LAHORE, Feb 7: Indian activist, scientist and documentary film-maker, Gauhar Raza's audio visual documentation of the Feb-April, 2002, Gujarat riots is a glimpse into the communal forces imperilling the secular structure of India.

In a 36-minute documentary, Evil Stalks the Land, shown at the Lahore Press Club on Saturday, Gauhar Raza has tried to compare the racist ideology of M.S. Gowalkar, the prime architect of the militant Hindu organization, the RSS, with Adolf Hitler's Nazi party.

As part of ANHAD (Act Now for Harmony and Democracy), an Indian organization given to promoting culture, literature, sports and other mutually constructive projects to the Indian and Pakistani people, Gauhar Raza came to Pakistan on Feb 2, 2004. Invited by the Action Aid Pakistan, the members of his group include India's well-known historian, K.N. Pannikar, Nandita Das, a critically acclaimed actress, Gauhar's wife, Shabnum Hashmi and Saumya Sen, a political activist and head of ANHAD.

Commenting on Evil Stalks the Land, Gauhar Raza said that it was a comparative study between Germany's Fascist forces and India. Script of communalism in India was written 70 years ago by Guru Gowalkar, who endorsed the rise of the Third Reich's rise to power in 1933. The legacy still continues, as was witnessed in Gujrat, said Gauhar Raza.

The 2002 Hindu-Muslim riots in Gujarat, the worst in the history of the subcontinent since the partition, appalled people like Gauhar Raza for whom the discriminating divide between Hindus and Muslims was more political than cultural. Similar to Hitler's Nazi party, the communal militant wings have been trying to work for the ascendancy and supremacy of the Hindu race. It cannot happen because culturally we're the same.

"This is my first visit to Pakistan. As a documentary producer and an activist, I've been trying to identify our differences and have failed to find any, said the documentary producer. At the time of partition, the bloodshed of more than a million people was quite unnecessary. We have the same colour and the same values. I wonder sometimes whether the division of the India was necessary.

The Gujarat carnage is seen by Raza as a pocket of occurrence not shared, nor concurred, by India's one billion people. The overwhelming majority in India is secular. In Evil Stalks the Land, I've tried to reveal the politics of violence, genesis of communalism, role of the RSS, role of the police and the state." He maintains that the Gujarat genocide should not be passed as a blanket judgement against the democratic and secular nature of the Indian society. We would try to understand each other's weaknessness and not use them to our political advantage, said Gauhar Raza despite facing a ban on the documentary in Mumbai and Goa.

The footage was shot at places such as Narodapatiya, Shahalam Camp, Gomtipur, Chartoda Kabrastan and Aman Chowk. The documentary is based on the interviews of the victims, activists and experts who underwent the trauma after Feb 28, 2002.

People have asked me why I have not included the Godhra rail carnage and have accused me of bias. I'll say to them that only an idiot is not biased. Of course I'm biased! You have to have a bias when you're writing or making a documentary, defends Raza.

He claims that Evil Stalks the Land and In Dark Times, a 16-minute homage to Bertolt Brecht, which was also shown prior to the Gujrat documentary, are not about different religions. They have one underlying common factor of propagating racist supremacy. In Dark Times is a series of events tracing the victory of the Nazi party, the Jewish ostracization and the dangerous character of glorifying the Teutonic racial pride.

Brecht was my hero. I've set the documentary as would be seen through the eyes of somebody like Brecht who could not bear to see an ideology overtaking the right to live freely, said Gauhar Raza.

A scientist by profession, a poet and an activist by nature, Gauhar Raza is a graduate of the Engineering University in Allahbad. A self-trained documentary maker, Gauhar's name is now associated with audio visually documenting nationally vital events. So far, he has made 15 documentaries on various subjects. Among others, I've made one of S.S. Patnagar, on glaciers, on computer virus, nuclear disarmament and the 1857 war of independence, said Raza. In India, he is one of the few people who have taken to task of sensitizing people on science issues. I hope the two countries cover considerable ground before the April general elections. You never know what might happen after that, hoped Gauhar Raza.