ABSTRACT

The chapter investigates the public (online) reactions in Bangladesh to the Bollywood film Gunday. The opening lines of the film were taken as an insult to Bangladesh and its sovereignty as this had been achieved through its war of independence. The slight caused an immediate online furore and a concerted effort that engaged more than fifty thousand individuals. The chapter employs the concept of a voter-sovereign and argues that as democracy moved the idea of the sovereign from a monarch to ‘the people’, the specific practical understanding of sovereignty was time, place and gender sensitive. The online reaction to Gunday expressed hurt and humiliation, but it also brought out notions of identity and maleness such as ‘the weak self’ and the ‘misunderstood courage’ that are rooted in the history of modern Bangladesh. The chapter argues that the voter-sovereign’s idea of independence and freedom for dependency are moulded through layers of popular culture, history narratives, and contemporary politics. In the Bangladeshi case this means that the tropes of misunderstood determination and unappreciated sacrifice associated with modern Bangladesh history obligate the citizens as voter-sovereigns to take part in the resistance to infringements on its reputation.