The Freedom of Thought Report-‘Humanists International Foreword’
In December 2021, when I received word that my submission to the i am…project’s call for proposals had been selected as part of Toronto Metropolitan University’s “Under the Tent”cohort of graduate students from universities across Canada, I was elated. Though it wasn’t meant to bring me either credits or grades, I was excited to be part of an academic research project that would take me beyond my own master’s course in Film at York University.
Exactly seven months later, on 2 July 2022, I finally had an opportunity to share the creative piece that I had spent the duration of the program developing, in an exhibition at the Aga Khan Museum for Canada Day celebrations. The performance documentary short, Kaali, is a film-meditation on the themes of being, becoming and belonging in the city of Tkaronto. In the film, I embodied the Indian goddess Kali, whose roots lie in the Indigenous and caste-oppressed communities of the Indian subcontinent, and wandered the streets of downtown Tkaranto to evoke the reactions of people from all walks of life. Along with a pride flag and camera to represent my spirit as a BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Colour) Queer filmmaker, my embodiment of Kali included a poignant moment in which I, dressed as the goddess, shared a cigarette with a street dweller at the park near Kensington Market. This moment, which was intended to highlight the radically inclusive nature of the deity whose image I grew up with, made its way onto the poster for the film, which I proudly shared on social media.
While I slept in my campus residence on the night of 2 July, Twitter India started trending with thousands of tweets, all with the same hashtag: #ArrestLeenaManimekalai. Literally overnight, a tsunami of death threats, rape threats, and other hateful abuse flooded my timelines, spewed from the keyboards of enraged Indian netizens who felt that my film poster had insulted Kali.
It took a moment for me to fully comprehend what was happening; like so many other Indian artists and activists in recent years, I had become the victim of Hindu fundamentalist cyber-vigilantes’ carefully orchestrated campaign of digitized violence. My poster, it seemed, had become the fodder for their hate machine.
The abuse was not just limited to me—my crew, family, friends, and even more distant acquaintances all were trampled by monstrous amounts of online hate and slander. This vicious hate campaign also extended into the real world—in addition to several police cases filed against me in various Indian states, a “lookout notice” that gives Indian police the power to ‘trace’ accused criminals abroad, as well as an open call to behead me by a Hindu religious leader—all for the “crime” of artistic expression.
Fascism always demands loyalty to a single authority, often to a single race or religion. In my case, fascism came in the form of a statement by the Indian High Commission in Ottawa, demanding that Toronto Metropolitan University and the Aga Khan Museum withdraw my film. Instead of standing by their professed values of free speech and creative expression, these institutions gladly fed me to the wolves. First, they caved to the smear campaign by issuing statements of regret and distancing themselves from my film, a move which was praised by far-right Indian media and fuelled the relentless witch hunting against me. Several organizations such as Humanist’s International, Frontline Defenders, PEN Canada, Artists at Risk Connection, Dalit Solidarity Forum of USA, India Civil Watch International, Poetic Justice Foundation, Hindus for Human Rights, and XFA Equity Committee of TMU came together and mounted a protest screening to remind the University of its commitment to Academic Freedom.
On 20 January 2023, the Supreme Court of India heard my plea challenging the Union Government and granted interim relief protecting me from any coercive action by the Police and recorded that my Kaali film poster was not meant to insult religious feelings. Further on 10 April 2023, the Chief Justice of India extended the protection, transferred all the criminal cases to the Delhi High Court and directed me to approach to have the case quashed. The Delhi Police is yet to file a report under Section 173 of the Code of Criminal Procedure that could allow me to appeal to have the case quashed and I am learning that this delay is a menacing tactic in the cases of political persecution, as the State wants to keep the knife hanging over the heads of citizens who refuse to be silenced.
This may read as a story of trauma, but I see it as a story of a triumph. As an artist, my faith in the power of art is reiterated when a single image rattled the entire population of bigots, caste supremacists, hetero patriarchs, religious fundamentalists et al and rallied secular communities across the world to protest, cultivate solidarity, and push for systemic change.
Art can be many things to many. For me, art is resistance.
