Reinventing Religious Moderation in India Through Sufi Content in Bollywood Music Video

Abstract

Religious violence in India has become one of the bloodiest humanitarian crises in history. There have been many efforts to stop or reduce these conflicts, one of which is promoting religious moderation using art media. Within the last decade, incorporating Sufi content in Bollywood music videos has become a new trend. Sufism, as a mystical form of Islam, has been viewed as more pluralistic and acceptable for all societies in India. Therefore, this study aimed to observe the Sufi content in Bollywood music videos and measure its role as a new approach to religious moderation in India. Using Roland Barthes' semiotics theory, this qualitative research observed how Sufism is depicted in Bollywood music videos and analyzed how it represents religious moderation. The research results revealed that the Sufism depiction in Bollywood music videos is represented in two forms: visualized music videos and the lyrics. Sufi content in the selected Bollywood movie songs has some religious moderation principles like tasamuh (tolerance), i'tidal (justice), qudwah (leadership), i'tiraf al-urf (respecting tradition), and anti-violence. Analyzing the comments on Youtube featuring those music videos, it could be concluded that the Sufi content in Bollywood music videos has successfully influenced the audience to be more religiously moderate.