Spectrality, Partition and Borders

Abstract

Foregrounding Vishal Bhardwaj’s Haider (2014), the Hindi cinematic adaptation of Shakespeare’s “Hamlet,” this paper extends the spatial and temporal aspects of haunting to the political and ethical questions concerning the framing of “spectrality of the postcolonial nation,” catastrophic history, negative heritage, the problem of the haunted subject, the social and phenomenological aspects of ghosts, and the political responsibility of the people as implicated subject. In Haider, the specter of Hilaal Meer arises as a symbol of radical alterity that haunts contemporary Kashmir, and the specter offers a route into thinking about the psychic effect of comprehending a present marked by trauma, loss and violence that conjure the Partition of the Indian subcontinent as a foundational phantasmatic moment. The uncanny in Haider underscores the performative potential and the full ethical implications of discursive practices of cinema, which deepen our understanding of the irrevocable past, violent memories, mourning and death.