Jang Aur Aman

While having nothing to do with the great Tolstoy novel, director Anand Patwardhan admits that: “The title simply seemed appropriate for the subject the film went on to develop”. Three years in the making, and filmed in India, Pakistan, Japan and the US, the film was inspired by nuclear testing in the subcontinent in the spring of 1998. War and Peace is a documentary on pacifism in the face of global militarism and war.

Opening images of Mahatma Gandhi's assassination (Patwardhan's own family was actively involved in Gandhi's non-violence movement) set the stage for an exploration of escalating tensions. Hindu nationalism, like so many other militarist movements in developing countries, proves no less aggressive and threatening than backing U.S. policy based on the rule of the strongest. Beyond the grotesqueness of the ruling class's attempt to win the consensus of the masses, small communities and isolated individuals continue to resist: there is the battle of the dalits, or untouchables; the commitment of pacifists in India and Pakistan who remain “brothers” despite the war cries. Gandhi was gunned down, but his teachings live on.