The global media plays a prominent role in the spread of Hinduphobia and Bharatphobia. It’s still stuck in a colonial mindset where much of the news regarding Bharat and Hindus is created through a prejudiced lens. News with dramatic doses of negativity – women’s apparent lack of freedom in Bharat, the condition of minorities, the mistreatment of people from “lower castes”, the supposed supremacy of Hindutva, etc. gets more coverage and prominence than developmental news about Bharat. Although a lot has changed since the BJP government’s climb to power in 2014 and the international media is literally forced to cover more positive news from Bharat as the country makes strides in several fields. But the international news agenda still seems to be biased against Bharat and Hindus majorly.
The biased coverage of issues related to Bharat and Hindus by the international media has a trigger effect on the perception of the Bharatiya diaspora in the west. When the press will constantly throw up negative stereotypes about Hindus and Bharat, it’s natural that Hindus residing abroad will have to bear the brunt of these prejudices. We are already seeing the large-scale vilification of the Hindu diaspora since the BJP government came back to power during its second term. The likes of The Guardian, BBC, The New York Times, etc. make far-fetched connections between the Bharatiya diaspora’s display of its Hindu identity and Bharat’s apparent far-right Hindu majoritarian government. In this new battle against Bharat and its ancient civilizational ethos, the Hindu diaspora seems to be the new scapegoat.
A first-of-its-kind study conducted by INSIGHT UK sheds light on the perception of British Hindu Bharatiyas regarding the coverage of issues related to Hindus and Bharat by the mainstream British media. A survey was conducted asking Hindus and Bharatiyas living in the United Kingdom about what they thought of the British media. The survey questionnaire saw responses from 2,061 respondents with a strong representation of all regions of the UK.
The survey results reflect a shocking distrust of the mainstream British media among British Hindus and Bharatiyas when it comes to issues concerning Bharat and Hindus. An overwhelming 89 percent of the survey respondents feel that the British media lacks impartiality while reporting and writing on matters pertaining to the Hindu community. 91 percent of the respondents feel that reporting on Bharat is not balanced. One of the most important findings of the survey was the unanimous selection of the BBC and The Guardian when it came to the most unreliable information and views on Hindus and Bharat. According to the survey findings, more than 90 percent of the respondents consider the BBC to be the most biased and inaccurate in its portrayal of matters pertaining to Hindus and Bharat, followed by 67 percent considering The Guardian to be the most prejudiced.
The survey also reported that both the BBC and The Guardian have the highest number of complaints raised against them by members of the BHI (British Hindu Indians) community. Overall, the data collected through the comprehensive survey shows evidence that the Hindu community of the UK is becoming increasingly suspicious and distrustful of the British mainstream media. 59 percent of respondents stated that they had experienced some sort of prejudice as a result of media reporting on issues related to Hindus and Hinduism. 70 percent of respondents said they had faced some kind of prejudice as a result of British media reporting on issues related to Bharat.
Overall, according to the findings of this survey, the mainstream British media, especially BBC and the Guardian, emerges as an unreliable source of information when it comes to reporting and writing on matters related to Bharat, Hindus, and Hindu Dharma. An overwhelming 86 percent of the respondents did not support the TV licensing fees. 89 percent of respondents felt that a referendum should be held to consider decriminalizing license fee evasion. According to the survey report, “these sentiments arose from concerns over inadequate representation and biased reporting on issues related to the British Hindu and British Indian community”.
The survey also sheds light on the lack of an adequate complaint redressal mechanism when it comes to complaints regarding prejudiced media content. According to the findings, both the BBC and The Guardian have the highest number of complaints filed against them by the members of the BHI. However, 98 percent of complainants said they are dissatisfied with the response to their complaint, 11 percent of complainants escalated their complaints to Ofcom, the British Broadcasting regulatory authority, of which 97 percent said they were dissatisfied with the response of Ofcom.
The INSIGHT UK survey creates an important space for future specific research into the deliberate anti-Hindu and anti-Bharat biases that go into the framing of news related to Bharat and Hindus in the international media. Perhaps, there could be research incorporating a combination of quantitative research methods like content analysis, and discourse analysis along with qualitative research methods like interviews, focus groups, etc. to evaluate specific content related to Bharat and Hindus being published and broadcast by the mainstream western media.
According to the INSIGHT UK survey report, the organization has commissioned a team to conduct further analysis of news articles produced by specific media organizations that were highlighted in the survey. It’s sad that while the Social Sciences and the Humanities departments of prestigious Bharatiya universities are busy doing extensive research on anti-Bharat and anti-Hindu topics, one hasn’t come across a single groundbreaking research from Bharat highlighting the systematic anti-Hindu and anti-Bharat bias of either internal media or even the Bharatiya English media for that matter. This could be a valuable research topic for scholars researching mass communication, media, and journalism in Bharatiya universities.
The enormous anti-Bharat and anti-Hindu propaganda of the likes of BBC and The Guardian has been exposed by the Bharatiya nationalist media many times. Bharatiya media publication Firstpost recently carried an article on a piece on Prime Minister Modi by The Guardian. It’s routine for The Guardian to publish highly subjective, biased, and provocative pieces on the Bharatiya government calling the democratically elected government of Bharat right-wing and a dictatorship. Just google the term “Guardian India news” and you’ll see a range of news items steeped in anti-Bharat prejudice. “ ‘Widespread persecution of Muslims’? Guardian report on Modi reflects everything that’s wrong with western media”, says the headline of the Firstpost article. “British newspaper’s report on India is a case study in low-quality journalism where objectivity, editorial consistency, and adherence to facts, have given way to ignorance, prejudice, and a palimpsest of lies”, the article blurb says.
The Guardian article the Firstpost is talking about was published about a week back and it is titled: “BJP’s win in India 2022 general election almost an inevitability”. Devoid of any facts or data and full of subjective and one-sided quotes about the supposed communalism of the BJP, the article is a case study in bad journalism. It’s strange that the likes of The Guardian are still touted as the pinnacle of good journalism, whereas a local Hindi or a regional language media report published from Bharat is more unbiased and journalistically sound than the terribly opinionated write-ups about Bharat the likes of The Guardian produce.
“Has India lost its sense of humour? Critics point to rise of deference after mimicry row”, “ Frustrated Indian food delivery driver heads out on horse after fuel queues”, Indian government accused of attack on democracy as 141 MPs suspended”, “ Grit and Glamour: how Manhua Mahua Moitra shook up the misogyny and hypocrisy of Indian politics”, “ The Guardian view on India at a Crossroads: development not dictatorship”, these are a few headlines of Bharat related articles published by The Guardian over a past couple of months. The headlines tell the tale of the content one can expect! These pieces seem like tacky specimens of woke journalism.
Whatever The Guardian’s intent about publishing such pieces, they would know the best. But this seems like a generalized woke formula aimed at catching maximum eyeballs with minimum investment and reporting. Throw in a bit of talk about Hindu majoritarianism and Hindutva, interview one or two leftist intellectuals, and the woke journalistic piece is ready to go. But the alarming part is a large section of English-educated Bharatiyas are highly influenced by the anti-Bharat and the anti-Hindu bias of the low-grade journalistic pieces doled out by these international highbrow publications. Many English-speaking Bharatiyas form their perceptions of Bharat and Hindu Dharma through the biased lens of such international media. In that sense, the likes of such media also act as opinion makers of sorts trying to influence the Bharatiya electorate and infiltrate their minds.
BBC of course is a repeat offender when it comes to reporting and writing on matters pertaining to Hindus and Bharat. The now-banned BBC documentary on PM Modi vis a vis the 2022 Godhra riots is fresh in everyone’s memory. Every now and then, the leftist organizations of Bharat try their best to somehow screen that documentary in educational institutions. When it comes to BBC, BBC Hindi content should be analyzed separately. It seems to be highly infiltrated by the Islamists. One just needs to check out their youtube channel, and you would think you have by mistake come to BBC Urdu channel. Such is the nature of their content. At the moment, the channel is full of biased and one-sided news about the Israel-Hamas conflict. In matters pertaining to Hindus and Muslims, the BBC Hindi is anything but impartial.
The INSIGHT UK study on the perception of British Hindu Indians of the mainstream UK media portrayal of issues pertaining to Hindus and Bharat is a step in the right direction. We need many more initiatives of this kind, perhaps going deeper into analyzing the anti-Hindu and anti-Bharat content of the western media. Bharatiya universities and think tanks should also take the lead in commissioning such studies.
