Vivek Agnihotri’s The Bengal Files has ignited a fierce national debate, amassing over 1.2 million posts on X and millions of views across platforms. The film revisits Bengal’s violent history — from the 1946 Direct Action Day riots to the communal fractures that shaped Partition — exposing the ideological and theological currents behind the carnage.

Two of my own documentaries — Bangla Crescent: ISI, Madrasas and Infiltration (2005) and Crimson Crescent – The Last Quarter (2025) — extend that focus into the present. They trace the same ideological threads through infiltration networks, demographic engineering and the continued radicalisation of youngsters in madrasas. Together, these three films reveal a chilling continuity: the supremacist aggression seen in 1946 persists today — not just in India but across Europe and beyond, including the 2025 shooting at the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, DC, which killed two Israeli embassy staff.

My journey began in the late 1980s at Sita Ram Goel’s Voice of India office in Daryaganj — a living seminar of books and debate. Goel, steeped in the Mahabharata’s wisdom, had read widely across Indian history, Marxist–Leninist texts and Islamic and Christian theology. He documented how Marxist historians distorted Hindu history, erasing its contributions and vilifying its legacy.

From him I learned to interrogate ideologies rather than demonise individuals. Amid stacks of manuscripts came a steady stream of visitors — Dr Lokesh Chandra, Dr Koenraad Elst, Rajinder Singh and Mukund Lath — each bringing data and global perspectives. For a young mind, it was a Gurukul of critical inquiry. It showed me how evidence-based thinking, rooted in India’s civilisational memory yet global in scope, can unmask entrenched ideologies without slogans or malice — a discipline that later shaped Bangla Crescent and Crimson Crescent.

Afternoons at Voice of India were charged with fierce inquiry and poetry. Watching debates there, I saw how a single couplet could pierce dogma more effectively than any decree. Mirza Ghalib’s irreverence captured that........

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