Lalit Vachani was a man with a mission.
The Penn alumnus wanted to expose what he believed to be a deceitful organization in India. So he set out to utilize the media and show the public what he had witnessed.
Vachani, a 1989 alumnus of the Annenberg School for Communication, spoke about his movie The Men in the Tree last night at Annenberg. Vachani directed the movie, which was about the RSS, a right-wing Hindu fundamentalist organization.
Communications Professor and event organizer Larry Gross said, "We need to inform the community about important events in India. These events need to be better exposed."
About 50 people showed up to see the movie and hear Vachani speak. To introduce the background of the movie, Temple University Professor Howard Spodek outlined the riots that have been going on in Ahmedabad, India -- "Ghandi's city."
"It was a good lecture with good background," Political Science graduate student Jason Kirk said. "I would have emphasized some things differently."
The riots that have been occurring are between Hindus and Muslims. They started in February 2002, and about 1,000 people have died in the several months since.
Spodek says that he comes frequently to speak at Penn in conjunction with the South Asia Regional Studies Department, which he said is one of the best in the country. He believes that the violence in Ahmedabad is of great importance to India and internationally, and that it should have been covered more by international newspapers.
Vachani's film focuses on the RSS, not on the riots. This film is about memories, acting as a type of continuation of Vachani's first film The Boy in the Branch. It is also a political documentary on the RSS and exposes individuals and stories that enable the RSS to grow.
The film is broken up into four parts: memories, buildings, stories and branches. It focuses on how the RSS uses games to entice children as young as three years old into their "branches" by playing games and sports with them.
Vachani said the RSS also poses as a social or cultural organization when, in fact, it is highly political. Vachani believes that the RSS is trying to control lives and is in every area of Indian life. He also believes that it is huge on the national level.
Vachani used RSS sources to make his anti-RSS film. In the film, he depicts the RSS' using fear, usually fabricated, to organize people and exploit children who are looking for friends.
Vachani likens the RSS to Naziism. According to Vachani, one of the top commanders is said to be a great admirer of Adolf Hitler and uses his policies in the RSS.
Connecting his film to the recent riots and possible RSS involvement, Vachani states,"This is not a communal riot. This is genocide."
After seeing the film, Veena Aggarwal, 48, said she was "horrified with what's happening in India." She believes that the RSS is twisting the truth about Hinduism to serve a political purpose.
This event was co-sponsored by The Center for the Advanced Study of India and The Annenberg School for Communication.
