After the recent onslaught of anti-Hijab, anti-minority reportage in Kannada regional media, now Kannada entertainment channels have joined the league of media houses selling Islamophobia as a new form of show business.
In a scandalous trailer promoting the new Kannada series titled ‘Raziya Ram’, the channel pushes forth the RSS’s favourite trope of a saviour Hindu man rescuing a ‘damsel-in-distress’ Muslim woman.
The Siri Kannada channel’s entertainment series which is scheduled to air on May 23 boasts an RSS cadre as the male protagonist, who comes to the rescue of the female lead, the runaway Muslim bride. In the 1.3-minute promo trailer, the series upholds popular Islamophobic stereotypes of an oppressed Muslim woman and anti-education Muslim parents keen on marrying off the daughter.
Contrary to the obvious antagonist, the trailer works as a fitting RSS propaganda, championing the Hindutva organization as a ‘nationalistic’ outfit promoting nationalism and the ideology of Hindutva. The protagonist is seen chanting the slogan of ‘Jai Shri Ram’ in tandem with the ‘Jai Hind’, equating the religious chant with the patriotic slogan.
With the pro-Hindutva BJP government at the helm in the state, and increasing Islamophobic attacks perpetrated by the RSS-backed outfits like the Bajrang Dal, and Sri Rama Sene, the minority Muslim community in the state has been on the receiving end of violence and discrimination.
From the restriction of young Hijab-wearing Muslim women from educational spaces to economic boycotts on Muslim traders to the targeting of mosques and azan, the minority community has been constantly victimized and vilified by the state and the media for its religious identity.
Now with the introduction of anti-Muslim, pro-Hindutva propaganda on Kannada entertainment channels, a dangerous process is afoot that aims to popularize the RSS ideology. While the male protagonist whitewashes the Hindutva outfits’ militarized cadre to simply being akin to a nationalistic boy-scout group, the reality of the organization and its founding fathers says otherwise.
Hindutva Fantasies of Fetishizing Muslim Women
Whether through Reddit secret sub-groups, or GitHub’s auctioning apps, the fetishization of Muslim women as sexual objects has been peddled by Hindutva elements as a means to degrade and control the country’s 15% minority Muslim population.
Outspoken and influential Muslim women were ‘auctioned’ through apps known as “Sulli Deals” and “Bulli Bai” by posting their photos for virtual sale. The links to social media accounts of the victimized Muslim women were posted on the illegal mock auction site and shared widely online. The list included journalists, activists, students, and even politicians.
In the wake of this new form of digitized sexual harassment, hundreds of Muslim women suffered from PTSD and psychological breakdowns. Many women still struggle to freely express themselves on social media out of fear of receiving unwanted attention from perverted right-wing fetishizers.
Series such as ‘Raziya Ram’ pushes forth the popular Reddit Trad narrative of Hindutva males who succeed in dominating Muslim women, and essentially free them from their orthodox religion. The danger of such narratives is that they affirm the objectification of Muslim women by portraying them as challenges to be won over.
In retrospect, normalizing and whitewashing an organization such as RSS that memorializes the evils of Nazism from the sobering pages of history, is indicative of the dangers to come. With hate speeches against minority communities, and online sexual violence against minority women becoming a regular phenomenon, propaganda series like this hint at the sinister design of targeting minority faith groups.
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