Social media channels and influencers have steadily and stealthily shaped public thinking and discourse, a new book explains
India's YouTube streams are filled with influencers like Sandeep, who align themselves with the Hindu right and offer everything from polemical, communally charged rhetoric to “analysis” and perspective. The style is also common: live videos from makeshift studios set up in their homes and offices, usually alone, sometimes with other 'expert' guests, giving their views on current events.
Such influencers serve a useful role for the BJP – on any given issue, they become valuable voices for the party to covertly shape public thinking and discourse in the way it wants, without getting directly involved. These influencers often lay the foundation for the Modi government's actions by building consensus on critical issues. As a result, when the government ultimately makes decisions on these issues, a substantial portion of the party base will likely already be convinced of their necessity, allowing the party to drown out any criticism of its actions. This came to fruition when the Modi government decided to revoke Article 370 of the Indian Constitution, depriving Jammu and Kashmir of its autonomy. While most others were baffled by the hasty manner in which the decision was taken without consulting many of the stakeholders, the BJP's supporters strongly supported the decision – having been constantly fed the rhetoric that scrapping the special powers of the region would help local Kashmiri Hindus 'fight back'. .
These influencers often also spread stories that may be too controversial for the party itself to officially sell. For example, in October 2022, Rajendra Pal Gautam, a minister of the Delhi government's ruling Aam Aadmi Party, was criticized by the BJP when he attended an event where 10,000 people converted to Buddhism after taking a vow to see Dr. BR Ambedkar, the Dalit reformer and architect of the Indian Constitution, which was administered to his followers who wanted to embrace Buddhism.
The BJP leaders followed up on the event, circulated the videos and termed the event and Gautam as 'anti-Hindu'. Media reports called the criticism a “calibrated campaign.” Sandeep discussed the issue in a video and went further, calling the AAP a party that is an agent of 'Christianity'. He lashed out at Gautam and Ambedkar's followers, saying that it was so malechchh, a casteist slur often used to attack people born into lower castes. Sandeep said that 'these neo-Buddhists' were no better than Christians, and were 'indirectly' agents of those 'Abrahamic' people.
Sandeep's rhetoric, aimed at both neo-Buddhists and Dalits, is a rhetoric that the BJP could never use, as it had actively tried to win over Dalit communities. But Sandeep can do that, and if he does, he can help the BJP; his rhetoric helps consolidate the BJP's Hindu voters by portraying its main rival in Delhi, the Aam Aadmi Party, as anti-Hindu.
In times when Hindutva is the dominant, mainstream political ideology, taking such strong stands also makes commercial sense for Sandeep. According to Social Blade, a US-based website that tracks social media analytics, Sandeep's YouTube channel, India Speaks Daily, may earn as much as $30,000 or close to it thanks to his followers and reach ₹2,500,000 per year.
It's no surprise then that more and more YouTube influencers are doing what Sandeep does: promoting Hindutva causes online.
A study published in July 2021 by First Draft, a global non-profit organization dedicated to detecting misinformation on social media, had revealed how Islamophobic content from India was flourishing on YouTube, effectively sending viewers down rabbit holes of anti-Muslim content pushed into the market. platform. The study revealed how content centering on demonizing Muslims and blaming them for the spread of Covid-19 in India flourished on YouTube.
Similarly, a report from New York University's Stern Center for Business and Human Rights in June 2022 said that the “most disturbing abuse of YouTube in India,” which is the platform's largest market with 450 million users, is the ” targeting Muslims' was. by supporters of the ruling BJP and other right-wing Hindu nationalist groups. Like Sandeep.
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Cover of HPop: The Secretive World Of Hindutva Pop Stars by Kunal Purohit, published by Harper Collins India, ₹499
Through his videos, he ultimately benefits the BJP in several ways: On rare days when the party faces criticism, Sandeep will distort events in such a way that the criticism is forgotten: facts are cleverly chosen and events are selectively highlighted. In June 2020, Indian and Chinese soldiers posted along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) saw a fierce clash break out between them in Ladakh's Galwan Valley. The clash left twenty Indian soldiers dead and many others injured. However, the Chinese side refused to reveal the casualties on its side, leading to much intrigue and speculation about the real extent of damage suffered by China during the clashes. The clashes were the worst ever peacetime attack on Indian soldiers in decades, and the Modi government has faced criticism from several military experts and opposition parties over its lack of transparency in dealing with Chinese aggression.
Many within the establishment were keen to portray India as the 'winner' after the violent clash. A minister in the Modi government, former Army Chief General VK Singh (retd), said more than 40 Chinese soldiers were killed in the clash. Northern Army commander Lieutenant General YK Joshi said at least forty-five Chinese soldiers had been killed.
Several unverified claims were spread on pro-government news channels and social media, speculating about the casualties on the Chinese side. Claims of Chinese victims by Indian officials ranged from forty to a hundred.
In some cases, newsreaders even cited viral WhatsApp messages as a source to point out that the Chinese had suffered greatly at the hands of Indian soldiers. Much of this was an attempt to counter the criticism the government was facing, and to help reiterate the muscular nationalism that the Modi government had cultivated for itself. Fact-checkers, meanwhile, had a field day debunking many of these claims.
Eight months later, in February 2021, the Chinese side finally admitted that four soldiers had been killed. Of the claims of 100 victims, four seemed a disappointing number. But not for Deo.
In a live video on his YouTube channel, Sandeep uses the Chinese acknowledgment of deaths – even if only a fraction of the number of victims claimed by the Indians – to claim a victory over the Chinese. But as he does so, he uses the Chinese admission to eliminate government critics, as well as fact-checkers who had previously flagged unverified claims from Chinese victims.
His appearance begins with lavish claims – about Chinese propaganda being run from “a huge building in China,” and how China has cultivated agents all over the world, as well as in India. As he does so, a 2008 photo of former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi in a handshake with Chinese President Xi Jinping appears on the screen next to his face. Gandhi, he says, is “Chinese agent No. 1, who is the overarching agent… and keeps talking in favor of China.”
He doesn't provide much evidence. He refers to a statement Gandhi made criticizing the fact that Indian soldiers were unarmed, as evidenced by media reports of the incident. Incredibly, Sandeep says that China's admission of the four deaths was proof that 'their necks were broken', and that Gandhi was wrong and refused to remind his viewers that the Indian side had lost twenty soldiers. Chinese confessions had exposed Gandhi and shown that he was lying, and his propaganda had failed, he insists. With his claims, Sandeep manages to divert the attention of his followers from the disappointing Chinese admission and the inaccurate Indian claims. Instead, he draws their attention to a familiar old enemy in Gandhi.
As his video continues, his audience swallows him up. The comments section is buzzing; a man named Chandrabhan Pandey, who writes in capital letters, is furious. “What's to stop us from hanging these traitors?” he asks. Another calls for a ban on Alt News, a fact-checking agency that Sandeep targets. Alt News had previously labeled the unverified claims of dozens of Chinese victims as misinformation. One more user calls for BBC to be banned from India. Many call for Gandhi to be jailed; some call him a traitor, others call him worse names. During the thirty-seven minute video, more than 150 people commented on it and the video was viewed more than 35,000 times within minutes.
Sandeep's deed is done.
Reprinted with permission from HPop: The Mysterious World of Hindutva Pop Stars by Kunal Purohit, published by Harper Collins India, ₹499