a movie bringing awareness

I recently watched the Golden Globe Award- winner and Academy-Award nominated Slumdog Millionaire, a story about how a boy named Jamal, who has had little schooling and who grew up in the slums of Mumbai, India, was able to get every question right on the Indian version of "Who Wants to be a Millionaire" and subsequently get to the final round of the game. Before he's given a chance to answer the final question, Jamal gets captured by the Indian police and suffers through disgustingly inhumane torture to fess up how he 'cheated' at the game, even though he knew every answer.

The story takes place within Jamal's explanation to the police of how he got every question right, engulfing the audience with many instances of how the cruelty of the Indian government, or lack thereof, as well as the crimes against humanity that take place within the anarchy of the Mumbai slums has been allowed to flourish and therefore damage many people's lives. Those whose lives have been wealthy and prosperous were immoral and heavily criminal. Those whose lives were simply meant to live were the only ones destroyed and silenced from the history books.

Slumdog Millionaire not only accurately describes the "hard knock life" of the slums of the Mumbai, but also accurately discusses the brutality of the Indian police and the heavy infiltration and corruption of the Indian government, both being the cause for not only the Babri Mosque rioting of 1992 as discussed in the movie, but for the Sikh pogroms much like the Babri Mosque rioting carried out in 1984 after the assassination of Indira Gandhi in retaliation to her organized attacks on Harmandar Sahib earlier that year.

As Sikhs that believe in social activism and human rights for all to live free of oppression, I believe that what the producers of Slumdog Millionaire did was very honorable, and I will continue to support their efforts in raising attention to the violations of human rights the Indian government has allowed. Perhaps by doing this, India will be more closely watched and researched, creating awareness of the ’84 Sikh pogroms. I am excited to hear that awareness has acutely been raised towards the goings-on of the Indian government past. Doing so may create a watchful eye of the government in the present, causing for little to no governmental blunders to ever happen again in the future. And maybe—just maybe—the government will finally take responsibility for its actions.

Two brave Kaurs have lived and lost through the ’84 pogroms, and proudly post on their blog roadtokhalistan.blogspot.com. I encourage any and all of you to subscribe to their blog for inside emotions on their plight and bravery through it all.

I also encourage those who haven’t seen the movie Slumdog Millionaire to watch it as soon as possible—in theatres. I understand some movies don’t deserve that 7 bucks and gas/ bus money from you—if anything, this movie and the people that worked hard to make it deserve more. Watch it in theaters.