Colonial civilizing mission, Indigenous resistance, and witch-hunting in Anvita Dutt’s Bulbbul (2020)

Abstract

Shashank Sinha, in his research on the practice of witch-hunting in the Adivasi (Indigenous or tribal) community of Chhotanagpur, Bengal, India, infers that witch-hunting as a practice was infused with gender and anti-colonial tensions. Relying on his data and findings about the unexpected surge of witch-hunting among the Indigenous people of Chhotanagpur, this research conducts a discourse analysis of the film text of Anvita Dutt’s film Bulbbul (Nightingale) (2020). Bulbbul explores the clash between the conventional gender roles assigned to Indian women and evolving socio-cultural standards around the equality of rights for women in the late 19th century. The film is a feminist stance on the politics of labelling rebellious women as witches and removing them through motivated witch-hunting. Through a close reading of Bulbbul, this article concludes that witch-hunting is a conscious Indigenous resistance and cultural politics in response to colonial civilizing missions in India by the British.