial official, and clashes with Hiroshi over the ordeal. Godbole even muses to Aziz how it seems the Japanese are little better than the British, acting exactly like them, and expresses reluctance to trust them further.
As Allied forces begin pushing back, Godbole is forced to enact a march to prevent the recapture of the POWs. However, Ronny, to keep his collaboration with the Japanese a secret, attempts to obfuscate orders and kill the prisoners to prevent them from testifying. He deliberately manipulates the directions given by the Japanese to have the prisoners instead assemble near the banks of the Brahmaputra and attempts to massacre them and the officers with incoming Allied artillery. Godbole, enraged by this, attempts to stop Heaslop, but is killed, as is Hiroshi. However, Aziz witnesses this, and drives out to warn the marchers. He manages to reach them, and leads them away from the artillery. However, Heaslop shoots Aziz, before Sanjay (Ishaq Bum) subdues Ronny. The prisoners are able to reach the allies, and Ronny, ironically, is sentenced to death for his collaboration with the Japanese and the resulting deaths.
While recovering in a Darjeerling hospital, Aziz meets an old friend, Richard Fielding (Peter O’Toole), now a British officer. They talk as the credits begin to roll.
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Background:
Having directed both The Alien(1975) and Childhood’s End (1979), Satyajit Ray emerged in the 80’s as a major force in international cinema. With how Childhood’s End ended up unintentionally preluding the 1979 Crisis and later the wars of the 1980’s, Ray sought to return to his roots. He used his new clout to get his passion project off the ground: an adaptation of EM Forester’s A Passage to India, written by playwright Santha Rama Rau, and starring Victor Banerjee and Peter O’Toole. The film, released in 1983 would be critically and financially successful, winning acclaim at the BAFTA and Academy Awards.
After completing the film and the lighthearted science fiction children’s film Diary of a Space Traveler (adapted from one of his own Dr. Shanku stories), Ray felt overwhelmed by the ubiquitous war footage from around the world, now being aired 24/7 on television (television having become a universal part of Indian homes during the 60’s and 70’s). Reminded of his own experiences fleeing Kolkata during the war, he attempted to find a film that could serve as catharsis and potentially a reminder of the horrors of war. He considered adapting Anshuman Rai*‘s wartime memoir Empire(which he would eventually do in 1988), but eventually settled on On the River Bank , which was a sequel written by Forester in 1946, but never finished or published due to Forster’s dissatisfaction with the novella, and his own trepidation to write about then-current war crimes coming from Bengal.
Ray sought to avoid the inevitable comparisons with Mehboob Khan’s Bridge Over the River Ganga or Louis Malle’s Mekong (both about British officers collaborating with the Japanese) and to more realistically show the period. He deemphasized the action and battles, and focused more on the atrocities and character dynamics. He also emphasized the deep connection between the Akhand Bharat and Imperial Japan, extending Forester’s original theme from Passage.
The Gayatri Devi regime would impose stricter censorship laws during the 80’s, and strengthened the power of the Central Board of Film Certification to something resembling that of the pre-revolution American Breen Code. While never a problem for Ray, he was forced to tone down some of the more violent scenes, especially towards the end of the film. Ray speculated that this and later censorship problems on Empire may have been motivated for political reasons (to try to deemphasize any element that may jeopardize support for Indian military excursions.)
The film would receive positive reviews, with Roger Ebert giving it four stars (as he did with A Passage to India), and was financially successful, though not as large as Ray’s blockbusters from that period. In the decades after, it would come to be seen as a poignant film exploring the horrors of war and how it can affect the psyche of individuals, either changing them or amplifying their worst traits.
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Excerpt from Indian Nazism*by Sanjay Jayanpal (UASR: University of America, Harvard Press, 2018)
The Bengal Club was established in 1827 as a social club to serve the British officials in Calcutta, modeled on and meant to emulate the social clubs of England.
By the dawn of the 20th century, it would become one of the most prestigious institutions in British India, called the “most swell establishment of [its] kind” in a 1878 memoir by American officer Robert Ogden Tyler. Its food, including its famed mango chutney and facilities were praised by all that passed through.
The club also excluded all Indians from membership. While occasionally entertaining more politically powerful Indians such as Aga Khan and Jawharlal Nehru, the club generally disallowed the native population to join. In one instance, when industrialist Rajenda Nath Mokerjee was visiting, he was forced to dine in a separate tent, away from the club.
This exclusion would highlight the disparity between the wealthy British colonizers and the Indian population, whose discontent would grow. This would be especially apparent during the Bengal Famine, as millions starved from food shortages, local medical services were overwhelmed and the Franco-British government failed to provide adequate aid (with Co-Deputy Prime Minister Winston Churchill’s staunch anti-Indian racism often cited). The splendor of the club served as a chilling contrast to the starving masses outside.
And would serve as the downfall of the club when, on September 10th, 1943, riots broke out in Calcutta over the ongoing famine and the lackluster response from the Franco-British Union. The magnitude overwhelmed the already taxed occupational forces, and soon spread across the city. While generally aimed at the British occupation, the character of the riots changed with the arrival of MS Golwalkar of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), whose volunteers quickly took control of the rioters, and began using them for their own political gains.
Then, VD Savarkar and Savitri Devi arrived from Shanghai. Already having spent years building the exile “Provisional Government of Free India” with the Imperial Japanese, they coordinated with Golwalkar, and together, they effectively seized control of the rioters. Helping were their Japanese benefactors, who strategically bombed the city to help the rioters.
The Bengal Club served as a makeshift air shelter, but as more and more of the city fell to the Azad Bharat, they evacuated as many members and employees as possible. By September 19th, the rioters stormed the Chowringhee building. They would destroy much of the illustrious interiors, including its famed dining halls, library, and museum (looting or vandalizing some of the portraits) before burning the entire building down.
Savarkar would arrive at the ruins the next day to make an announcement. Flanked by Indian National Army soldiers, Savarkar, in Hindi, began:
“For a century, this club stood as a symbol of the oppressors. Where the British occupiers, separated from its native population, sat in their comfortable chairs and ate our food, made for them by our chefs and assisted by our people. All while not having the common courtesy to even include us. They ate our food, while our people starved!”
“The British have failed to provide for us. They let Muslim and Christian missionaries act with impunity. They seek converts, to divert the loyalties of true Hindus. To have them reject their own homeland.”
“No More! No more shall we stand silent as they destroy this, our Hindu Nation! Today, we stand on this wretched site to proclaim a new India! A United India!”
And with previously confusion over the name of “Free India” (Originally Azad Hind, before becoming “Azad Bharat” and “Swatantra Bharat” due to the Islamic connection), the ʻĀrẓī Ḥukūmat-e-Akhand Bharat or The Provisional Government of United India was born.
[…]
With Savarkar and Golwalkar both being Marathi, the position of Head of State was given to Mukherjee, a Bengali, with Savarkar as Prime Minister and Golwalkar as Foreign Minister and Minister of War. Mukherjee’s wife, Greek born Savitri Devi, was given the position of Minister in Charge of Women’s Affairs.
The Akhand Bharat was unique amongst Japanese client states in how it openly imitated Nazi Germany. British Scholar Judith Brown called Akhand Bharat “Nazi Germany’s only known Asian holding.” Subhas Chandra Bose said it was “a fascist state out of the European pond.”
Indeed, the regime would take influence from Nazi Germany, with its so-called “Dhaka Decrees”, modeled on the Nuremberg Laws. It revoked the rights of Muslims and Christians, forcing the closure of churches and mosques, driving them from all occupations, declaring “missionary activities” illegal (effectively shutting down any one of their institutions) and “the detainment and migration of non-Dharmic peoples.” Impromptu camps were established to hold all non-Hindus pending “deportation.”
Hindutva, or “Hinduness” became the leading ideology of the state. Hinduism was declared “inextractable from India, and its heritage.” Savarkar, an atheist, viewed Hinduism as more a social and cultural force than a religious one, emphasizing the cultural practices of Hinduism over the religious belief in and of itself. Savarkar only ever invoked major Dharmic figures in Indian history, including Ashoka and Shivaji. Golwalkar’s 1947 and Devi’s 1983 trials revealed plans for historical revisions in significant locations, removing Muslim contributions to monuments such as the Red Fort and the Taj Mahal, should they ever reach Delhi.
Libraries were purged of “Western” literature, with the works of those like Rabindranath Tagore and SN Bose were burned.
Even the flag of the Akhand Bharat was explicitly meant to evoke Nazi Germany. Much of this imitation can be traced to Savitri Devi. While her marriage was of convenience rather than of passion, she exploited it to gain influence within the regime.
In Hitler’s Priestess, Nicholas Goodrich-Clarke described Devi’s merging of Savarkar’s Hindutva with Nazi occultism and a deification of Adolf Hitler himself:
“Savitri Devi elaborated an extraordinary synthesis of Hindu religion and Nordic racial ideology involving the polar origin of the Aryans, the cycle of the ages, and the incarnation of the last avatar of Vishnu in Adolf Hitler . She regarded the Third Reich as
’the holy land of the West, the Stronghold of regenerate Aryandom.’ Her ideas were actually representative of a certain section of high-caste Brahmin Indian society that hated the Raj and was impressed by Hitler’s dramatic challenge of British imperial power. Such Indians were fascinated by the Nazi swastika— a holy Indian symbol—and fondly
recalled the German tradition of Sanskrit scholarship since the early
nineteenth century”[1]
Devi sought to use India as a test case for a new, more spiritual version of Nazi Germany. She was the main architect behind the full imitation of Nazi Germany, allowing for such war crimes as the “Rape of Dhaka” to be committed.
Savarkar and Devi assured their Imperial Japanese backers that they would continue to pledge support for the Japanese empire and a commitment to their Concordist vision. However, while the early proposals for oppressing Muslims were popular, Savarkar and Golwalkar balked at the more extreme measures Devi would propose, including codifying the caste system into law with skin tone as a main indicator and even having children abducted and placed in different families based on their skin color and caste. Savarkar, already skeptical of the caste system, felt the proposal would destroy morale very quickly. Savakar also vetoed an attempt to have Hitler formally declared an avatar of Vishnu by the State, fearing repercussions from the Japanese.
However, one could note the light skin tone of soldiers in the Akhand Bharat regime to see Devi’s influence.
[…]
“United India” necessitated the unification of what Savarkar felt was an extended sphere of influence of India. In a 1937 speech, he envisioned a ” Hindusthan of tomorrow […] one and indivisible, not only a united but a unitarian nation, from Kashmir to Rameshwar, from Sindh to Assam.” [2]
To that end, Golwalkar sent envoys to neighboring countries to cultivate relationships with local regimes, potentially allowing them to join a new India. They set up diplomatic missions to Nepal, Sikkim, and Bhutan, and even negotiated with the Princely States, giving assurance to some that, as long as they embodied “Hindutva”, they would not interfere in their internal affairs.
Most notably, a large delegation was sent to wartorn Tibet, with the intention of potentially having the “Divine Government” and the Akhand Bharat merging into a single “Dharmic government”. While the negotiations broke down due to the rejection of the Dalai Lama as the supreme authority by the INA, the story did strike a cord with an American MRD agent assigned to observe the mission, named Maxine Kaplan. With her experiences in Tibet, she would write a short novella, potentially for a publication like the Streetlight or The Saturday Evening Post , called “The Hunt”, starring a young Jewish Section 1 agent named Rachel Stern.[3]
[…]
Resistance to the Akhand Bharat began almost immediately. The Indian Workers’ Communist Party, already growing in popularity in the region, had begun providing relief for local peasants and tenet farmers during the famine through their peasant branch “All-India Kisan Sabha”, and organizing them against landlords who demanded half of their crops. During the invasion, they began to arm peasants and form guerrilla factions to resist both the INA and the landlords.
[Subhas Chandra] Bose, himself from the rural outskirts of Calcutta, used these peasant front groups to form the first IVA squadrons in the region, becoming the first front against the Akhand Bharat. Bose leveraged this to gain some concessions from the British, including the legalization of the Party and the release of several political prisoners, including Bhagat Singh and HK Konar. In exchange, Bose pledged to not agitate for a communist state in postwar Bengal, and would not contest British occupation of the region.
[Jawaharlal] Nehru also found himself in the position to gain concessions from the British, though not without opposition from his own party. Since Gandhi’s death, tensions were extremely high, primarily due to the widespread belief that the British had orchestrated the murder. Having already received a timetable for dominionization, he was also able to gain support for democratic elections and support for rebuilding Bengal. In exchange, Nehru managed to gain full Congress support for the war effort, and opposition to Japanese rule (though careful not to denounce the Quit India movement).
Nehru would spend the post-Cripps deal attempting to reach a detente with Muhammad Ali Jinnah and the All-Muslim League. While Jinnah had backed the British- Communist- Indian war effort due to his own horror at the genocide within Bengal, he also felt that perhaps Congress would go back on its deal if and when the war came to end. In turn, private negotiations between Congress and the League would clarify the postwar “concessions” to Muslim partisans, including autonomous regions, and increasing the number of seats for the League in the postwar government. Eventually, Jinnah and the League also received veto powers over “Muslim affairs,” and the religious cluster model of statehood that would define the eventual Greater Indian Commonwealth. Jinnah was especially insistent on a larger Muslim state in Bengal to help repair the community.
The deal was precarious, especially without the involvement of Bose and the Communist Party. Bose resented being shut out of his old party, and began considering “other options” for the postwar period….
[1] OTL quote from the OTL book
[2] Another OTL quote
[3]Creation of @Miss XTC . Coming soon is a full update for 1944.
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And special credit to @Rise Comics For the flag for the Akhand Bharat. *[WPA]: Works Progress Administration *[NBI]: National Bureau of Investigation
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