Actor Sushant Singh Rajput’s death by suicide in June has led to a heated discussion across India. The tragedy has sparked conversations ab...
Actor Sushant Singh Rajput’s death by suicide in June has led to a heated discussion across India. The tragedy has sparked conversations about mental health and also more volubly, nepotism. In a country where entry into every field from politics to law to big business is facilitated by kinship ties, allegations that Rajput took his life because he had been marginalised by a handful of families who are perceived to control the Hindi film industry immediately struck a chord.
However, this conversation had a dark side. Several people seem to be cynically using the tragedy to ride their pet hobby horses. For instance, some in the film industry seem to be using Rajput’s death to settle past conflicts. In some cases, dangerous speculation has been floated: actor Kangana Ranaut, for example, without a shred of evidence, described Rajput’s death a case of “planned murder”.
Even more unusually, Rajput’s death has been given a political overtone. An article in the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh’s mouthpiece Organiser directly connected the outrage around the tragedy to Hindu nationalist tropes. “More than nepotism, grave charges of spinning anti-India pro-Islamist-Leftist narrative have raised concerns,” it claimed. In addition, Rajput’s Bihari identity has played a role, with prominent politicians from the...
