Since changing into India’s prime minister in 2014, Narendra Modi has been the figurehead of the nation’s shift away from secular pluralism and in direction of Hindu nationalism. This transformation has been accompanied by a serious uptick in violence in opposition to spiritual minorities by Hindu extremists, and particularly in direction of the Muslims who symbolize the nation’s largest spiritual minority. In his disquieting documentary/narrative movie Holy Cowboys, the Indian director Varun Chopra transports viewers to small-town India, the place Hindu nationalist extremism most frequently proliferates. Combining observational documentary filmmaking with some scripted sequences, Chopra charts how a bunch of teenage boys slide into the grips of violent ideology, guided by leaders of an area extremist group and fuelled by the Hindu perception that cows are sacred. Via his refined and generally stunning portrait, Chopra gives a penetrating have a look at the style by which practically any form of violent extremist motion spreads – the fervent perception that not performing is the best ethical incorrect.
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