The World is Family — Film Screening with director Anand Patwardhan

Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam, a Sanskrit phrase meaning “the world is family,” is a universalist idea that competes with dominant, exclusivist Hindu notions of caste. Anand grew up in a milieu that questioned the latter. The family’s elders had fought for India’s Independence but rarely spoken about it. ‘Liberty, Equality, Fraternity,’ words enshrined in India’s Constitution, were subconsciously internalized.

As his parents aged, Anand began to film with whatever equipment was at hand. Soon, birthdays and family gatherings gave way to oral history. Revisiting home movie footage a decade after his parents had passed was a revelation. Today, self-confessed supremacists whose ideology once inspired the murder of Mahatma Gandhi, are in power. As they rewrite India’s history, memories of the past have become more precious than mere personal nostalgia. This film presents the history of the filmmaker’s family intertwined with the history of the Indian nation.