Introduction: Indian Cinema and Human Rights: An Intersectional Tale

Abstract

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The book builds off a growing body of literature that connects human rights and pop culture (Dubin et al., 2022). It analyses the intersection between Indian cinema and human rights by bringing together leading academics from varying disciplines, such as Law, Cinema Studies, Literature, and other humanities fields, to explore this intersectionality. The result is a book that offers a comprehensive analysis of Indian cinema and human rights through discussions about how films have reflected upon and portrayed important rights issues in Indian society, as well as the failure of the government to close regulatory and other gaps that perpetuate human rights abuses. The book also more broadly evokes the question of whether governments, policymakers, the United Nations, and other organizations should engage more with film and pop culture as part of a broader strategy to improve compliance and change attitudes that frequently create obstacles towards human rights protection. At the same time, the chapter sets the stage for future research into the role of film elsewhere, such as fast-growing Nollywood film industry, which is quickly sweeping across a continent still very much plagued by human rights violations and patriarchal attitudes.