Islamophobia refers to feelings of fear and hostility, originating in racist ideas, that results in discrimination, exclusion, and violence against Muslims and those perceived as Muslim. In the words of Nitasha Kaul, Islamophobia in India is aimed at enabling violence, subjugation and intimidation of Muslims, perceiving them as a threat to the nation. The secular fabric of India is being torn into shreds due to the constant alienation of Muslims, who are being subjected to institutional discrimination and rampant violence for not aligning with ideas of the majoritarian religion and political ideology. Such treatment of Muslims has been supported and reinforced by mainstream media through their biased reportage and debates.
When observed carefully, it can be noted that recent years have witnessed Islamophobic ideas becoming increasingly prevalent and explicit in mainstream media. The television news media has been playing an active role in inciting the majority Hindu community against Muslims in India by normalising mob lynching and anti-Muslim violence, while simultaneously refraining from questioning hate speeches, and occasionally even exalting the rhetoric against Muslims made by members of right-wing political parties such as the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and organisations such as the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). The nature of primetime debates with hate-mongering leaders and extremists on channels including Republic TV, Aaj Tak, Sudarshan TV, Times Now, etc., increases the friction between the Hindu and Muslim communities, deepening the “us vs. them” divide. For example, on an interview with India TV, Yogi Adityanath (UP CM from BJP) claimed that there was an “Islamic conspiracy against India,” the proof of which he claimed were inter-religious marriages (between Muslim men and Hindu women), which were supposedly not a result of love, but of deception, i.e., Muslim men change their names and appearances to pose as Hindu to marry and convert Hindu women to Islam. Furthermore, reporting of incidents such as rape and murder has also been maligned in the mainstream media. In one instance, numerous news TV channels claimed that the rape and murder of a child – Asifa – was an orchestrated claim on part of the child’s family to seek revenge from the accused people. This proved to be false when one of the accused confessed to the crime in addition to stating that it was motivated by religion. The confession, however, did not prompt any accountability on part of the media to own up to their mistake and report the truth, instead. The majority-minority divide is further fuelled by the mainstream media through their propagation of the “Hindu khatre mein hai” (“Hindus are in danger”) narrative. This falls under the ambit of a larger idea that the idea of Muslims having more children coupled with the number of illegal immigrants from Bangladesh entering into India, will lead to “them” becoming the majority community.
A similar pattern can also be identified in Indian cinema, especially Bollywood. According to Franklin Fearing (an American psychologist), cinema is not an idea received by a passive mind. He stated that through cinema, people affirm their doubts, find solutions to their problems, and vicariously experience phenomena outside their world. In this context, the role played by movies in the communal polarisation of Indian society must be studied. The representation of Islam and Muslims in film has been problematic for quite a few reasons. Firstly, there is a severe underrepresentation of Muslim protagonists (barring the very few well known artists) despite the large number of Muslim actors, directors, lyricists, etc. Further, there has always been a stereotypical image of Muslims – in the 1950s and 1960s, they were shown as Kings, Nawabs and feudal lords in films such as Mughal-e-Azam, Anarkali, etc., and in more recent times, they are represented as dons, terrorists and anti-nationals. The representation of Muslims in films has become so detrimental that “if Bollywood were to be believed, normal Muslims were becoming extinct in India,” as stated by Maidul Islam. Attempts have been made in movies such as Padmaavat (2018) and Tanhaji (2020) to distort history by portraying Muslims as tyrannical rulers, ignoring their contributions to society and culture. Furthermore, movies such as Animal (2023), wherein the Muslim men are seen as converting especially to marry multiple women and later abusing their wives, enforce certain stereotypes held against Muslim men and their moralities. Moreover, films including Roja (1992) and Gadar: Ek Prem Katha (2001) promote distorted views of extremism and exaggerate anti-Muslim and anti-Pakistan sentiments. More recently, The Kashmir Files (2022) and The Kerala Story (2023) have been criticised for presenting a one-sided view of the Kashmiri Pandit exodus and exaggerating the number of women who were trapped by the ISIS in Kerala, respectively. Both of these films led to calls of violence against Muslims. Thus, cinema has repeatedly been seen propagating negative stereotypes about Muslims, ingraining Islamophobic sentiments and symbols in the minds of the public.
Therefore, recent debates on mainstream news media and movies, especially those produced in the Hindi film industry have seen a slew of Islamophobic ideas and have strengthened the biased perception against the community within the minds of the public, and the same must be corrected.
