The Ingrained ‘Other’: A Multimodal Analysis of the Border and Waar

Abstract

The animosity of the neighbouring countries is often grimed with agitated history of partition or territorial war. The uneasy neighbourhood like India and Pakistan chronicles seven decades of unsettled disputes, the sense of ‘othering’ the other, exercising three wars and countless confidence building measures amongst the fear of getting wronged. The common heritage of scorn between the two nations impacts writing and media on both sides of the Indian and Pakistani border. In almost every political regime, endeavours for reconciliation are likewise anticipated in the visual narratives and in the writings, however, the well-established myth of ‘other’ or 'accursed neighbour' sustains the sense in the popular thinking. These narratives, both visual and written, concerning the historical truths about the contempt, the attempts for reconciliation and the aftermaths of the wars, are investigated in cinematic text of both India and Pakistan to interpret the patterns of creating the image of the other with cruel marks of disdain and contempt. The present paper attempts to locate the transitivity patterns in the images engineered both in the Indian and Pakistani visual narratives and are analysed through multimodal perspective of Kress and Leeuwen. The grammar of image is Halliday’s extension of Theory of Systemic Functional Grammar. Two movies, Border (Indian) and Waar (Pakistani) have been selected for the present research as they delineate the real occasions in the historical backdrop of these two nations including war and demonstrations of fear-based oppression.