In yet another unfortunate incident in an increasingly polarised India, a woman standing in a queue for food distribution outside a hospital was denied her meal, rebuked and told to leave if she could not chant “Jai Shree Ram.”
The video of the incident, which immediately went viral on social media, has sparked immense outrage across the nation.
The question remains: is this merely an isolated incident, or the inevitable result of years of hate-fuelled politics? What has been relentlessly sown over these years is now being reaped, manifesting in such incidents, much to the satisfaction of those who thrive on division.
Years of vilifying Muslims and peddling a negative public opinion have now deeply ingrained in people’s minds the belief that Muslims are inherently “evil”.
Prime Minister’s infamous “Kapdo se pehchan” has successfully conveyed to masses whether it’s by a Muslim woman’s veil or a man’s skull cap, Muslims can easily be discerned through their clothes, for being eventually discriminated against.
Thus, a Muslim woman being denied a meal based on her appearance is not a sudden or isolated incident, but rather the direct outcome of the Islamophobia propagated by some of the most prominent figures in the state.
So,how is propaganda disseminated, and how is the psychology of the masses altered to make them believe that a certain group is evil? There are several key strategies used by the power elites to achieve this:
Dehumanisation
By portraying the target group as “less than human”, immoral, or a threat to society, it becomes easier to justify negative attitudes or actions against them.
In India, this is achieved through derogatory language and stereotypes like mulla, puncture wale, aatankwadi, or even satires like “peaceful community” or cherry picking that group’s negative actions and emphasising and it doesn’t take sharp observation to notice this pattern in Indian society today.
This is what you can extensively see across the social media and Hindutva events. Years of this consistent malpractice has eventually compelled some people to think that there is inherently something wrong with this community – naturally, they begin to view them with suspicion or disdain.
Repetition of Negative Narratives
Constant repetition of negative and harmful stories about the group, whether through media, politicians, or public figures, can condition people to associate the group with negativity. Over time, these repeated narratives embed themselves into the collective consciousness of society. In the Indian context, this repetition by politicians, religious preachers, media and Hindutva affected academia has embedded these ideas into the collective consciousness of Indian society.
While it’s undeniable that there are unsocial elements, black sheep and criminals in the Muslim society, like any other society, presenting these individuals as the face of the entire community is not only unfair but deeply unjust. Unfortunately, this has been the long-standing agenda of the mainstream media and the sections of Bollywood film industry, which have perpetuated harmful stereotypes through their content. If this seems troubling, there’s more to the story, in the form of movies like the Kerala Story.
Such recent poisonous movies have fabricated dangerous stories about Muslims and brazenly presented them as non-fiction, jeopardising the life of every Muslim.
What’s even more alarming is the silence of the Censor Board, which has allowed such incendiary content to reach the masses without intervention. This speaks volumes about the level of control the state exerts over the Censor Board.
Us vs. Them Mentality
Promoting a narrative that paints a particular group as “outsiders” or fundamentally different from the majority fosters a dangerous sense of “otherness.” This mentality deepens divisions and breeds mistrust, often over-emphasising cultural, religious, or ideological differences. In India, this had been the part and parcel of certain political leaders’ everyday lives.
Yogi Adityanath’s argument that Muslimsand Hindus are two totally different cultures, identities and civilizations and hence inferring an impossibility for them to live together cheek by jowl, encapsulates the essence of divisive leadership.
Years of brainwashing and fear-mongering have led a significant portion of the Hindu masses to believe, to a disturbing extent, that Muslims are foreign to the soil of Bharat, making their existence non-negotiable. Fallacious Ideas like Ghazwa-e-Hind have been iterated and reiterated enough for a common man to believe that Muslims are inherently antagonistic against Hindus and their return to power and glory would imply the destruction of the Hindus. Examples, most of which have been proven to be fabricated, are drawn from the period of rule of Muslim rulers. This has cultivated a belief among many Hindus that hostility toward Muslims is essential for their survival in the land.
While it’s true that an undercurrent of “otherness” has existed in India’s collective psyche, this does not entail that diverse cultures and communities cannot coexist and thrive together.
India’s rich history of pluralism demonstrates that different communities have, in fact, lived and flourished side by side for centuries.
Use of Authority Figures
When trusted authority figures (politicians, religious leaders, or celebrities) endorse negative views or actions against a particular group, people are more likely to adopt these views. People tend to believe those they respect or view as credible. We keep witnessing this in the form of hate-filled satsang, where the likes of Yati Narsinghanand are given a free pass to call for lynchingsand even the massacre of Muslims with no action taken against them. It’s not surprising that such incitement seems to be covertly sponsored by the state.
The rise in hate-filled “satsangs” and similar events represents a significant shift in how communal tensions are stoked. The frequency of such programmes has reached an all-time high in recent years, with religious leaders like Pandits and Sadhus increasingly being used to advance a divisive agenda. The public perception of religious leaders as moral and cultural authorities makes their endorsement of hate particularly insidious, as it frames these harmful messages as part of a legitimate cultural or religious discourse. Likewise, we have also recently witnessed the iconic actor Mithunda turning into a hatemonger where he threatened to kill Muslims and throw them “into their own lands and graveyards rather than the rivers, which are sacred”.
Religious leaders and celebrities, particularly in the Indian context, hold significant sway over their followers. Such figures, in return for their personal gains, have capitalised on this influence to push extremist narratives. By embedding hate speech within religious discourse, they give their vitriol an air of legitimacy, often framing it as a defence of faith or culture.
Fearmongering and Scapegoating
Associating the target group with societal problems or presenting them as a danger to public safety, economic stability, or cultural purity can galvanise people against them. Fear often overrides rational judgement, making it easier to control opinions. Love Jihad serves as a relevant example of this phenomenon where Hindu masses are made to believe that Muslims have this as their religious goal to woo their daughters and convert them. This narrative is so ridiculous that any person grounded in Islamic knowledge would dismiss it outright and laugh this away. The alarming reality, however, is that a significant number of Hindus have been successfully brainwashed into sincerely believing in it. This underscores how lies, when repeated often enough, begin to appear true.
Convincing people that the group poses an imminent and existential threat, real or imagined, pushes individuals into survival mode. In this mindset, drastic or discriminatory actions against the group can be rationalised as pre-emptive and hence, necessary for self-preservation.
These methods, when systematically and strategically employed, can drastically alter the masses’ psychology, fostering hostility, prejudice, and sometimes even violence against the targeted group. The RSS’s Hindutva ideology has successfully tricked the nation into believing that Indian Muslims are an existential threat, aiming either to convert or exterminate Hindus. What is particularly striking is how this narrative also reveals an inferiority complex, implying that Indian culture and tradition are so fragile that they could be eradicated by a community deemed “backward” by the very same forces promoting this ideology.
This is further underpinned by historical revisionism, which cleverly rewrites history or selectively highlights the negative aspects of a group’s past, naturally fuelling distrust and resentment against it. This often involves highlighting the past conflicts of the two communities and wrongdoings of the Muslim Emperors, while ignoring any of their positive contributions.
Unfortunately, the majority fail to look beyond the narratives and the fraud inherent in them, naively believing that today’s Muslims are the true successors of the mediaeval monarchs, posing an existential threat. This notion is as ridiculous as it is unfounded – how could a community of over one billion be so easily manipulated into thinking that a group representing less than a quarter of their population could defeat them? Such beliefs reek of a deep inferiority complex and insecurities.