In the Name of God - Filmmaker in Person

In The Name of God records the rising tension around the destruction of the 16th century Babri Masjid Mosque in Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh by the Hindu nationalist group Vishva Hindu Parishad in 1992. Following this incident, riots broke out across the country, resulting in thousands of deaths. Many consider this event an inflection point in the rise of religious fundamentalism in India. Offering rare last glimpses of the mosque in its final days, the film exposes how political pundits took advantage of ordinary people to turn a place of worship into an ideological battleground. It screens with We Are Not Your Monkeys, the music video for a song co-written and filmed by Patwardhan and performed by Sambhaji Bhagat, a prominent Dalit activist and artist. The song reinterprets the Ramayana epic to criticize the current state of caste-based discrimination and violence in India.