“Dhurandhar – A Film Did What the Indian State Refused To” – Reverse The Gaze, March 22, 2026
“Dhurandhar as a cinematic intervention works because it does what the Indian State has refused to do for decades: tell Indians the truth about Pakistan—not as a geopolitical abstraction, but as an ideological project.
The embarrassment is not that such films are being made. The embarrassment is that they are necessary at all.
For nearly eight decades, the Indian Republic has failed in a basic sovereign duty: to educate its own citizens about the nature of the adversary it was born alongside. In that vacuum, a blockbuster film has now stepped in to perform what should have been a sustained institutional effort—across textbooks, diplomacy, media, and statecraft.
What Dhurandhar reveals—sometimes bluntly, sometimes dramatically—is not new. It is foundational. Pakistan is not merely a state that has taken “wrong turns.” It is a state conceived in ideological hostility, sustained through it, and legitimized by it.
At its core lies Islamic supremacism—not as a fringe distortion, but as a structuring principle. The very imagination of Pakistan as a “new Medina” is not rhetorical flourish. It is theological intent. Medina represents consolidation, expansion, and eventual triumph over the “ignorant” pre-existing order—jahiliya. In that framework, Hindus are not political rivals but religious & civilizational adversaries—ultimately to be brought into Islam by any means necessary: conquest, coercion, persuasion, or deceit.
This is why the routine abduction and forced conversion of minor Hindu girls in Pakistan is not treated as a societal aberration, but often as a morally sanctioned act. The logic is chillingly consistent: a kafir “saved” through conversion to Islam is a soul redeemed. One cannot understand Pakistani society without confronting this moral inversion….”
Read the full article on reversethegaze.substack.com
