The World is Family

About the Film

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 spoke 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.

About the Director

Anand Patwardhan has been making documentary films for over five decades pursuing issues at the crux of social and political life in India. Many of his films were at one time or another banned by state channels and became the subject of litigation where Anand successfully challenged censorship rulings in court. Active in movements for communal harmony and movements against unsustainable development, militarism and nuclear nationalism, Anand describes himself as “a non-serious human being forced by circumstances to make serious films”.