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Chow Hang-tung and Lee Cheuk-yan, co-leaders of the now disbanded Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China (HKA) were found guilty today (21 August 2026) of incitement to subversion, because they organised vigils attended by tens of thousands in Hong Kong’s Victoria Park to mark the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre. The vigils were banned in 2020 and both have been detained since 2021. Below is a translation of Chow Hang-tung’s message to the world, published yesterday I’m curious about tomorrow’s verdict. Justice resides in the hearts of the people; there’s no need to look up to such top-down judgments. One verdict is nothing. Thank you all for walking alongside me in different ways. I have received all your support and blessings. ************ Because I don’t want everyone to worry too much, and I don’t want the focus to be lost, I’m sharing these feelings that have been weighing on my mind since the trial: Several years ago, I made a documentary with friends, trying to visualise the issue of torture by inviting Hong Kong friends to experience the various forms of torture suffered by protesters in China, so that it wouldn’t just remain a “tragedy” on paper. The “torture” depicted in the film was designed and researched by me. I thought I had some understanding of the subject, but only in the last couple of days have I realised I was a completely incompetent “torture officer” back then. I knew absolutely nothing about inflicting physical pain. It’s true that some things are impossible to comprehend no matter how much you read about them; you have to experience them firsthand. I say this because since the trial began, the Correctional Services Department [Hong Kong’s prison authority] has changed its method of transport. It’s no longer just simple handcuffs; now they use a full set of handcuffs, leg irons, waist chains, and ankle chains, and then lead the prisoners like dogs on a chain. From the written description alone, it seems like it’s just more inconvenient and somewhat humiliating, nothing like torture. But it’s only when you actually put on those shackles that you realise the devil is in the details. Ordinary handcuffs have buckles on both sides that connect with slipknots, allowing for limited movement between the hands. However, this set of specially made handcuffs has an outer layer of hard plastic covering the outer layer, locking the hands tightly together. This alone wouldn’t be so bad, but the “rings” on the handcuffs aren’t the round kind you usually see in adult stores (uh, I’ve been there, but only to buy props for filming!). Instead, there’s an additional hard material inside, shrinking into a flat, crescent shape that fits snugly at the thickest part of the wrist. So, when the wrist is inside, there’s absolutely no possibility of rotation; you can only constantly twist your arm to accommodate the angle designed by the handcuffs. That already restricts movement to two dimensions. Then comes the small buckle on the waist chain, which locks the handcuffs above the abdomen. If you dare to relax and let your hands hang down, the buckle will move up and lock into the thicker part of the wrist. Moreover, the locking angle is an extremely unnatural twisted pretzel, forcing one to constantly hunch their shoulders, hunch their back, bend their wrists, and twist their arms to try and avoid the handcuffs getting stuck in their wrist bones. However, complete avoidance is impossible; after all, constantly hunching one’s shoulders for the entire journey from Tai Lam [the prison where Hang-tung is incarcerated] to West Kowloon [the courthouse where the trial is taking place] would likely lead to muscle cramps. So, one can only “choose” which part of the body shall suffer in turn—when the shoulders are too tired, let the bones ache; when the hands are numb with pain, tighten the shoulders further. Then, throughout the entire journey, although most of the time is spent “still,” one is already exhausted from the unseen “muscle battle.” Not to mention, no matter how you are locked, you have to carry your belongings; for me, that means court documents. With that added weight, it is inevitable that the handcuffs will cut into the flesh. The deep marks carved into the wrists don’t fade even after a whole day in court. It turns out that locking a person’s joints in certain relative positions can create a kind of “interlocking” effect between body parts. But to the untrained eye, it’s invisible—”It’s just putting your hands in front of your stomach, child’s play.” Sigh, just looking at that statement, I feel I have no reason to complain; but I never imagined the combined effect of locking all the joints would be so powerful. Thinking back to when I was researching for the documentary, I only focused on finding the most exaggerated physical movements, the torture methods most easily identifiable by the naked eye. I was indeed viewing the victims’ experiences through the eyes of a layman. When I “tortured” my friend, the handcuffs were loosely fastened. I was completely unaware that locking the joints was the key—it really was just a childish experiment. Sophisticated torture, much like mature totalitarianism, avoids the visible, “violent” acts of violence. Its power lies in exploiting and creating internal conflicts among the people, fostering constant mutual surveillance, control, and reporting. This diffuses the perpetrators, making it impossible to identify or apprehend any single “evildoer.” People appear to have “choices,” but they are ultimately forced to choose between harming one party and abandoning another. Power, however, seems detached, never directly intervening. Visible, publicly observable conflicts vanish, leaving only unseen internal strife. The damage to society can be far more lasting and profound than occasional violence. On a more personal level, I find my resistance to physical torture is quite low. When my body aches, my mind becomes blank, overwhelmed by aches and pains, making it impossible to enjoy the scenery as usual. If I were subjected to some of the Ten Great Tortures of the Qing Dynasty, I might confess quickly. The ability to endure torture truly requires dedicated training. So, on the bright side, these 75 days of transport can be seen as initial training in physical endurance—as long as my hands aren’t ruined? To say that this correctional system is intentionally designed to torture prisoners wouldn’t be accurate; it’s just that the prisoners’ comfort or pain isn’t a consideration in its design. So, frankly, what I have endured is far from real torture; at best, it was just a preliminary glimpse. The designers’ primary consideration was probably “safety first,” ensuring prisoners have no possibility of movement. Ultimately, prisoners are at the bottom of the food chain—voiceless, powerless. Our opinions, even after suffering, are meaningless in the face of “safety.” Not to mention asking what security needs there were – frankly, even without handcuffs, a weak scholar like me couldn’t escape. Using so many tricks is overkill, but where can I reason with that? In cases where national security is invoked, even if a lawsuit is filed, it will have to be dropped and legal fees paid. But it’s precisely because I don’t want to never have anywhere to voice my grievances, and I don’t want people to remain silent and at the mercy of others, that I must persist in fighting for democracy and human rights, and for systemic change. In this sense, this new experience offered by Correctional Services is actually helping to strengthen my resolve to fight. Well then, thank you for this generous gift. I will certainly not let you down and will fight this ongoing battle well. I also hope that everyone can gain something from this long trial, perhaps just a little bit of strength, a little bit of encouragement, and that would be enough to fulfill my wish! This message was first posted on Chow Hang-tung’s Patreon account yesterday. We are publishing this with the permission of Brian Kern who translated her message on his Substack account READ MORE

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LEFT: Still from the film Dhurandhar which came out in India in 2025, directed by Aditya Dhar. Photo: COLLECTION CHRISTOPHEL © B62 Studios – Benetone Films – Jio Studios/Alamy This article first appeared in the Spring 2026 issue of Index on Censorship, The monster unleashed: How Hungary’s illliberal vision is seducing the Western world published on 2 April 2026. Salim Mirza, played by one of India’s greatest actors, Balraj Sahni, stands on the wide platform of Agra railway station, as he waves goodbye to his sister and her children who are leaving for Karachi. India has been partitioned overnight but Mirza’s love for Agra, his home city, holds him back. He’s not like most of his fellow Muslims who are leaving en masse in search of a life they presume will be free from discrimination. As the story unfolds, Mirza’s small shoe manufacturing business endures spiralling losses, heightening his dilemma, but eventually Mirza decides to stay, braving the harsh realities of post-independence India. Garm Hawa (Scorching Winds), made in 1974, is one of the greatest Hindi films on Partition and the geo-politics of India and Pakistan. It was made on a shoestring budget and the director Mysore Shrinivas Sathyu borrowed three quarters of the money from his friends. In Garm Hawa, Karachi was positioned as a “land of hope” and Pakistan was not merely a land of barbaric violence. Though in reality Partition had caused enormous bloodshed on both sides of the border, resulting in the largest singular human displacement in the subcontinent’s history. Even at the time, the film struggled to be released, held back by the Censor Board which cited communal sensitivity. But Garm Hawa finally saw the light of day at the Cannes Film Festival the following year and received international recognition. The arguments for Garm Hawa’s subtle, heart-wrenching but humanist approach towards those troubled times after Partition are many. But what is most striking is the absence of hyper-nationalist discourse and “Islamophobia” from the public realm at the time. Interestingly, the term Islamophobia was only adopted later as sociological jargon. The portrayal of Muslims Hindi cinema has come a long way from the 1970s when a film could depict Muslims as real, honest people living ordinary lives and being forced to leave India for Pakistan. Now, cinema is showing Pakistan as a country of terrorists, crime, blood and gruesomeness with Karachi at the heart. The apogee of this trend is Dhurandhar which came out in 2025. The film is both a historic discourse and reflects the rise of hyper-nationalist cinema. It was a huge success at the box office, taking an extraordinary $160 million (13 billion rupees). The cinematic change hasn’t happened overnight, it is intertwined with India’s social transformation and compounded by ideology. A cursory search of films themed on India Pakistan relations throws up mostly espionage thrillers or military dramas. Some of the films were released as early as 1997, like Border set during the India-Pakistan war of 1971. In 2003, there was LOC: Kargil about the 1999 border war between India and Pakistan and the 2007 movie, 1971, was also about the Indo-Pak war. They are more nuanced in comparison with what is happening today and all came out a long time before the current batch of hyper-nationalistic cinema even got the wind in their sails; tellingly, a sequel to 1997’s Border was released on 23 January 2026. On the whole, the late 1990s films laid the groundwork for more definitive later works which showed Hindu heroism and Muslims as the enemy, like for instance The Kashmir Files, Uri The Surgical Strike, The Kerala Story, Raazi, Fighter or Gaddar 2. All are premised on the idea of “patriotism” and “bravery” as predominant emotions and they enjoy a Bollywood eco-system willing to back such projects. Patriotism is box-office gold In a typical chicken and egg scenario, a long list of producers are happy to fund money spinners. The latest “patriotic” films like Dhurandhar and Chhaava were among the highest-grossing films of the year. And as there is such massive demand for stories of Muslim “othering”, more films are getting made. Interestingly, the universe of propaganda films made in 2025 is varied, a period film, Chhaava is focused on Mughals and Marathas. Films like Sky Force and Tanvi The Great are political thrillers. Diplomat, another release, concentrates on Islamic terrorism while Sarzameen is an army thriller based in Kashmir. Dhurandhar, the most successful one of all, is significant because it shifts the film-making grammar of its predecessors and emerges as a gripping entertainer with upscaled cinematic techniques. Wickedly crafted, it is primarily a spy thriller, but it is also a gangster movie and a story of regional political conflict reflecting Pakistan’s internal politics. The genres are mixed together to churn out a brutally violent film, hitherto unseen in Hindi cinema. The screenplay deploys a smart structure with short segments leading from one to the other. This is mounted with a chartbusting techno Qawaali, (a form of Sufi devotional singing) originally used in the iconic 1960s superhit Barsaat. There are high velocity action shots either in extra close-up or from drone cameras. The film is set in the gory, trash-littered streets of a working-class neighbourhood of Karachi. And the characterisation is original. The lead character Hamza Ali Mazari (later unmasked as Indian army officer Jaskirat Singh Rangi), goes undercover as a member of Baloch mobster Rehman Dakait’s gang. Dakait is played by well-known and much-loved Bollywood actor Akshaye Khanna, Mazari by one of the highest paid younger generation actors Ranveer Singh. Dhurandhar appears to be a slick, edgy, hard-hitting movie not your typical hyper-nationalist puff. It speaks its language of bigotry differently, laced with codes of love-hate for the Muslim aesthetic, like its use of popular qawwali and ghazals (forms of music mostly associated with Islamic cultures), spliced with the portrayal of sado-masochistic Muslim men – and women – trying to break free from their “prison”. Younger audiences have lapped up Dhurandhar because they have already been weaned on the unsettling universe of Hollywood’s Kill Bill and Sin City. And the massive distribution network behind the film with 3,000 screenings worldwide, 390 in North America alone, has created a juggernaut guaranteeing the movie’s success. Such intertwinings are intricate and clever, a stark contrast to a handful of cinemas with small budgets but powered by a gritty resolve to tell a story rising from the very same geo-politics but which still manage to remain humane. Ikkis (meaning 21) was released in 2025 without much fanfare, while Dhurandhar was a crushing box office hit. Ikkis is a tenderly told true story of a young army man who died in the Indo-Pak war in 1971 and the events that follow next, when his octogenarian father travels to Lahore for a college reunion thirty years after his son’s death. No jingoism, no slogan-mongering, it casts a newcomer Agastya Nanda, together with the legendary actor Dharmendra who died a few days before the film’s release to pose some vital humanitarian questions connected to war. Ikkis was reportedly made with a budget of between $4.7 million and $7.1 million and was released on 1 January. The film was distributed by powerhouse brands – quite startling as one of them is also the distributor for Dhurandhar – yet it hasn’t been able to catch a break so far and has been a box office flop. The film got some love from a handful of audiences willing to argue for peace. So, it is much more conducive for propaganda films like Dhurandhar to be made (its sequel Dhurandhar 2 is ready for a March release). A polarised view of the world, where Pakistan and Muslims are baddies and Hindus and Indians are goodies, is driving enormous profits for Bollywood, so no wonder the movie moguls are not stopping. READ MORE

This article first appeared in the Spring 2026 issue of Index on Censorship, The monster unleashed: How Hungary’s illliberal vision is seducing the Western world published…

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