We all Come From Brahma': Repetition and the Anticipation of Indian Cultural Imperialism in Indian Doctor

By discussing the Nollywood film Indian Doctor (2008), this paper privileges the gradual but sure dispersal of Indian cultural patrimony in Nigeria on account of India's rise as an emerging global power. I argue that by sending a young Nigerian to India to study medicine, the young man who consequently converts to Hinduism, returns to rattle the extant templates of African Traditional Religions and Christianity in the Umuyan Kingdom of Igboland. The consequences of the return are evident in the mutation of the kingdom into a site for contest among these religions. I further argue that if the cultural clashes between African Traditional Religions and Christianity in colonial Africa were feisty, the virtues of the film lie in the way it alerts us to the potential of even feistier clashes when the imperialism of India takes its course in the West African Region. I additionally offer a discussion on the film's critique of the Nigeria education and medical sectors and how their collapse contributes to the affirmation of Indian cultural imperialism. The paper privileges the trope of repetition in unpacking the dynamics of Indian cultural dispersal in Nigeria, while concluding with a commentary on the futuristic value of the film.