The use of various media throughout history as a propaganda tool is well known and well documented. Propaganda can be defined as, “the presentation of information in a way so as to influence the opinion of a large group of people”. Put the word propaganda in any search engine and you will be inundated with information. Propaganda has been the main feature of the various histories written of the Hindus over the last thousand years, chiefly by Muslim invaders and later by the British. So it should come as no surprise to the impartial observer, the disturbing propensity of the Indian English Language Media (IELM) to act as an anti Hindu mouthpiece. Ethics and journalistic integrity are strangers in a media market where editorial space is sold by the inch.
The news reporting by the media seems to revolve around three D’s i.e. Disinformation, Distortion, and Duplicity. All of which is the standard fare of any good propaganda. You spread disinformation, distort an opponent’s stand beyond recognition and finally practice double standards when it comes to reporting on Hindus and the so called minorities.
The reporting reeks of psychological warfare (PSYWAR) from every bit of dry ink.
PSYWAR has been defined by the US department of Defense as: "The planned use of propaganda and other psychological actions having the primary purpose of influencing the opinions, emotions, attitudes, and behaviour of hostile foreign groups in such a way as to support the achievement of national objectives."[1]
PSYWAR is a very potent propaganda tool and used the world over by media, governments, conglomerates to influence perceptions and public opinions. This involves appealing to a person’s emotions rather than intellect.
Remove the words foreign and national from the above definition and you have a tailor made description of the tactics pursued by IELM in achieving their objectives. From the spate of articles and orchestrated campaigns in recent years (e.g. J&K agitation, the backlash against missionary activity in Orissa and Karnataka, “Hindu Terrorists” etc), it has become clear that the IELM has been completely subverted by anti Hindu interests. I have specifically not used the word anti India because the integrity of the national fabric of India is guaranteed by Hinduism (or Sanatana Dharma for the sake of accuracy) and nothing else.
The reader could be forgiven for thinking that the IELM is an august establishment engaged in promoting and safe guarding “secular” democracy. The reality is that it is composed of a cabal of middlemen engaged in the promotion of their own little ‘crusades’. Most of the journalists, editors etc have Hindu names, but are dyed in the wool communists who have made a career out of bashing Hinduism.
I have tried to list some of the propaganda techniques employed by IELM; the list is by no means exhaustive .The purpose is to present in a nutshell the kind of lies peddled by the Indian media. Hopefully the next time you pick up an English paper or switch on the TV, you will be more critical of the trash on offer.
Here are some of the propaganda techniques:
1. Obfuscation
What this means is that news is cleverly presented in a way so as to make it virtually meaningless to the reader. A sterling example in this regard would be the recent violence going on between illegal Bangladeshi Muslim settlers and the indigenous Hindus of Assam. A little background on the issue is in order. The illegal immigration of Bangladeshi settlers into India has taken epidemic proportions with their number in India being estimated at around 20 million.[2]
The worst affected are north eastern states like Assam, where complete demographic change in entire districts has reduced the former majority i.e. Hindus’ to minority status in a matter of decades. Things have reached a boiling point with the aggressive Bangladeshi Muslims asserting themselves against the indigenous Bodos, tribal’s etc. The death toll in the current spate of violence has gone past fifty, but browse through the media reports and you would be hard pressed to tell who’s killing who.
“There were fierce clashes between members of two communities and a person belonging to one community was stabbed to death”, this is a typical reporting tactic where nobody knows who’s the victim and who’s the aggressor. You can draw various inferences from the above e.g. were Martians fighting people from Venus, or were aliens fighting earth men or none of the above?
2. The straw man argument
A strawman is defined as an “informal fallacy based on misrepresentation of an opponent’s position”. In practice this means setting up a position for an opponent which seems convincing but is completely fake and then proceeding to demolish it. An example will make this clearer. Suppose a Hindu says, “We need the uniform civil code”, it is presented by the IELM as, “Hindu fanatics demand revocation of minority rights”.
The creation of the “Hindu Terrorist” is an excellent example of a straw man. You now have attempts afoot to declare the Bajrang Dal a terrorist organization on par with mass murderers like SIMI (Students Islamic Movement of India).The media went into virtual ecstasy when Sadhvi Pragya was arrested on suspicion of involvement in the Malegaon blasts .This was duly followed up by the arrest of two retired army officers and the principal of Bhonsale Military school, Nasik. So far the ATS (Anti Terrorist Squad) has been unable to find any proof of the Sadhvi`s involvement [3]. But the witch hunt has already started; the secular media is baying for their blood and will not rest until till someone is sacrificed on the high altar of Indian secularism.
The crescendo for action against the mythical “Hindu terrorist” is going to reach a fever pitch in the coming months. Going by the way events have been progressing, this might actually become true in the near future. If and when the “Hindu Terrorist” actually becomes a reality, the media will be the first in the firing line. This might be a good time for our “secular journalists” to book their retirement home in Bangladesh or Afghanistan. At least they will be guaranteed 72 virgins when they pop off!!
An editorial from The Times of India (TOI) from some years back provides an interesting insight into the IELM tactics [4]. This editorial was regarding the high court ordering an archaeological dig at the Ram mandir site. The editorial switches from questioning the validity of the court order, to questioning the science of archaeology itself, before finally creating the totally spurious argument of Hindu extremist elements taking over, if the evidence of a temple were found!! The fact that archaeological evidence was subsequently found has been brushed under the carpet. The media plays blind and the government plays dumb, such is our democracy!!
3. Burden of Proof
From the very beginning, the onus has been on Hindus to prove they are innocent. In the perversion known as Indian secularism, the Hindu is presumed guilty and the minorities are absolved of all sins. Any proof the Hindus provide is never sufficient. An interesting example of how this tactic was applied to the Ayodhya issue is exposed in Koenraad Elsts seminal work.[5] The Hindu organizations were continually hoodwinked into producing proof after proof, for the existence of the temple, every one of them being shot down by the secular media and historians.
The burden of proof fallacy was put to good use in the recent conflict between the Christian missionaries and Hindus in Karnataka and Orissa. The missionaries and their neo convert Christians have been portrayed in the media as innocent lambs led to the slaughter by a vicious mob of Hindus. This ignores the fact that the conflict in Orissa was sparked off by the cold blooded murder of eighty six year old Swami Laxmananda and his followers, by hired hit men. Swamiji had survived seven assassination attempts previously, all being engineered by the Christian Missionary lobby. The conflict is multi dimensional with the majority Hindu Kandh community fighting back after being disenfranchised and marginalized by decades of neglect by the state administration and persecution by the minority Panas (who are converted Christians). The murder of the late Swamiji was the straw which broke the camel’s back.
4. Rationalization
Rationalization means the justification of an event, by presenting arguments which seem rational but are completely fake. e.g., I steal your cow but rationalize the act by saying I did not like the way you looked at me!
This tactic is common place in the IELM, with every terrorist strike being justified as in retaliation to Gujarat riots, destruction of Babri Masjid etc. So it comes as no surprise when one of the “respected” national dailies issues an editorial justifying the provision of legal aid by Jamia Milia University to the accused in the Delhi blasts[6].This seems suspiciously similar to the Al Qaeda brand of logic which justifies every act of terror, by bringing forth grievances which are at least 500 years old!!! By this logic Hindus are overdue to go on a killing spree to avenge over one thousand years of murder, rape and the systematic destruction of Hindu culture by the Muslim invaders [7].
The above mentioned editorial starts off by setting the tone and calling the BJP communal for criticising the decision by the Jamia Milia Islamia University Vice Chancellor Mushirul Hasan to provide legal aid to the budding jihadis on the sole basis that they are students of his university. To justify the decision the writer then selectively quotes article 39A of the Indian Constitution which says, ” The State shall secure that the operation of the legal system promotes justice, on a basis of equal opportunity, and shall, in particular, provide free legal aid, by suitable legislation or schemes or in any other way, to ensure that opportunities for securing justice are not denied to any citizen by reason of economic or other disabilities”.[8]
To interpret this as a constitutional right to provide legal aid and support to mass murderers takes a big flight of imagination. By this definition every educational institution which takes UGC (University Grants Commission) grants, has the right to provide legal aid to every rapist, murderer, terrorist who happens to be a student. What will the writer say when a UGC funded university jumps to the defence of so called “Hindu Fundamentalists”. It will be fun to see the mental gymnastics the secular media will be forced to do when this happens.
The editorial further pontificates ,”embedded in the idea of providing accused with the means of defending themselves completely is a jurisprudential principle that forms the bed rock of modern law-the presumption of innocence unless person is proven guilty”. All well and good, but why does this apply only to Islamic terrorists and the assorted Christian missionary? A good example of what kind of a one way street their concept of justice and innocence is the labelling of Narendra Modi with colourful epithets like “Butcher of Gujarat”, “Mass murderer” etc. This despite the fact that the good Chief Minister is yet to be implicated for his supposed “role” in the riots!! Or the labelling of Sadhvi Pragya as a terrorist, even when no evidence has been found till date!!
The article then descends into questioning the thought processes of the BJP spokesman Ravi Shankar Prasad, rebuking him for his criticism of the university’s decision .A well worn and used tactic of the secular media is personal attacks and ridicule of the opposing person. If you cannot win the argument, might as well pull down their lungi seems to be the motto!!
5. Cross Propagation & Amplification
The reporting by the western media correspondents in India mostly duplicates what the IELM publishes. If a story does the rounds of nuns being raped, however baseless it might be, every major Western news outlet will present it as the gospel truth. If the Indian media itself acts as a fifth column, what can you expect from a foreign media which comes with its own inherent bias and a colonial attitude to boot? Hindus are routinely demonized as people who force their women to commit Sati, kill “untouchables”, persecute minorities and in general worship “animal gods”(cue to the description of Lord Hanuman as the “monkey god”, Lord Ganesha as the “elephant god”, you get the idea).This is as close to the Church propaganda of “devil worshipping heathens” as you can get.
The western media keeps parroting the same old information peddled by the IELM without even updating the facts once reality becomes clear.
For example take this news report from the 31st October from the BBC website, which gives the impression that ULFA is behind the Assam bomb blasts which have killed over 80 people [9]. No issues with this, at this stage the Government of India and the local administration were running around like headless chickens, still squawking the mantra that ULFA was to blame. Cut to November 3rd and the BBC has this cute little Q&A for the news challenged, which goes on to describe what the ULFA is and why it did the bomb blasts. This is almost two days after it became clear this was done by an obscure bunch of Islamic terrorists called the Islamic Security Force (a front of the Indian Mujahideen, which again is a front of SIMI)[10].Thanks to the Indian Army, ULFA is a shadow of its former self. Either the BBC has extremely incompetent reporters or there is a more sinister move afoot to bring ULFA back into the limelight, while simultaneously covering up the role of the Islamic terrorists.
Metaphorically speaking, I have only skimmed the surface of the iceberg. The amount of material is enough to fill a good sized book. In the further article I will tackle the issue of how to drain the swamp, in which such treasonous vipers are allowed to breed (my apologies to the all reptiles, which might have been offended by this analogy).
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[1] Phil Taylor (1987). "Glossary of Relevant Terms & Acronyms PROPAGANDA AND PSYCHOLOGICAL WARFARE STUDIES University of Leeds UK". University of Leeds UK.
[2] 2 cr Bangladeshis in India: Fernandes, Tribune India - September 27, 2003; www.tribuneindia.com/2003/20030928/main1.htm
[3] Sadhvi's terror link: Narco test gives her clean chit, Times of India online edition, 01/11/08, extracted on 02/11/08
[4] Times of India online edition, 07/03/2003, extracted on 09/10/08
[5] Ayodhya and After, Issues before Hindu Society; Koenraad Elst, Voice of India Books, http://voiceofdharma.org/books/ayodhya/
[6] “Don’t Communalise Anti terror fight”, The Hindu, www.hinduonnet.com/2008/09/26/stories/2008092655931000.htm, extracted on 11/10/08
[7] The Story of Islamic Imperialism in India, Sita Ram Goel, Voice of India Books, http://voiceofdharma.org/books/siii/
[8] http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Constitution_of_India/Part_IV
[9] Tragic aftermath of Assam's bombs, BBC news, http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/7701839.stm, extracted on 03/11/08
[10] Car Bombs were Used in Guwahati Blasts, Times of India Online Edition, http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Car_bombs_were_used_in_Guwahati_blasts/articleshow/3660580.cms, extracted on 03/11/08
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