Historicising the colonial past of India and Hindi cinema Vikas Pathe National Identities, 2025 The idea of India as a nation has its seeds rooted in the political leadership for the struggle of independence in the colonial history. The pathway of such struggles stemmed from the social-cultural sphere of the society that imagined India free from the shackles of debt and slavery from the colonial British. Visual imagination and representation of political struggles that made, unmade, and remade the notion of India have been documented in the Hindi Cinema. However, analysing Hindi cinema from perspective of imagination of a nation has received less attention and needs a serious critical engagement. This article investigates Lagaan (2001), a Hindi film, based on anti-colonial struggle to understand how the nation is imagined in the cinematic text. It explores the peasants' role in the struggle and the relationship of the peasants with the nation, in a larger debate on colonialism and anti-colonial movements by using dialectics as a method.
Mediating Ecology within the Context of Marxist Discourse: An Inquiry into the Hindi Film Sherni Bhavna Harchandani, Vikas Pathe Rudn Journal of Studies in Literature and Journalism, 2025 In the contemporary mediated era, cinema plays a crucial role in depicting and portraying the ecological connections between humans and non-humans, nature. Given the extractionist approach of capitalists in shaping the Anthropocene and the resilient practices of the communities against uncontrolled exploitation of natural resources, it becomes important to understand the changing metabolic rift between humans and nature. This study focuses on the Hindi film ‘Sherni’ (2021) as a reference point to comprehend the role of cinema in establishing the connection between society and the environment. Departing from typical Hindi film stereotypes, ‘Sherni’ addresses urgent issues related to human - nature, metabolic relationships, the environment, and the challenges faced by local communities to counter exploitative practices in the forest. The paper argues for the need to explore these changing metabolic rifts within the context of ecological communication. Using the Marxian concept of metabolic rift and content analysis, the film explores the complexities of humanenvironment relationships disrupted by forest and animal exploitation (tigress poaching), as well as displacement of local communities for capitalist gains. This brings forth the need to use ecological films as a tool to disseminate information and establish communication practices related to the environment in society.
Communication, development and Hindi Cinema: Reading of Naya Daur Vikas Pathe South Asian Popular Culture, 2021 The foundation of the post-colonial development model was based on the concept of modernization of the socio-economic and political growth of third world countries. This development model also led to advanced communication technology in media such as print, radio, television, and cinema; also known as development communication. Cinema acts as a catalyst for the promotion of the concept of nation-building in third world countries. Since the development model ignored the voices of marginalized sections of the underdeveloped nations, cinema helped to portray the unheard voices. In the Indian context, the Hindi film Naya Daur (1957) as a voice of resistance posited a strong critic of the top-down approach of the development model. A critical reading of Naya Daur (1957) attempts to examine the narratives of development and the portrayal of development through industrialization and westernization as a part of nation-building. Since the film raises the question of development politics in the post-colonial Nehruvian era, the paper tries to examine the junctures of resistance against the development process and the nationalist narratives construed in the film. It attempts to analyze the characterization of resistance and struggles of the local villagers against mechanization. Thereby, it attempts to encapsulate the contesting ideas of development and nation-building and the role of cinema in development communication.
RECENT SCHOLAR PUBLICATIONS
Reimagining national identities: reading Gandhi D Rai, V Pathe National Identities, 1-13 , 2026 2026
Book review: Critique of the Political Economy of the Media: Foundations and Application by Manfred Knoche V Pathe European Journal of Communication 40 (6), 675-676 , 2025 2025
Historicising the colonial past of India and Hindi cinema V Pathe Nation, Nationalism and Indian Hindi Cinema, 44-52 , 2025 2025 Citations: 1
Negotiating identity and the intersection of working-class politics: Hindi cinema in early postcolonial India V Pathe National Identities 27 (4), 383-392 , 2025 2025
Mediating Ecology within the Context of Marxist Discourse: An Inquiry into the Hindi Film Sherni B Harchandani, V Pathe Вестник Российского университета дружбы народов. Серия: Литературоведение … , 2025 2025
Book Review - Caste, Communication and Power V Pathe Economic and Political Weekly 58 (52) , 2023 2023
Book review: An Introduction to Global Media for the Twenty-First Century by Ole J Mjøs V Pathe European Journal of Communication 38 (5), 526-528 , 2023 2023
Book Review: Social Media and Hate V Pathe New Media & Society, 14614448221122145 , 2022 2022
Book Review: Gandhian Thought and Communication: Rethinking the Mahatma in the Media Age by Biswajit Das V Pathe European Journal of Communication, 02673231221098030 , 2022 2022
Communication, development and Hindi Cinema: Reading of Naya Daur V Pathe South Asian Popular Culture 19 (3), 277-287 , 2021 2021 Citations: 3
Book Review on 'Lives of Data: Essays on Computational Cultures from India' (ed.) V Pathe http://mainstreamweekly.net/article11184.html , 2021 2021
Saajhi Sanskriti: Ek Vivechna V Pathe Saajhi Sanskriti ki Rajniti. , 2019 2019
Niyogi, Chhattisgarh Aandolan aur Badlav ki Rajneeti V Pathe Swatanryotar Bhartiya Rajneeti, 59-64 , 2016 2016
MOST CITED SCHOLAR PUBLICATIONS
Communication, development and Hindi Cinema: Reading of Naya Daur V Pathe South Asian Popular Culture 19 (3), 277-287 , 2021 2021 Citations: 3
Historicising the colonial past of India and Hindi cinema V Pathe Nation, Nationalism and Indian Hindi Cinema, 44-52 , 2025 2025 Citations: 1
Reimagining national identities: reading Gandhi D Rai, V Pathe National Identities, 1-13 , 2026 2026
Book review: Critique of the Political Economy of the Media: Foundations and Application by Manfred Knoche V Pathe European Journal of Communication 40 (6), 675-676 , 2025 2025
Negotiating identity and the intersection of working-class politics: Hindi cinema in early postcolonial India V Pathe National Identities 27 (4), 383-392 , 2025 2025
Mediating Ecology within the Context of Marxist Discourse: An Inquiry into the Hindi Film Sherni B Harchandani, V Pathe Вестник Российского университета дружбы народов. Серия: Литературоведение … , 2025 2025
Book Review - Caste, Communication and Power V Pathe Economic and Political Weekly 58 (52) , 2023 2023
Book review: An Introduction to Global Media for the Twenty-First Century by Ole J Mjøs V Pathe European Journal of Communication 38 (5), 526-528 , 2023 2023
Book Review: Social Media and Hate V Pathe New Media & Society, 14614448221122145 , 2022 2022
Book Review: Gandhian Thought and Communication: Rethinking the Mahatma in the Media Age by Biswajit Das V Pathe European Journal of Communication, 02673231221098030 , 2022 2022
Book Review on 'Lives of Data: Essays on Computational Cultures from India' (ed.) V Pathe http://mainstreamweekly.net/article11184.html , 2021 2021
Saajhi Sanskriti: Ek Vivechna V Pathe Saajhi Sanskriti ki Rajniti. , 2019 2019
Niyogi, Chhattisgarh Aandolan aur Badlav ki Rajneeti V Pathe Swatanryotar Bhartiya Rajneeti, 59-64 , 2016 2016
