Cultural Nationalism or National Culture as Portrayed in Indian Popular Culture: The Case of Indian Visual Media

Abstract

Ever since Friedrich Meinecke proposed the distinction between the terms “cultural nation” (Kulturnation) as expressed in fine art and “Statsnation” (political nation), the cultural sphere of nationalism or nationalist idealogy/culture has been quoted either out of context or misquoted/misinterpreted to demean other cultures and reinforced ostensibly to carve out a false or “imagined” national identity in the Indian context and more so in the Indian popular culture. Does it reflect the culture of the majority populace in India? Why does it hegemonize other cultures? With the mainstream narratives and myths that underlie the Indian media, popular culture galvanizes around terms like nationalism, national identity and others. The main aim of this article is to unravel and deconstruct the notion of national culture and all the accompanying terms associated with it. It becomes significant in the present socio-cultural-politico-Indian context with its approach towards feudalism and postcolonial imperatives. The main question is how these terms are appropriated and subverted to form a new meaning, perhaps a historical revision. Randomly, nine Indian films were chosen for observation. The analysis reveals that a microscopic minority invokes the metanarrative of hypernationalism and cultural homogenization to placate the democratic forces and achieve their hidden agenda. Since it is value-based, its recommendations too primarily belong to the moral turpitude of those who are in power.