Hindu nationalism, or Hindutva, is no longer a fringe political ideology, having become mainstream now. And, while the message is going to the masses in various ways, there is also pop culture—in India’s smaller towns and cities, away from the gaze of the urban mainstream media— which is steering the rise of Hindutva pop, or H-Pop, and its icons.
“Can a song trigger a murder?
Can a poem spark a riot?
Can a book divide people?”
Trawling for four years through India’s smaller towns and villages, writer-journalist Kunal Purohit has delved into these and several other questions in his book H-Pop: The Secretive World of Hindutva Pop Stars. Only that this “world” is not so “secretive”. For example, Kavi Singh, an H-Pop music sensation, who is behind songs like “Agar chhua mandir toh tujhe dikha denge; tujhko teri aukaat bata denge” (Don’t you dare touch the temple; or else we will show you your place)—has over a million subscribers on YouTube and over 140,000 followers on Instagram. Similarly, Sandeep Deo, who “openly identifies as a Hindu nationalist; he is an ardent supporter of the Hindutva cause, of the BJP,” as Purohit puts it, runs the India Speaks Daily YouTube channel with 346,000 subscribers.
He is also the founder of a publishing house called Kapot, which “aims to propagate Hindutva through the written word”. The books published often revisit history, “offering a fresh spin on historical events or justifying historical wrongs in ways that suit Hindu nationalists”, writes Purohit.
While the author had already reported on H-Pop as a journalist, he realised that the subject warranted a book of its own, when “in Jharkhand, I uncovered how Hindutva-fuelled pop music was having real-life effects like heightening communal tensions and even driving hate crimes”, he tells FE. “It was when I was travelling across the country before the 2019 Lok Sabha elections that I first came face-to-face with the world of Hindutva pop,” he says.
And in over 250 pages, the author takes the readers through his journey across seven states—Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Delhi-NCR, Bihar, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan—uncovering the stories, motivations and impact of the so-called Hindutva artistes, and their so-called craft, acrid writings and vitriolic commentary aimed at stoking Hindu nationalism, normalising Islamophobia and vilifying critics.
A question arises here—are they driven by ideology or commerce? “It is hard to generalise this,” says Purohit. But “in this ‘New India’ of ours, Hindutva means good business and Hindutva pop stars know this,” he comments.
One cannot dissociate Hindutva from the ruling BJP, especially its stalwart leaders Narendra Modi and Yogi Adityanath, who often find mentions in these songs and poems. In one instance, Purohit writes that a right-wing poet got a cash reward from the Uttar Pradesh government, which he returned saying that they should buy a new bulldozer instead.
Speaking on this connection, Purohit says, “H-Pop at its very core is the reiteration of Hindutva ideals, beliefs and fears, which is shared by the Hindu right-wing, including the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and BJP. Hence, a greater normalisation of hardline Hindutva means greater legitimacy for the agenda of the RSS and the BJP. While some H-Pop stars campaign directly for the BJP and prop up leaders like Modi and Yogi, most others don’t. Instead, they try and attack critics and label them as anti-nationals or legitimise the BJP’s agenda without saying so explicitly. Effectively, their work is meant to further the cause of Hindutva. Politically, there can only be one player that would benefit from this—the BJP.”
Here, social media has played an instrumental role in increasing the reach of H-Pop. And, the H-Pop stars have realised that, carefully crafting their online personas, which have translated in numbers, turning them into Hindutva influencers. “Platforms like YouTube bring another dimension to this—YouTube allows these popstars to make lavish sums of money from uploading this content through advertising revenue. What this effectively means is that spreading communalism is incentivised and rewarded,” Purohit tells FE.
Despite H-Pop being out there for the world to see, there has been a lack of enough reportage on it in the mainstream media. On the possible reasons behind it, Purohit says, “The mainstream media has, over the years, deliberately shrunk its reporting frontiers—budgets are slashed and reporters are actively discouraged from travelling beyond cities. This lack of engagement with the world outside our cities means we are unaware of the lives of rural and semi-rural Indians. We don’t know what their lives are like, nor do we know about their cultural and social choices. Independent newsrooms are trying to change this, but are hamstrung by the lack of financial support. Incidentally, I came across H-Pop while I was on a reporting trip for an independent outlet that ran a hate crime database. My own experience shows that when reporters are encouraged to travel the countryside, it yields an intimate understanding of the world we inhabit.”
Purohit terms the experience of writing on such a delicate theme that threads through art, religion, and politics as “intense”. “For four years, my work involved trawling through and living with a lot of the rhetoric employed in this genre. Needless to say, much of this rhetoric was dehumanising and hateful, angry and bitter. It was heartbreaking to see that art was constantly fuelling a divide between fellow citizens. I had to consume it, absorb and analyse it as dispassionately as I could, and to achieve that detachment was challenging.”
While Purohit has written about H-Pop in the formats of music, poetry and journalism, there is no stopping here as these pop stars are also making memes, YouTube videos and other social media content to further Hindutva, the writer says. However, beyond these, we are also seeing the biggest step in mainstreaming of this pop culture—“through cinema. The Kerala Story and The Kashmir Files represent a new effort, in mixing hardline Hindu right-wing propaganda with an art form like cinema. The success the films enjoyed should serve as a forewarning about more such cinema in the times to come,” he writes
By Shubhangi Shah
https://www.financialexpress.com/lifestyle/hindutva-is-good-business-and-h-pop-stars-know-it/3357493/
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