Jul 20 2024 to Jul 20 2024 6:30 p.m.

EVENT HAS ENDED

Where

Bangalore International Centre

7 4th Main Rd, Stage 2, Domlur 560071

Event Description

2022 | 88 mins | English with subtitles where necessary | India The film is about what used to be a little-known event until the 1980s but which has now become the single largest annual pilgrimage in India: The Kanwar Yatra. The Kanwar Yatra is an annual pilgrimage dedicated to Lord Shiva in which devotees, known as kanwariyas, fill water from the river Ganga and carry it back to their hometowns for liberations. The devotees walk anywhere between 100-200 km, carrying water in Shiva shrines. The film looks at not just the religious and cultural aspects of the Yatra but also its socio-economic impact, the environmental issues attached to it (for instance, the state of the Ganga), the sheer maleness of the event, and how the occasion is being used by Hindu right-wing groups to push their majoritarian agenda and the showcase it has become for Hindu nationalism. The screening of the film will be followed by a discussion with Director, Kunal Vohra.

A Q&A with the audience will follow.

Speakers

Kunal Vohra Filmmaker

Kunal Vohra is an independent filmmaker and has made films about issues like the environment, climate change, e-waste, human trafficking, AIDS, animal rights, pediatric cancer, TB, smoking etc. His documentary, The Plastic Cow, 2012 was part of a successful PIL (Public Issue Litigation) in the Supreme Court, seeking a complete ban on single use plastic bags as an environmental and animal rights issue.