Page - 13 - in JRFM - Journal Religion Film Media, Volume 07/02

Editorial | 13www.jrfm.eu 2021, 7/2, 7–14 Focusing on Indian mythology in the contemporary context as well, Cas- tro analyzes in her contribution, “Validating Demons: Recasting Rāvaṇa as a Leader of the Oppressed in Mani Ratnam’s Film Version of the Rāmāyaṇa”, how the figure of the villain, Rāvaṇa, has been reinterpreted over time in interaction with contemporary social and political issues, embedding the film in a long tradition, especially in South India, that has recast Rāvaṇa in a positive light. Moving back in time while remaining in the same context, Bornet’s con- tribution, “Unruly Images: Representing India in the Calwer Bilder-Tafeln zur Länder- und Völker-Kunde (1883)”, analyzes a volume published with the am- bition to show the whole world through images. While such images have often been interpreted as a case of “visual Orientalism”, a closer look shows that the images circulated through a range of contexts (from typical mis- sionary visual propaganda to traditional Indian iconography, drawings made by travelers, and photographs) in the process, resisting attempts at reducing them to one-dimensional objects. Also drawing on a historical artefact, a well-known 19th-century Puerto Rican painting, Varela Rios’s article, “Using Latinx Theology’s Lo Cotidiano to Decolonialize Oller’s El Velorio”, offers a decolonial reading of the painting “against the grain” which, with its emphasis on the everyday and material culture, highlights alternative (theological) forms of engaging reality and the divine together with a critique of colonial hierarchies. Loukili’s contribution, “Making Space, Claiming Place: Social Media and the Emergence of the ‘Muslim’ Political Parties DENK and NIDA in the Nether - lands”, is an example of colonial dynamics of othering and disempowerment taking place not only in the (former) colonies but also within metropoli- tan societies. Focusing on the example of two self-identified Muslim parties in the Netherlands, Loukili analyzes the role of media in othering, and the use of social media by the two parties to “talk back” and claim a space in discourses of migration, Dutch identity, politics, and religion, showcasing thus the ambivalent role of media and religion in dynamics of power and resistance. These studies highlight the multilayered, and often contradictory, pro- cesses of power and resistance in the interactions of media and religion, and they offer rich material beyond their particular case to reconsider theoretical and methodological questions in the study of media and religion in postco- loniality.