Rage Against the Machine

Little Boy and Fat Man, atom bombs were dropped on Hiroshima on August 6th, and Nagasaki on August 9th, 1945. Immediate deaths numbered between 2,10,000 to 2,80,000, mainly civilians, with many suffering from radiation sickness, chronic illnesses, and trauma for decades. The hibakusha (survivors) carried scars that were both physical and psychological. Nuclear Radiation contaminated soil and water, lingering in unmeasurable ways in the atmosphere. For decades, the impact of nuclear radiation on human health was not revealed. Eighty years later, the shadow of Hiroshima and Nagasaki lingers on.

At a film society screening, Anand Patwardhan’s War and Peace (2002) on the 10th of August, made the film, feel, all the more urgent. The film covers the nuclear tests conducted in 1998 by both India and Pakistan, it shows the accompanying nationalist rhetoric in both countries. Anand opens up conversations by exposing uncomfortable truths; such as how nationalism is frequently disguised as patriotism – particularly in the scene with young girls in a Lahore school. A week later, watching Shadow World (2016) by Johan Grimonprez, the film based on the eponymous book by Andrew Feinstein, certain connections became apparent.

Anand’s method of making a claim and then contradicting it was evident from the beginning. Rather than treating events in isolation, the pattern of cause and effect emerged almost like Newton’s third law. Although the film was made 23 years ago, it is still topical. Whether it is the amplification of war in mass media, or manufacturing of hate against minorities, these issues fester. What resonated, however, was the idea of non-separation of humans from machines, a mechanistic mode of thinking.

Our school education lacks an interdisciplinary approach, inculcating a rigid, individualistic, binary way of thinking. Curiosity is stifled leading to rigidity in thought. Creating what can be tagged as 'war machines'- a mindset that perpetuates growth for the sake of growth, a scalar quantity bereft of ethics. Lives are reduced to numbers, enemies dehumanised into statistics. What stayed from the film was the detachment of scientists from the human cost of their bombs, witnessed in the interviews, post the nuclear tests. Their distance from ethical consequences mirrored the apathy of development. One striking moment in War and Peace was the Tehelka sting operation montage, politicians accepting bribes for defense deals - the sting revealed a system where war serves private interests.

Seen together with Shadow World (2016), Johan Grimonprez’s exposé on the global arms trade, Anand’s message takes on an even acute meaning. Anand presents how nationalism and nuclear pride in India and Pakistan are manufactured to sustain militarism, Johan shows the next step: war as an international business where profits are reaped by keeping conflicts alive. We witness private military companies, DynCorp, operating with governments, profiting from warfare while escaping public scrutiny.

Both films delineate the business of war and the spectacle of violence – the military industrial complex. Johan demonstrates how Western ‘wars on terror’ are framed, as moral crusades, to mask the business interests behind them. One film showed how people are taught to accept destructive ideologies; the other showed the system that operates it, showing how profit ensures militarism remains current.

The phrase 'precise attacks', emphasized in Shadow World, resonated strongly with Operation Sindoor. We witnessed a surgical strike against militants, independent verification was lacking, as evident during the recent parliament debates. Civilian casualties on both sides were barely acknowledged. This amplification of 'precision' demonstrates how media and governments frame violence within nationalist narratives, often obscuring the human cost.

If War and Peace unsettled by exposing how empathy is blocked in our society; Shadow World showed - the realities of powerful governments that speak of democracy - complicit in monetising death. Together, both films demonstrate, war is not an isolated tragedy but a Mobius Strip; it is manufactured, packaged, and sold, using national pride or corporate contracts.

In conclusion, both films leave us with a reminder. Peace does not fail because people do not want it; it fails because powerful interests extract their profit from war.