Abstract: The present work examines Khwaja Ahmad Abbas’s Saat Hindustani (1969) as a significant cinematic text that intervenes in the cultural memory of India’s freedom struggle. Situated within the early decades of independence, the film articulates a vision of nationalism that foregrounds plurality, secularism, and collective sacrifice. By bringing together seven representative figures from diverse linguistic, regional, and religious backgrounds to fight for the liberation of Goa, Abbas crafts an allegory of the Nehruvian ideal of “unity in diversity.” The essay analyzes the film’s aesthetics, particularly its realist style, ensemble casting, and use of music, which align it with traditions of cinematic resistance and pedagogical nationalism. It further explores how the film challenges communal suspicion in post-Partition India through the central figure of a Muslim intellectual-patriot, while simultaneously reimagining decolonization as a prolonged historical process beyond 1947. At the same time, the analysis highlights the film’s silences, particularly its marginalization of women and erasure of caste, which reveal the exclusions embedded in nationalist cultural production. The essay argues that Saat Hindustani remains a critical cinematic archive of representative histories, offering insights into both the promise and the limits of postcolonial nationhood.
Keywords: Liberation of Goa, cinematic nationalism, unity in diversity, freedom struggle in film, secular historiography, postcolonial cultural memory.
Title: Liberation of Goa & Cinematic Nationalism: Unity, Secularism and Historical Memory in Khwaja Ahmad Abbas’s Saat Hindustani (1969)
Author: Dr. Poulami Aich Mukherjee
International Journal of Social Science and Humanities Research
ISSN 2348-3156 (Print), ISSN 2348-3164 (online)
Vol. 13, Issue 3, July 2025 - September 2025
Page No: 356-358
Research Publish Journals
Website: www.researchpublish.com
Published Date: 13-September-2025
