Unity Yet Diversity: Documentry with a Diversity

The phrase "Unity in Diversity" is often used with much pride by almost every Indian in every speech ever made since school days. Its been in the text books, in tourist guides, in the media everywhere. But somehow "India is the most racially discriminating country" as the documentary "Unity Yet Diversity" (UYD) puts it. And when you come to think of it , it is. We discriminate each other not only bu the color, religion and caste of a person but also by their language and region. How many movies have we watched that made fun of  "dosa-eating dark Madrasis", the Bombay goons from the slum, the  alcoholic Punjabi spendthrifts? We may be the top in the world for making fun or discriminating our own countrymen in this world.

But there are a set of people from the place we proudly call "the seven sisters" in our geography book that undergo the worst stereotypes and discrimination- The people from the North East. These Indians are not even considered to be part of India. They are strongly stereotyped, denied of the basic rights any Indian should have and discriminated openly in the "main-land states" of India. 

The Documentary, "Unity Yet Diversity", by a bunch of Malayalee students in Delhi, narrates the story of the discrimination that the North Eastern students in Delhi face everyday.
Now, I am no critic of the media to evaluate their work, but as an Indian I recommend it to all to watch so that like me, they too can break an invisible pigment in our brains that we had no idea was wired to poke fun or discriminate the other state citizens. The twenty four interviews and the various stories of the NE students will make us realize what hypocrites we Indians truly are when we parrot-talk loudly how "India has unity in diversity"

This Documentary, an ASAP Media creation was directed by Ijas Muhammed, an aspiring journalist from Nadappuram, Kerala. As a B.A graduate from Deshbandhu College of Delhi University, he undertakes many such projects and issues that are neglected by the main stream media. His days as contestant in the reality show "Citizen Journalist" in Amrita T.V opened up many doors for him to learn about visual and technical knowledge in film making. A brilliant photographer and currently a media student, he is continuing his journey in journalism. He shares with us more details about this documentary that is being projected in Delhi and Kerala.

This topic is something most people simply ignore, what made you choose it?

As a South Indian, I faced racial comments every day in Delhi, which is supposed to be the so called 'Urban, Educated, Capital' The people there make fun of all the South Indians calling us Madrasi like its an insult. But more than us, the worst off were North East students, because their facial structure is slightly different from the so called 'Main Land Indians'. I felt that doing about the south Asians in Delhi won't be apt as there people facing much worse racial discrimination in front of me. Hence the topic. 

Tell us more about the team behind UYD 

Our DOP and editor was Naseeb Ahmed, Who completed his graduation in English Honours from Ramjas College of Delhi University. Shaheen Ahmed Aliyat, a B.Com graduate from the same campus carried out our interviews. The Assistant Camera Man Sunny Ashiq, is doing his graduation in Geography from Shaheed Bhagath Singh College of Delhi University. All of us belong to the team of ASAP Media. UYD was produced by me in the banner of I Movies. 


The protest by the JNU activists along with the North Eastern students over the death of Nido Tania and the NE women who were attacked ,was given a new angle in your documentary, one that was ignored by the media. How was it shot? 

This documentary was filmed a year back. The risky shot was of course the protest sequence. We got an information that a protest is going to enter the restricted premises of Vijay Chowk, in front of the Rastrapati bhavan on Feb 14 2014. We were there since morning. The protest was a collective call from JNUSU. The Police didn't stop any protesters from entering the area, but when the protesters started making a human chain peacefully, they attacked with lathis and insults.To be frank, there were no female officers present there at the beginning.
The Police first scattered the protesters and took them to three police stations including the parliament police station where me and camera man Naseeb was detained for 7 hours. Our camera was taken in custody along with six other cameras of the protesters. We contacted a Malayali High official in Delhi Police and he helped us by taking off the memory card. Otherwise we would have lost our protest footage. All the other cameras were formatted by police. After 7 hours of detain, MP Rajesh came to police station and helped us bail out with the protesters. Other than two shots used from IBN and NDTV news footage, all the other shots were from our camera. 

The Major hurdles on the way,

Well for starters, some of the students didn't give us interviews. They had an inner fear on how this issue will be portrayed. There were also many inquiries as to why we, a team of south Indians were filming a documentary about the North East students' problems.  Many approached us with this question. Apparently people believe that you have no right to speak for others rights! 


Cliche, but still out of curiosity- your future projects

I am currently in middle of the research for my new project,  an education documentary on  the 'Malabari Arabic Script', a unique script formed in Malabar.  The Quran along with many Islamic books were published in that script. However these days, most of the Madrassas prefer Usmaniya script, so this script is on the verge of extinction. So I feel it should be documented for educational purposes. I have also committed to Naseeb Ahmed's upcoming untitled project, a science fiction story. I also wish to do a documentary on inner Politics and Social Condition of Nadapuram

Along with wishing ASAP Media great success in their ventures forward, This documentary has a message that we all need to really understand and learn from. India is a diverse country and that is an accepted fact. But the racial and regional dicriminations that such diversities bring about is an issue to be addressed with more vigor and stress. We still have to be a country where our differences  are celebrated, where each person in every state enjoys the same privilage of being an Indian, all the time and not just when there is a cricket match