New Delhi: Days after the ripples created by the BBC documentary that directly indicted the then Chief Minister of Gujarat for the deaths of over 2000 people during the 2002 Gujarat riots, another report from a German broadcaster shed light on the use of pop music to spread hate against Muslim in India.
The video report run on Deutsche Welle (DW) shows pop singers utter lyrics which are cynical, vulgar and palpable to make hate against the Muslim community. One of the lines ran like “Those who cast an evil eye on our religion, we gun them down”, while another song goes on to claim the right of the Hindu community over India, urging the Muslims to go to Pakistan.
Responding to the DW report, titled India: Soundtrack of Hate, Chile’s Villa Grimaldi museum, which documents the atrocities of the Pinochet regime, tweeted that “On January 30, 1948, Gandhi was assassinated by an anti-Muslim far-Right Hindu. Today, 75 years after this event, hatred against Islam is still alive and calling for violence from Hindutva pop songs, the new soundtrack of the anti-Muslim movement in India.”
The presenter of the DW report, Akanksha Saxena links the Hindutva Pop to the rise of Hindu nationalism in the country, which in turn, the report alleges, has encouraged violence against Muslims.
The report further claims that the Hindutva pop singers have been inspired by hate that is being spread across social media, mostly through fake news on WhatsApp. They have so far created a huge fan base of youth, who are educated but mostly unemployed who enjoy and tolerate such garbage are got motivated by it, tells Delhi University professor Apoorvanand, to DW.
The report also shows victims of last year’s riots in Khargone, Madhya Pradesh, who allege those hateful Hindi songs directed against Muslims were played at a Ram Navami procession before they were attacked.
One of the persons featured in the report says that the songs are composed with a vigour that would create a sense of energy in those Hindus who listen to them, giving them a feeling of intoxication.
However be the Hindutva pop songs divisive, abusive and a call for violence, and the authorities seem to be idle for not taking action against the singers. A BJP spokesperson denied any links between her party and the hate-mongering Hindi singers shown and interviewed by the broadcaster. The BJP spokesperson advised those who felt alarmed by such songs, if they were being sung, to “go ahead and file FIRs against those singers”.