Zoom Interview with Shivendra Singh, October 20, 2020

Abstract

Zoom Interview with Shivendra Singh, October 20, 2020 Victoria Duckett (bio) and Shivendra Singh victoria duckett (vd): First, thank you for agreeing to talk with me. When I asked Jay [Weissberg, director of the Pordenone Silent Film Festival] whom I should contact for an interview about archives in the time of COVID, he mentioned you right away. I am so thankful. I've been looking at your Film Heritage Foundation1 online, and I know it's going to be interesting for me to have this possibility to learn more about it from you, its founder. I'd like to begin, however, by first asking what it is currently like to live in Mumbai. In Melbourne, we have been in lockdown since March; I have only recently been allowed outside for more than two hours per day. But I've got a sense that you have a very different experience in India in terms of COVID-19. Click for larger view View full resolution Figure 1. Shivendra Singh Dungarpur. shivendra singh (ss): In India, what was very interesting was that we started getting a few COVID cases in January and February. We are not [geographically] very far from China, and we have a very close love-and-hate relationship with the Chinese. I mean, we had a war with China in 1962 [Sino-Indian War, October 20–November 21, 1962]. We are still having problems on sharing our border. And a lot of our online apps and businesses are funded by the Chinese. When we heard about the virus spreading in China, there was a rising concern about the spread of the virus to India and especially in a city like Mumbai with a population of close to twenty million people living in highly congested conditions. [End Page 235] Things were getting bad in March [with COVID-19]. What was shocking for us is that because we have a very strong rightwing government—the prime minister, Narendra Modi, is a right-wing leader very much along the lines of the Brazilian president [Jair Bolsonaro] or [U.S. president] Trump. We had a very sudden lockdown. In fact, just before the lockdown came in, Trump visited India; Modi was not bothered with the COVID-19 situation or the riots in Delhi; he was bothered with welcoming Trump [on the February 24 and 25 "Namaste Trump" visit]. But then, a complete lockdown [on March 24] was suddenly announced at 8:00 Pm with just four hours' notice. He forgot about our hundreds and hundreds of [millions] of migrant labor. India's cities function on migrant labor from the villages, many of whom survive on daily wages. This is similar to what Modi did with the Indian currency [when Modi, on November 8, 2016, made the surprise announcement about demonetization that Indians had a matter of weeks to exchange or deposit their large rupee bills]. So, without thinking about the consequences of this, without realizing the concept and understanding what it meant, without thinking of the poor people in India, he did so. Consequently, there was utmost chaos. The migrants were distressed. They were walking for miles and miles [to return home]. So many died, so many went hungry. People were dying in the trains [they were traveling home on]. Trains were taking three days, four days, to reach destinations. People were traveling without food and water. People died of dehydration. And we—myself and Teesha, my wife—started working in the kitchen. We dedicated ourselves to providing food to not-for-profits and volunteer groups who were distributing food to the urban poor and homeless and to the migrant labor. We were making food, from our own home, and trying to get this to as many people in need as possible. I think after Partition, which happened in 1947 [British India was officially divided into India and Pakistan on August 15, 1947, causing the displacement of ten to twelve million people], this was the largest mass migration of people from the cities to the villages. I was not born during Partition. For me, the COVID-19 migration was something like the Partition. It was the biggest catastrophe imaginable, with hundreds of people...