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The mainstreaming of anti-Muslim Hindutva Pop in India 

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Hindutva Pop in India

Ever since Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came to power in India, there has been a rise in the production of Hindutva pop and anti-Muslim music. What was earlier fringe has now become mainstream. Blazing anti-Muslim music that caters to Hindutva ideology during Hindu festivals and other functions organized by Hindutva ideologues is very common. Every day, Hindutva watchers on Twitter share several video clips of Hindutva supporters dancing to these hateful songs. Recently, during the Hindu festival of Ram Navami, a video clip shared on Twitter showed a large crowd of Hindutva supporters dancing and grooving to a song titled “Miyan Madarchod hain” (Muslims are motherfuckers). Similarly, in a video from Lucknow where Muslims had set up stalls to serve juice to celebratory Hindus, there is a song playing in the background, “Our swords will speak, Hindustan will speak and Topiwalas (Muslims) will bow their heads and say Jay Shree Ram too”.

This provocative music has led to communal riots in many places. During the Ram Navami festival, Hindutva supporters were seen gathering in front of mosques, chanting slogans and playing music that demonized Muslims. There were also many incidences of Hindutva supporters taking out their processions through Muslim majority areas and blazing out anti-Muslim songs in order to provoke Muslims.  

India has also had a history of gun violence through means of the infamous acts of celebratory gun firing. In various videos of the right-wing processions, Hindutva supporters are seen carrying guns and pistols unapologetically that they are brandishing while singing to the music of anti-Muslim hate.

Also read: Hindutva Pop: Anti-Muslim Music in India   

Hindutva Pop Singers

Al Jazeera recently published a report on Hindutva pop singers who produce this anti-Muslim music in India. Most of these singers are supported and endorsed by the ruling party BJP and its Hindutva supporters. 

Krishnavanshi is a Hindutva pop singer from BJP ruled Uttar Pradesh. He wanted to become a Bollywood Singer but due to fierce competition, he turned to this new genre of Hindutva pop. He has been pretty successful after his shift to Hindutva pop music. His songs contain a warning for Hindus to wake up before Muslims force them to offer Namaz. In many of his songs, he alleges that Muslims are “anti-nationals” who should go to Pakistan. He was recently awarded by the state government of Uttar Pradesh for his song praising the Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.

Laxmi Dubey is a female Hindutva pop singer from Madhya Pradesh. She has been singing anti-Muslim songs since 2014. One of her songs is “Agar Hindustan mein rehna hoga, To vande mataram kehna hoga” (If you want to stay in India, then praise the motherland). Dubey has a YouTube channel with 2.39K subscribers. During the 2019 general elections, she uploaded a song on her YouTube channel titled “Phir Modi Ko Lana hai” (We have to elect Modi again). The song praises Modi for his supposedly good work. As of now, the song has garnered more than 5.3 million views. The female singer has given her performance at many functions organized by Hindutva supporters and BJP leaders.

Another Hindutva pop singer is Upendra Rana from Uttar Pradesh. His Hindutva pop journey started in 2017. He has 370K subscribers on YouTube. One of his famous songs is “Dharm ke naam zameen gayi, Islami mulk banaye” (In the name of their religion, we lost our land; they made it an Islamic nation). The video for this song has Hindutva leader Yati Narsinghanand brandishing a sword.

The lyrics of Hindutva pop songs use the trope of stereotypical words and phrases commonly used to refer to Muslims based on their religious identity and lifestyles like the word “Kasaayi” meaning butcher, which not only reduces Muslims to their eating habits but also dehumanizes them based on them. They also take a dig at the apparently celebrated notion of Hindu-Muslim brotherhood being the essence of democracy in India- “Bahut ho chuka Hindu-Muslim bhai bhai” (Enough of this Hindu Muslim brotherhood now).

Also read: Festivities And Lawlessness- Appropriation of Laws in India

Why should Hindutva Pop worry us?

The most disturbing part about the production of these hateful songs is the amount of audience that it attracts. Names like Sandeep Acharya, Prem Khrishnavanshi, and Pawan Verma that were unknown in the mainstream music industry of India till lately, are gaining rapid popularity with a fan following that goes beyond lakhs. These self-proclaimed singers have gained massive fandom solely based on Hindutva pop songs that not only hurt the Muslim religious sentiments but are outrightly threatening the Muslim community. The rate of production and public approval of this kind of Islamophobic music is seen to be the inception of the Hindutva music industry.  

Hindutva pop used to be fringe but it has now become mainstream. Earlier, it used to be produced by political parties, mostly during election campaigns. However, of late there has been mass production of Hindutva pop and anti-Muslim music. It has become a new cultural phenomenon and Hindu extremists now play this music during Hindu festivals, religious processions, and even Hindu weddings. Whether it is during festivals or smaller intimate gatherings like wedding ceremonies, this music has become a customary practice which makes sure that the “othering” of Muslims happens. 

Legally speaking, even though most of the Hindutva pop comes under hate speech, the government or the social media websites do not seem to care about it. The BJP-led government in fact awards endorses and supports these singers. They are invited to the functions administered by Hindutva organizations, as well as other small-scale factions that work under the BJP and get highly paid to perform.

Also read: Indian Media’s Neglect of The Ruthless Opportunism in “The Kashmir Files”

Normalization of Islamophobia

India is currently witnessing a phase of gross normalization of such Islamophobic content through the medium of songs that are easily blended into pop culture music. It should go without mentioning that the target audience for this kind of hateful music is the majority Hindu population of India, and these singers are giving their music a sacrilegious tone quite literally by playing the sound of temple bells in the background. To go with the offensive lyrics and instigating sounds, the videos of these songs are as provocative as they can get. Dressed in saffron-coloured clothes with images of Hindu gods like Ram displayed in the background, these self-proclaimed singers attempt to display themselves as the warriors of Hindutva.  

Music and Genocide

Hindutva pop is eerily reminiscent of the music that was produced in Nazi Germany and during the Rwanda genocide. Under the Nazi regime, “music and song forged community, camaraderie and shared purpose.” Music was not limited to being a mere form of entertainment. It was used to promote a shared cause and bring people together. Similarly, the role of music in the Rwanda genocide was crucial. For Tutsi survivors in Rwanda, “genocide was like a festival”.

Genocides happen on a sliding scale. It is common knowledge that hate propaganda precedes genocide. Music also forms a part of the hate propaganda that caters to the genocidal tendencies of a population. Many experts have warned that what is happening in India might culminate in a genocide.

The emerging Hindutva music industry is following in the footsteps of the Nazis, who also utilized a combination of provocative music to go with mass gatherings to normalize and celebrate violence. The Nazi rule, much like the Hindutva used songs to help them forge a sense of community-based on the common purpose of inflicting violence. Music was more than just a means of entertainment in public places and even at the execution sites. It was also used as a weapon for bringing people together and promoting violence. Hindutva has also weaponized music in India in the form of Hindutva pop to serve their ulterior and violent motives against Muslims.

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The futility of counting on the U.S. to pressure Israel

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It is really ludicrous to see how dishonest the U.S “mediators” constantly demand that the Palestinians display more “good will” toward Israel at a time when Israel continues to perpetrate a real Holocaust against the hapless and helpless Palestinaians and steal Palestinian land in broad daylight.

It seems amply clear that the current Palestinian leadership, i.e. the Palestinian Authority (PA)  led by Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, neither learns from its own blunders nor from other people’s blunders. This is really a gigantic disaster befalling the Palestinian people and their enduring just cause.

How else can one relate to the unrelenting illogical insistence of the the whole world on accepting the U.S., Israel’s guardian-ally, as “mediator and honest broker” between us and our murderous tormentors and grave-diggers, Israel?

Read Also: The US and IsraelThe dog versus the wagging tail.

Indeed, one doesn’t have to be an expert on American foreign policy in the Middle East to know that the U.S represents the problem, not the solution, given its long-standing embrace of Israeli fascism and expansion.  After all, it is the US that not only enabled Israel to actively pursue its lebensraum policy at the expense of its neighbors but consistently shield it from any accountability or international condemnation.

Today, the U.S. administration is criticizing Palestinian “unilateralism” in reference to desperate PA efforts to get the UN Security Council to recognize Palestinian statehood and agree on a deadline for ending Israel’s Nazi-like occupation.

Well, we all know that the U.S. is being pornographically hypocritical when it accuses the virtually vanquished Palestinians of acting unilaterally as if its spoilt nefarious daughter, Israel, were ever acting in full conformity with international law.

Well, Mr. Abbas and Mr. Ereikat: Don’t be too gullible, too sheepish. Ask your American interlocutors, e.g. Mr. John Kerry, the following questions:

Since when did Israel ever behave bilaterally rather than unilaterally?

Was the usurpation of Palestine and expulsion of its indigenous people at the hands of Jewish terrorist gangs hailing from Eastern Europe, a bilateral or unilateral act?

Was the annexation by Israel of East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights a bilateral or a unilateral act?

Was the building of hundreds of Jewish settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem as well as the transfer of 600,000 Jewish settlers to live on a land that belongs not to them a bilateral or unilateral act?

Was the wanton demolition of some 30,000 Palestinian homes by Israel a bilateral or a unilateral act?

Was the annexation of the bulk of the West Bank and East Jerusalem a bilateral or a unilateral act?

And what about this ugly structure, called Separation wall, which resulted in the theft of thousands of acres of private Palestinian land? Was it a bilateral or a unilateral act?

I could go on and on and on listing America’s hypocritical and duplicitous stands on Palestinian grievances and Israeli crimes. Indeed, the U.S dishonest stand on the Palestinian plight has only been consistent in its moral depravity. Indeed, hypocrisy in its most brazen form has always been and continues to be the modus operandi of American policy toward the Palestinian issue. I know it is politically incorrect to speak in this tone. However, truth must not be another victim of the dark evil embrace between the U.S. and Israel.

But morality is not and has never been part of American politics or policies, especially foreign policy. This is why the world looks so ugly, so gloomy and so unjust.

The U.S. is insisting that only a “negotiated” settlement to the Palestinian issue would be acceptable to the U.S.

Read Also: The Palestinian Authority: confused, frustrated and corrupt

In other words, Israel must always have the final say as to any possible peace deal with the Palestinians.

But since Israel would never ever end its occupation or dismantle the settlements, let alone allow for the repatriation of the refugees, it means there can be no negotiated settlement unless the Palestinians agree to surrender to Jewish Nazism. But that will never happen as Muslims, including the Palestinian people, would never allow the Ramallah leadership or any other leadership to commit adultery with the honorable Palestinian cause.

Let’s be honest. The purportedly honest American broker or mediator is neither honest nor a broker or mediator. The proverbial American judge is simply telling the insolent rapist (Israel) and the vanquished rape victim (the Palestinians) to sort it out amongst yourselves. Do we have to be the smartest humans on earth to understand the implications of this brutal ugliness?

It is tantamount to a total American embrace of Israeli fascism. It means that the American stance is actually Israel’s stance. It also means that that the U.S. would never accept or condone any settlement that Israel doesn’t accept.

That is why the Palestinians need to have a moment of truth with themselves.
And the message they need to internalize is that they would have to wait ages if they continued to put their trust in the U.S. to pressure Israel to walk in the path of peace.

Let us face it. Israel will never walk in the path of peace unless it is pressured and bullied to do so. However, Israel would never ever walk in the path of peace as long as it continues to receive nuclear submarines from Germany and the most advanced fighter jets from the U.S.

In a nut shell, America can’t and won’t exert any meaningful pressure on Israel to end its N-a-z-i-like occupation. We all know that Israel controls the American government or at least controls those who control the American government. Israel is intoxicated by its arrogance of power and Talmudic insolence. And the U.S., Israel’s guardian-ally, is not in a position to be an honest mediator and to impose a deal on Israel or even convince her to allow for one that would give the Palestinian a semblance of justice.

What should be done?

We must go ahead with our efforts at the U.N. Security Council, irrespective of American threats to veto any resolution favorable to the Palestinian cause. At least casting the veto would embarrass America itself and its treacherous Arab allies (they are not actually allies but cheap slaves and puppets as we all know).

We Palestinians must be confident of our inevitable triumph over Zionism and its evils. Yes, it may take time, but eventually Zionism won’t live forever in a sea where hundreds of millions live.

Khalid Amayreh is a Palestinian journalist and political commentator , we lost him on account of natural reasons on 12th of July last year in the Occupied Palestine

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The age-old Palestinian-fear (of the Israeli thirst

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For a very long time, I believe since early childhood; since the time I gained my sense of self, got aware of the “me” in my body, the “me” in my soul; also, certainly on account of being born into an Arab, Moslem, Palestinian family; I’ve always been carrying this nightmarish thought within me, this gut feeling, this deep anguish, this profound fear that as and when, the whole world falls into deep slumber, or goes into indefinite hibernation, which in itself is not that far-fetched for all to see. Within the realms of my nightmare, the Israeli demons use the presented golden-opportunity to gang-up on the hapless Palestinian populace and swiftly, speedily, expeditiously cut them all down (once and for all of eternity).

The Israeli oppressors have been eagerly longing for the said golden-opportunity – this unquenching thirst for Palestinian blood has been “flaming” in their bellies for a very long time, all along. All of a sudden, I’m woken up by the sounds of Israeli bombardment being carried out from the skies above our roofless heads; woken up, jolted up, thrust onto my still working feet (unbelievably so, given all the near misses from Israeli attacks) to make a run for it, to escape attacks directed onto a defenceless, physically broken down, very weakened, distraught people, and distraught self – though mentally a very resilient self, and resilient people and populace. By way of people and populace, that is, who-so-ever is “still” alive to witness the unending slaughter in our Gaza.

Read Also: To the peoples of the world: Israel is Carrying out a holocaust against Palestinian families

So, I’m woken-up to come to the realization that it was never ever, an unfounded fear, or some baseless suspicion; quite to the contrary, this Israeli thirst was unambiguously true since the birth of Israel that the Palestinian nation, not only has to be subdued, or dominated, or kept a lid on, rather it has to be completely decimated. And one is witnessing the nightmare unfold, transpire into reality. We witness mass slaughter while the world pretends to sleep, play it down, not notice, look the other way, as if it’s more fiction, minimum reality, if any. Quite to the contrary, the reality is a zillion times worse than even the worst of one’s nightmares, a zillion times worse than what were the most dreaded of Palestinian fears all along.

This always suppressed Palestinian-fear, this foolish self-denial of the core Israeli-objective has resulted in so many Palestinians who have now paid with their own blood, by way of losing their lives. Self-denial of Israeli intentions, and our foolish belief that the world-at-large, will surely come to our aid in face of Israeli aggression. A double whammy, paid for in Palestinian blood, so many innocent lives lost. Rivers of Palestinian blood flowing across the length and breadth of Gaza because of our folly.

The world not only seems to sleep, more to the point, from Palestinian eyes, is seemingly a full accomplice of Israel.

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To the peoples of the world: Israel is Carrying out a holocaust against Palestinian families

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Israel is carrying out a holocaust against Palestinian families.

Yes, Israel is not sending Palestinians to gas chambers. But Israel is bringing Auschwitz and Mauthhausen to Palestinian homes, neighborhood, hospitals and mosques.

The title of this brief article is not a hyperbole or a dramatic overstatement meant to attract attention or gain sympathy. It is rather a reflection of reality.

Indeed, if a holocaust is about annihilating people, especially civilians and Palestinian families, the Israeli army, the Wehrmacht of our time, has been exterminating entire Palestinian families-the father, the mother and all the children.

We are not speaking about one isolated incident or a few incidents where one stray missile hit a home inadvertently or children killed as a result of collateral damage.

We are rather talking about carrying out a real holocaust against Palestinian families, an official policy endorsed and pursued by the government of Israel to wipe out numerous Palestinian households for the purpose of bringing the Palestinians to their knees.

This is Israel’s way of wreaking shock and awe on the defenseless and helpless Palestinians.

So far, more than 25 thousand entire Gaza households have been targeted by Israeli bombing. More than 12 thousands have been killed half of them are children and women.

Just imagine your own family being annihilated by a missile launched from high altitude. This nightmare has effectively become a routine experience in Gaza.

Read Also: World passively watching as Israel perpetrates open-ended massacre in Gaza

Israel today is emulating the Nazis and other criminal offenders throughout history. Don’t invoke the mantra of anti-Semitism. In the final analysis, when Jews think, behave and act like the Nazis thought, behaved and acted, they (the Jews) become Nazis themselves, pure and simple.

Yes, I do recognize there are many kind-hearted Jews who reject this Nazi-like savagery. None the less, we must call the spade a spade. These atrocities are being enthusiastically supported by the vast majority of Israelis, including ordinary people, intellectuals and rabbis. Israel-2023 does have much in common with Nazi-Germany. Claiming otherwise would be both dishonest and malicious.

Real holocaust

Israel, a notorious professional liar whose agents control western media outlets from Sydney to California, is misleading the international community as to what is really happening in the Gaza Strip.

A regional military superpower thanks to unrestricted American backing and support, Israel is simply waging a war of extermination against a thoroughly persecuted people whose only “crime” is its enduring vigor and longing for freedom from the shackles of Talmudic Jewish Nazism, a Satanic ideology which views all humanity-save Jews-as animals whose lives have absolutely no sanctity.

There is no doubt that the ongoing Israeli rampage of murder and terror is an expression of that genocidal Talmudic mentality. It is a mindset that is even more nefarious than the Nazi ideology.

We Palestinians have been at the receiving end of Jewish criminality and murderousness for several decades. We know it too well and need no one to give us lectures on “Israel’s civility and humanity”

In the final analysis, a country that murders thousands of children and other innocent civilians rather knowingly and deliberately in order to create deterrence is neither civilized nor humane. It is tantamount to fornicating with truth to call Israel humane and civilized.

The truth of the matter is that Israel is a diabolical Judeo-Nazi entity that has much in common with the Third Rich.

Yes, Israel is not sending Palestinians to gas chambers. But Israel is bringing Auschwitz to Palestinian homes, neighborhoods and streets. Israel is carrying out a real holocaust against innocent Palestinian families.

This is not really a war. War is fought between armies. The Palestinians don’t have an army, or navy or air force. The Palestinians simply can not protect their own children from overwhelming barbarianism, played out in full view of the entire world.

Read Also: Hamas: A convenient red herring for Jewish Nazism

Yes, there have been projectiles fired on Jewish colonies from the Gaza Strip, but these projectiles are essentially innocuous from the military view point as evident from the nearly zero casualties incurred by Israelis.

Indeed, when there is one dead on one side and 300 on the other side, including 50 children and babies, in addition thousands of maimed civilians and swathes of pornographic destruction of property, we are not really talking about war, even an asymmetrical war. We are actually talking about a real massacre, a massacre that is reminiscent of the time when the Nazis ganged up on European Jewry 70 years ago.

This very real massacre, holocaust, wouldn’t have been carried out had it not been for the flaccidity and leniency and silence displayed in Israel’s face by the bulk of the international community.

This is not to mention the connivance, collusion and conspiratorial roles played by several criminal states and governments, including the United States, a majority of European governments and especially the whore-like Sissi regime in Cairo which is shamelessly and brazenly siding with Israel against the Palestinian people.

But never mind, another massacre, another blitzkrieg, another conspiracy won’t finish our people off. It is our kismet that we must die in order to survive.

But those in Washington and London and Cairo who are watching rather passively, probably gleefully, as our children are being incinerated and murdered at the hands of the children, grand children and great-grand children of the holocaust, will one day pay the price for their murderous complicity and ignominy.

We will not forgive or forget.

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