Hinduphobia – a massively ignored problem

On a daily basis, if you take a look at any of the largest India-based media giants like NDTV, CNN-IBN, Times of India, you’ll notice an overt and asymmetric negative bias towards Hindus and Hinduism when compared to the treatment of other major religions such as Islam and Christianity. The trend of Hinduphobia has become so widespread in India that over the years it has even become a transnational phenomenon, with some US and UK Media outlets participating in the same game of bigotry.  The true problem is how these writers and Media giants only target Hinduism and Hindus while conveniently ignoring similar political and religious issues within the Christian and Muslim communities. The Hinduphobia phenomena is even stranger due to Hinduism having a well known history of pluralism, tolerance and acceptance of various opinions.

India is a country composed of approximately 75% Hindus and 20% Muslims – so why all the hostility and ill-treatment towards Hinduism? There are a number of reasons to explain this. Every reader should keep in mind the checklist below to identify whether the content they are reading is in fact Hinduphobic and biased against Hinduism:

• Ownership of the Hinduphobic Media houses (there have been reports identifying select Media giants being owned by people engaged in Communist, Maoist, Evangelist and Islamist activities)
• History of the Hinduphobe writers (some writers have a clear bias and this is shown when the last 9 out of 10 articles are focused on Hinduism under a negative light)
• Political bias and influence (many writers are married to or hail from a particular political party such as the Indian National Congress)
• Editorial bribery (there have been cases where ex-anchors say they were approached by members of parliament to write on a topic)
• Sensationalism and ratings (some media giants only care for ratings and will sensationalize whatever gets them more views, even at the expense of a religious group’s sentiments)
• Class-wars among India’s elite (anchors have been caught calling villagers as classless)
• Fear and appeasement of some religious groups (some writers are afraid to cover stories on specific topics due to fatwas and violent backlash from certain religious and terrorist groups)

Just this past week there was an article in the well-known Washington Post titled ‘Narendra Modi was speaking in code when he visited America. Here’s what he was really saying to his Hindu nationalist base‘, by popular film producer and writer Mira Nair, who is also the wife of well-respected Mahmood Mamdani. The article can be seen as anti-Hindu and an unbiased reader could easily identify the attempt to find any reason to show Hindus and the PM in bad light – even going as far as suggesting that the newly elected Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi wore ‘a shade of orange’ during his speech to signal support for Hindu terrorism. Can you say ‘ridiculous’, I know my mother, who is an American surgeon volunteered 20% of her time volunteering in war-torn countries and wears shades of orange because it’s her favorite color. I also have an aunt that wears orange more than often because she was raised under the belief that orange (or Saffron) is auspicious and brings good blessings if worn. It is more than probable that PM Modi wore orange because of the latter, and if not, then likely it may have been just a coincidence. At the least, one cannot conclude that it was likely worn to signal support for elements of Hindu terrorism (whose existence is very debatable). It is this type of bigotry that fosters and influences bullying of Hindu children for such little things like wearing orange. I actually first came across this article when my American co-worker (and friend) who has a keen interest in geopolitics made a joke about my orange shirt and jokingly implied that I am a Hindu terrorist, after reading Mrs. Nair’s article.

Just recently, there has been a viral video where famous Hollywood actor Ben Affleck called comedian and academic/author Sam Harris racist for saying that homophobia is a problem under the ‘Muslim world’. Can you imagine how liberals such as Ben Affleck would yell ‘racism and bigot’ on people such as Mira Nair if they were to suggest that a leader supports Islamic terror because they wore black like ISIS or green, which happens to be the holy color of Islam (similar to orange/saffron is for Hinduism)?

I’d also like to make note of how author Mira Nair (who is neither an authority on politics or religion) conveniently left out (ahem, ahem) the symbolic gifts PM Modi gave to US President Barack Obama, and just focused on one – Modi giving Obama a copy of the Bhagavad Gita. “Hello! Where is the context Mrs. Nair?” For people that don’t know what the Bhagavad Gita is, it is one among dozens of major religious books of thought and spirituality that guide Hindus in their journey within Hinduism. Mira Nair went on to imply that giving a book from the majority religion of India ignores representation of minority religions such as Sikhism, Islam and Christianity, that make up 20% of India. Well, here comes the bad news to Mira Nair and just another proof of how her article yells communalism and Hinduphobia: PM Modi did not just give a plain copy of the Gita to Obama, but rather gave ‘Mahatma Gandhi’s version of the Gita’. It is a well known fact that Barack Obama highly respects Mahatma Gandhi, and giving a version of the Gita in Gandhi’s perspective shows it as a relevant and thoughtful gift from the Modi-led BJP Government. But, that’s not it, Modi actually gave a few Islamic paintings based on a historic Persian painting art form to President Barack Obama. The Modi goverment said that the Islamic paintings symbolized the large Muslim population in his home state of Gujarat, where this historic Islamic art form is being preserved. So yeah, looks like Mira Nair either should not have spoken so soon, or validated her arguments before writing for such a large publication as the Washington Post. Such convenient mistakes or accidents usually cause major loss in credibility of writers. Perhaps the pull of Hinduphobia is so strong that people may just let it go one more time. After all, to many Hinduphobic writers around the world, Hindus and Hinduism are just an idol-worshipping, or monkey-worshipping religion that only poor people in villages follow.

By Dipak K. Chopra

Below is a video of the 20 year-old rape victim’s brave testimony of what she experienced. She states that the rapists said “Hindus will go to hell because they pray to idols and suggested that Muslim students raped her because they wanted to make her a Muslim.”  (video is in Hindi):

The Hindu victim later claimed that she had seen 40 more girls in the Madrassa (Islamic school) where she was held hostage. She said they have been kept in captivity in a secret underground room. Many in India have become furious after this case due to encountering many other similar cases where Hindu girls are targeted and forced to convert (also known as Love Jihad), and little action taken by Police due to fear of Islamist hardliners. Love Jihad has been a major problem in certain areas around India, where Muslim youth motivated by terrorist groups try to romance non-Muslim girls and then force the girls into Islam, before torturing them.

Allegations are that Nawab, his brother Sanaullah, his wife and their daughter kidnapped the girl on July 23. She was allegedly taken to a Madrassa in Hapur area where she was allegedly raped by Nawab, a Islamic school priest and 4 others. The victim was then forced to sign papers which attempted to declare that she had converted to Islam.

According to Superintendent of Police Captain MS Begh, the 20-year-old woman’s father had lodged a complaint last night in Kharkhauda police station against Nawab Khan, cleric Sallaullah, his wife and daughter for abduction and rape of the Hindu teacher, as per Press Trust of India. Police Captain Begh said, the woman managed to escape and returned to her house on July 30 and narrated her ordeal to her parents. Police Captain Begh also said the Hindu rape victim’s medical examination has confirmed rape and cuts were found on her abdomen. There are some media reports suggesting that the Hindu victim had been ignored by local police after the first few times she had provided her report due to fear of taking action against the Madrassa (Islamic school), as it could trigger riots by Muslims in the area. Once the news got more widespread attention, then the Police were forced to file the case as hundreds of locals demanded action by Police.

Accidental Feeding of Roti Made Homepage of all Indian Media Giants for Days but No Homepage Spot for Gangrape of Teacher

Meerut-Hapur MP and many BJP leaders arrived at the spot and demanded stern action against the culprits, due to inaction by the state Samajwadi party, who have been accused of ignoring crimes by Muslim perpetrators to secure their votes as they make up over 25% of the population in some areas.

This story was originally ignored by India English media outlets, but on August 4th the trend #MeerutGangRape began trending in India. This trend put pressure on some Media outlets to post stories. However, major India media outlets such as NDTV and CNN-IBN had not have any coverage on the Meerut gangrape on their homepage. Although, the Times of India covered the story, they omitted the word rape in the headline and only mentioned the forced Islamic marriage. Many Hindus and Indians are outraged because of the favoritism many of Indian media giants play towards specific religions and are often accused as Hinduphobic. Just last week, all Indian media outlets had put priority coverage on their homepage when a Muslim man was accidentally fed a roti during Ramadan.

Will media giants like NDTV and CNN-IBN explain why they don’t put stories like the Meerut gang-rape on their homepage, or will they continue to be accused of being anti-hindu and bigots towards the Hindu population.

India English Media Giants Ignore Crimes in India Only When Hindus are Targeted?

Conversion of Hindu Boy Telecast Live on Pakistani TV Media

It is a fact that Hindus in Pakistan are venerable to forceful conversion, but this plight became more dreadful when a Hindu Boy was converted to Islam and the whole proceeding was live telecasted on a national TV. Pakistani TV show ‘Ramazan chat’ broadcasted live a Hindu boy converting to Islam in a studio packed with audience on Wednesday.

In just five minutes, the 20-year-old introduced as Sunil officially changed his religion under a cleric’s guidance. It is a clear indication of forced conversion which is becoming the latest weapon of Islamic extremists in Pakistan.

The show has been slammed by a leading daily Dawn, which claimed in its editorial that it sent “a clear signal that other religions don’t enjoy the same status in Pakistan as Islam does”.

An editorial in the Dawn on Friday observed, “In yet another example of how the industry’s commercial goals trump ethics, open-mindedness and common sense, on Tuesday a television show broadcast an imam leading a Hindu boy through a live conversion to Islam carried out in the studio as part of the show, complete with the audience joining in to suggest Muslim names for the new convert.”

The editorial said that the joy with which the conversion was welcomed sent a clear signal that other religions don’t enjoy the same status in Pakistan as Islam does.

The editorial also raised the question on how the move will affect country’s minorities. “In a country where minorities are already treated as second-class citizens in many ways, this served to marginalise them even further,” it maintained.

“There is no reason to think the boy was not converting of his own free will, but the whole event had the distinct air of being carried out to give viewers something new and different to watch, even if that meant dragging an intensely personal and spiritual experience into public view,” the daily said.

The write-up also held the Pakistani media responsible on how it will go to with what ‘seems like exciting content’ to spice things up saying “religion is now fair game too”. The editorial said, “More disturbingly, what the channel obviously didn’t stop to consider is the message this broadcast would send to the country’s minorities”.

The daily observed that the problem with Pakistani media is that “it is missing a responsibility chip, hurtling ahead with what seems like exciting content without stopping to consider the ethical implications or appropriateness of its programming, or the message it will send to all Pakistanis, not just those it considers the mainstream”.

Talat Hussain, who hosts a political show on Dawn News, also warned against turning religion into mass entertainment.

“Think about how Muslims would feel when Buddhists in Burma show similarly a Muslim being converted in a live TV show,” he told AFP.

Ramesh Kumar, a leader of the Pakistan Hindu Council, told AFP that the programme would encourage intolerance.

“We are already intimidated. The government gives little heed to the kidnapping of Hindus and forced faith conversion of our girls. Please don’t do things that make us more alienated,” he told AFP.

Earlier News Bharati highlighted how Hindu girl Rinkle Kumari was abducted and forcefully married to Muslim boy and named Faryal Bibi Shah. The incident created outraged among Hindus in Pakistan. Unfortunately Zardari government did not take appropriate steps to curb such Islamic extremists. Now Pakistani media, which is suppose to highlight atrocities on Hindus have joined hands with Islamic extremists who are using media as a promotion tool to promote evil act. Pakistani media has clearly ignored its social responsibility and consequences of such TV show broadcast on other religions in the country. Source: News Bharati

You can watch the live Islamic conversion on Pakistani Media here:

Sonia Gandhi - Leader of the Indian Congress Government

By Sam Yadav

Narendra Modi was cleared of any wrongdoing by the Supreme Court of India of the Godhra 2002 riots. However, the anti-BJP and anti-hindu media constantly blames him. If they blame Modi for the 2002 Godhra riots, then why don’t they constantly remind us of all the riots that took place under Congress Government?

Most of the victims in the below riots were members from the Hindu community, but the media doesn’t feel they need to remind us about these riots and will continue to blame anyone associated with BJP or that has relations with Hinduism.

To be fair, the media should remind us of the ruling governments in these riots and make sure that they do not stop until the Supreme Court of India has cleared them just as they did for Modi.

(1) 1964 Communal riots in Rourkela & Jamshedpur | 2000 Killed | Ruling party CONGRESS

(2) 1947 Communal riots in Bengal | 5000 Killed | Ruling party happened to be CONGRESS

(3) August 1967 | 200 Killed | Communal riots in Ranchi | Party ruling again CONGRESS

(4) 1969 | Communal riots in Ahmedabad | More than 512 Killed | Ruling party happened to be CONGRESS

(5) 1970 | Bhiwandi communal riots in Maharashtra | Around 80 killed | Ruling party CONGRESS

(6) April 1979 | Communal riots in Jamshedpur , West Bengal | More than 125 killed | Ruling party CPIM (Communist Party)

(7) August 1980 | Moradabad Communal riots | Approx 2000 Killed | Ruling Party CONGRESS

(8) May 1984 | Communal riots in Bhiwandi | 146 Killed , 611 Inj | Ruling party CONGRESS | CM – Vasandada Patil

(9) Oct 1984 | Communal riots in Delhi | 2733 Killed | Ruling party CONGRESS

(10) April 1985 | Communal riots inAhmedabad | 300 Killed | Ruling party CONGRESS

(11) July 1986 | Communal violence in Ahmedabad | 59 Killed | Ruling party CONGRESS

(12) Apr-May 1987 | Communal violence in Meerut , UP | 81 killed | Ruling party CONGRESS

(13) Feb 1983 | Communal violence in Nallie, Assam | 2000 killed | PM – Indira Gandhi (CONGRESS)