Hindutva Pop: Anti-Muslim Music in India 

Hindutva Pop is calling the youth for Hindu nationalism and religious warfare. It again fuels the sentiments of islamophobia.

Hindutva Pop Triggering Contemporary Hate Politics 

Indian pop stars like Laxmi Dubey are singing songs with lyrics like “Every house will be saffron!” that depicts a colour for Hinduism.  She yells that “We have to make terrorists run from our blessed land!” pointing towards people of a particular religion. People cheer for such lyrics. The word Hindutva means a devout Hindu Culture and a way of life. Hindutva pop reflects how a Hindu should live and behave through its lyrics. Such pop music sets the Hindu religious stories to the musical tracks. They also calls for Hindu action against Muslims, Pakistan, non-believers and forced conversions.

Ms. Dubey believes in conspiracy theories that talks about forced conversions and love-jihad. She said that “Why would they [Muslims] marry Hindu girls and convert them? The minority communities are doing 5-10 marriages and have 20-50 children. Their population is growing heavily. If our country didn’t support them, would their population grow to this extent?” and she further added that “I want to bring Hindus together to create an army.”

Source: Rebecca Conway for The New York Times. (Villagers enjoying the songs by Ms. Laxmi Dubey, who vows to create a foot army for the liberation of India and make it a Hindu nation).

Increasing Popularity of saffron Pop Music Creating a Threat to Unity and Peace

Popularity of such songs has been increasing fast with a larger fan base. It shows the amplifying influence of hatred on the minds and souls of people. Such songs have intention to bring revolution through Hindutva pop.

Major themes for these songs are like stone pelting in Kashmir, cow slaughtering, love-jihad, chanting Hindu slogans, temple issue and Muslim immigrants. 

Even current issues which already are instigating fear and intimidation among Muslims are tuning and becoming viral with these songs. Like, one such song released on Mayur Music, a popular Hindutva pop music channel is “Hijab Hijab Kyun Karti Ho Jab rehti ho Hindustan main (why do you insist on the Hijab when you stay in India)”. 

Hence, songs on these current issues are making Hindutva pop even more popular and growing fast.

These songs are clearly supporting the hate politics based on divisive forces. Far right political groups who gets benefit from hindu-muslim politics are encouraging such singers with awards and funds. Mostly these songs promote hindu majoritarian politics. 

Hindutva Pop Again Rising Islamophobia with Hate Speech and Anti-Muslim Rhetoric 

Such songs are fuelling the rising sentiments for islamophobia. It encourages people to use religiously extremist views and comments on social media platforms and campaigns. Such songs are openly at display on YouTube channels and shared by users. Lyrics of these devotional songs contains hate, abuse and even threat for genocide targeted for Muslim minority people. Polarisation has been increasing fast with attacks and politics against Muslims. 

“Insaan nahi ho saalo, ho tum kasaayi; Bahut ho chuka Hindu-Muslim bhai bhai” – You are not human, you are butchers; it’s enough of Hindu-Muslim brotherhood.

These are the lyrics of one of the devotional songs “bhajan” sung by Prem Krishnavanshi which are being posted on YouTube and are seen thousands of times.

It is unrealistic to imagine that these kinds of comments would not trigger attacks and hate towards Muslims. it is obvious that these songs will only create attacks and counter attacks resulting in disharmony in the country.

People would become envious, suspicious and hateful towards each other.

Contemporary hate politics is the biggest reason for the promotion of such music.

It is becoming a mass culture in India to play and enjoy anti-muslim songs by Hindu supremacist groups. 

Although Hindutva music is still not mainstream music, it is gaining popularity very fast. It is a matter of concern that such music is becoming seen as normal by many people. They are accepting and promoting it. Hindu far right groups repeatedly threatened Muslims through citizenship status. Even some of the government dignitaries called migrants as termites. They encouraged violence against those accused of cow slaughtering (in India mostly butchers are the Muslims and other low caste people). Muslims and other minority groups are in fear that there might be attacks on them if they do not display extreme patriotism or Hindu religious fervour. These fear tendencies are damaging the secular foundation of India. 

Cultural Products like Poetry, Music, Cinema and Art are Becoming Tools for Hatred

Cultural products like music, poetry, art and cinema have always been a medium to connect people. It has been the glory of India where people of multiple religions live together and share common culture. It is unimaginable for the future generations to witness such hateful and attacking cultural products. What they would imbibe from the past generations. Is it right on our part to pass hatred, slaughter and ways of killing each other to our innocent children? 

We are only losing our culture, intellect and diversity with rising conflicts and hate.

We need to stop all kinds of efforts that create divisive forces and would force people to kill and hate each other.

Consequently, police should charge such lyrics which propagate tensions among communities. police can lodge FIRs and cases under sections of Indian Penal Code (IPC). These can be like that of IPC 153A (promoting hatred among religious groups) and IPC 295A for promoting enmity on the grounds of religion.

Although, police have arrested many of the singers who invoke killings of those who do not chant “Jai Shri Ram” means hail lord Ram. But still Hindutva songs and music are using these kinds of lyrics openly. 

Only random arrests would not stop such provocations. Hence, it is the high time for the legislative bodies in India to frame guidelines for all the cases of communal hatred. Any form of communication that provokes disharmony in society need to be stop. It is especially now a responsibility for the governments and administration to make efforts and eliminate tendencies for rising islamophobia.

Else, Hindutva pop can become a reason for widespread anxiety among religious groups.