Thread by @vakibs

In this thread, I will discuss the serious misinformation about India in the media of its allies, specifically France (one of the strongest allies today for India). I will show that this rot is very deep and can only be fixed by translating Indian language media (not English).

I am seriously committed to building strong links between India and the west, owing to my personal life situation. I have family who are US citizens and who are European citizens. I lived almost half my life in Europe. So I cannot bear to see the divergence of reality in media.

The media disinformation on India has always been bad, but it has become markedly worse in the last months. Here is a reportage in ARTE about the government of India, painting it as a fascist state. It is a popular European show on geopolitics. (In French)
arte.tv/fr/videos/0988…

The above show gives an overview of the geopolitical situation of India and its history. The narrative is so biased that it is really pathetic. It is not even the Marxist historian view of India, it is positively Pakistani view of India.

Trigger alert: Hinduphobia

I was a bit dismayed and decided to dig a bit deeper on the scholarship behind this argumentation. One interesting scholar who contributed is Ms Ingrid Therwath, who collected a corpus on Hindutva nationalism. Please find about it here (videos in English).
e-diasporas.fr/wp/therwath.ht…

I first want to request my readers to not go scream and insult at any of the scholars I quote here. They have a sound fact based argument, and it must be countered with facts. I believe these scholars are also genuinely nice people, however biased. So please don’t troll !

The scholarship on the politics of India is built by collecting data: books, newspapers, online articles and even social media. It is analyzed and theories are built from it. Ms. Therwath did her work at the French research institutions CSH in Delhi.

csh-delhi.com

The CSH is a fantastic example of what India is *not* doing: systematic study of the civilizations and politics of other nations and world powers. There are no Indian institutions that are comparable to CSH, where researchers can work patiently and collect corpora of data.

So what is the problem with this data? It is almost entirely *English language corpora*. All the articles, books etc are drawn from discourse and critique of Indian politics in English. That is a bizarre thing to do for a country where 90% of the population doesn’t speak English!

In fact, English media is completely irrelevant to understand Indian politics. It is stupid beyond imagination. If a politician speaks in English, rest assured, he or she will not get elected in India. But he will get coverage amongst the Anglicized elite class.

Ms. Therwath is now the India and South Asia correspondent for Courrier International: an important magazine on international politics. It is a reputed media, and not just in the Francophone world. It translates articles from local newspapers in various countries into French.

Here is the list of articles translated recently by the Courrier International from Indian language media. Take a look. All the articles are from English newspapers!

These are read by very few Indians in India, but the French get a picture from them.
courrierinternational.com/fiche-pays/inde

This is the basis for the bizarre virtual world about India, which has no relation to the ground reality of what people are discussing on the streets. This is the root cause of misinformation about India: not legacy racism in Indology (South Asia) departments in academia.

So what is India (and specifically, the Indian government) doing about this? Nothing!

It is so daft that the stupidity is remarkable. It cannot be fixed by negotiations between diplomats, or buying coverage in foreign media, or by cribbing about conspiracies.

I will completely ignore the misinformation and circus about farmer protests (branded as the largest protest in the history of humanity, what a fricking joke!). I will ignore Greta Thunberg, Rihanna and other idiots. They are totally irrelevant to the real rot for misinformation.

Here is an interview (French) with Ms. Ingrid Therwath where she concludes that India cannot be considered a democracy. She also gives silly and wrong explanation about caste and paraphernalia about Hinduism.

See what she says about farmer disaffection.

So the international intellectuals are already being fed misinformation about farmer disgruntlement in India one year ago. The causes for the victory of BJP (with a largely urban support base in a rapidly urbanizing country) are not understood, but misatributed to “fascism”.

The joke is that none of the Indian farmers can barely even comprehend English, let alone speak it. But their entire representation is based on English language media, later translated into French and other international languages! My mind melts at this level of stupidity.

This document was published by Ms. Therwath on Hindutva organizations, on the ground as well as online. This is a dated document from the Congress era. The approach of diplomats to RSS etc. has changed in the BJP rule, but not the intellectual perception.
e-diasporas.fr/working-papers…

This organizational analysis was substantiated with data collection from Facebook groups etc. Ms. Therwath’s thesis is that overtly Hindu groups are often fascist in nature. Such categorical judgement will tar many people, including myself, who sometimes post about Hindu topics.

I am 100% certain that the same type of data collection and analysis is happening even now, whether that is published openly in articles or not. In fact, the costs for large scale data collection and statistical analysis is getting cheaper. So it will be greater in scale today.

This type of work is what scholars do (and must do): collect data, analyze, classify and debate. So what is wrong with this? The data is heavily biased, limited mostly to English language expression (either directly or indirectly by critiques) and selective to fringe groups.

What is worse is that this data collection is now mostly driven private. So we cannot clearly observe the bias in the datasets. But such data and analysis will be used to conduct mass campaigns, doxxing and strategizing. The bias and bullshit percolates to all these levels.

Biased data will produce flawed conclusions. Ms. Therwath argues that the first term of the Modi government was a failure, with increase in suicide rates of farmers and a high unemployment. But that voters voted for him again because of Hindutva messaging.

Were the farmer suicides actually *increase* during the Modi rule? Of course not. This is just sheer bullshit. In fact, the suicides decreased, and even the holy editors of Wikipedia have to admit it, but would add a caveat that the data cannot be trusted.
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farmers%2…

There is no fricking data for higher suicide rate. The statistics are just conjured, like in Soviet Union. The same thing with unemployment. The fact is the economic health of India has improved, and this is why the voters were pleased. Not because of an inner fascist itch.

Why did Ms. Therwath, who actively spent time collecting data in India and then working as the India correspondent of an important neutral magazine, blunder so badly on this? Her data is a bubble, of Indian newspaper articles in English. There is no reality check.

If a responsible journalist or researcher wants to measure the tone of the politics in a country, they have to look at the newspapers that are actually read by the most people. Indian language newspapers have the lion’s share of circulation in India.
walkthroughindia.com/industry/top-2…

BJP voters are largely urban, so they will be primarily reading Hindi and other Indian language newspapers. They will be watching Indian language TV. If Ms. Therwath reads Dainik Jagaran, the largest newspaper in India, she would get better data, not fringe groups on Facebook.

Ms. Therwath argues that Modi is a “populist” and that he speaks directly to the people (his people, not all Indian citizens - her words) and that he distrusts media. It is silly beyond words. He ignores the elite English media because they are irrelevant for the polity of India.

Modi always speaks in Hindi or Gujarati, and only very rarely in English. Just like every other intelligent politician in the world, he uses social media to directly reach out to people. But it doesn’t mean print media is unimportant. But of course, in Indian language newspapers!

The situation of foreign correspondents working in India is so pathetic that they barely can even talk in Hindi, forget reading Hindi newspapers or writing Hindi articles. They are put into a comfortable bubble by the Anglicized Indians that they only need consult English media.

But the reality is that English media is not at all a reliable barometer for the political mood or concerns of Indian citizens. Originally, the English media was limited to just the elite clerks of the British Raj. Now, its reach has slightly widened but still not beyond 5%.

The English language columnists and intellectuals draw from a pedigree of British institutions, which are naturally biased in colonial era prejudices. They mostly detest the nouveau riche of India: the uncouth Indian language speakers, who don’t speak polished English, if at all.

The situation is exacerbated by the peculiar historical trajectory of India, which started off as a socialist country. The intellectuals in India with field experience are typically biased. A good example is P. Sainath, interviewed here by Faye D'Souza.

Essentially, the foreign correspondents who are relying on English language media are in turn relying on Indian intellectuals like P. Sainath to cover them up for field data. These people do not usually make any overt lies, but make covert lies, by not presenting the full view.

For example, in the above interview, P. Sainath criticizes the government effort to make markets accessible to farmers, by saying that very few farmers possess any computers to learn about the market prices by the internet. "Computers"? Yeah. A very interesting covert lie.

Who uses "computers" to access the internet now? People anywhere on the planet use smartphones. And India has been witnessing an explosive growth of smartphones, with one of the lowest data prices in the world. Digital banking and payments have also exploded in the last years.

So, while the digital divide is being bridged in such a phenomenal manner, does the critique that the farmers would be helpless against the larger market powers still hold?

No. In fact, the farmers are currently beholden to state employed middlemen. This would be removed.

As can be expected, the strongest opposition to markets would come from feudal interests: farmers with very large holdings who are currently part of the nexus with state procurement, and who don't want to face any pressures from the market. That is exactly what is happening.

Punjab is rather unusual in India with almost industrialized farming, with relatively much larger holdings of farm sizes. It is precisely here that the most opposition to the market reform is coming. It would be obvious to any journalist with direct field experience.

Is the situation of English language media really that pathetic? No. In fact, there is a lively debate in India from various political perspectives: left, right & centre. But the nouveau-riche English media (Republic TV etc) are brushed aside by the old guard of the media elite.

A good example is the Editor's Guild of India, which has stopped having any relationship to the readership or viewership of the Indian people. Indian language newspapers especially are pushed into a corner of the club, if they are at all admitted.
editorsguild.in/members/

It will be incorrect to equate the skewed situation of Indian media with the type of media distrust from populists in western countries.

India is a rapidly urbanizing post-colonial country, where the lion's share of its media is simply not being reported in western countries.

Here is another interview of Ms. Ingrid Therwath, where she comments on the abolition of Triple Talaq law: an improvement for women's rights in Islam, which she supports. But she is blind to the ground reality in India, and who supported the movement.

There are other examples from BJP rule which do not fit Ms. Therwath's prism of fascism: the recognition of Homosexual relationships as legal is another. In order to find out which parties argued for and against, it is imperative that Indian language media are seen and analyzed.

This is important, because the vast majority of the Indian voters would inform themselves through the native language newspapers and TV. But are any Urdu newspapers analyzed by foreign correspondents on the reporting of laws related to Triple Talaq or Homosexuality?

Similarly, in order to substantiate the claims of widespread farmer disaffection in India, are the newspapers from Telugu, Kannada, Tamil, Punjabi or Hindi being analyzed? No.

What is happening instead is just a brainless rehashing of what is appearing in English media.

English media has now even become the arbiters of the feelings of Indian people! Despite the agro-economist Ashok Gulati having solid data and field experience, the activist Yogendra Yadav dismisses him that he doesn't know anything about how people feel.
theprint.in/opinion/what-e…

This is the type of empty air-castles being promoted in western media. There is no data on people's feelings that the English media is cocksure about. In fact, the only places where such data can be collected, through Indian language newspapers, are systematically ignored.

When elections get conducted in India, the English language media will get another shock. The voters, who have ignored the nonsense being peddled in that English bubble, will vote based on their real world concerns. Then this shocking result must be justified somehow, Fascism !

There are idiots like Pankaj Mishra or Aatish Taseer, ensconced into the elite circles in UK/US, who will produce new bullshit theories why such a shocking election happened. Foreign correspondents will blindly copy their lines, without checking if they are grounded in reality.

How can we correct this misinformation and massive discrepancy between media in India and the west? It cannot be done by censorship (banning websites or social media) or by funding foreign organizations. It must be by setting up Indian institutions abroad.

https://twitter.com/CholericCleric/status/1358961162126262274?s=20

There are valid areas for banning media: when they promote terrorism or hostile enemy countries in a war situation. This is the only case where I think censorship is justified. Otherwise, these hostile foreign media and social media must be reformed in a different manner.

The reality is that misinformation about India is bound to stay here, at least for another couple of decades. It must be combated, analyzed and a long-term strategy be developed that spans several electoral cycles. It needs a dedicated ministry, or a sub-ministry within the MEA.

The Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR), is a quasi autonomous body, that barely has any budget. It sponsors some professorships in foreign universities. Such will be fine for cultural exchange, but not suitable for media analysis and strategy.
iccr.gov.in/online-form/ch…

The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) has to coordinate with various diplomats and communicate with foreign states. It can't be bothered with non-state actors (or covertly funded foreign state actors) in media organizations. But media cannot be neglected.

https://twitter.com/darshanik9/status/1359073718966755330?s=20

In my opinion, a dedicated ministry for "external media analysis and strategy" must be created with an independent budget, and given a dedicated team of bureaucrats who have the necessary expertise in data science, cyber security, computer science, journalism, media studies etc.

This ministry must coordinate closely with the other ministries for external affairs, defense, trade and homeland security. This is a must in this information era, where most human activity is conducted online. There are no physical borders anymore. So it is an urgent necessity.

The new ministry must coordinate various institutions overseas, which are funded and manned at least partly by Indian citizens, who collect data about the media of important world powers and allies of India. Any strategy can only be developed after intelligent data collection.

These institutions should coach foreigners who want to work in India to learn Indian languages. They must conduct examinations to evaluate both the oral and written proficiency in Indian languages. They must oversee the translation of Indian language media into foreign languages.

Right now, the situation is so pathetic that the foreign correspondents of foreign media organizations have no qualifications whatsoever to work in India. It is absurd that they think they can work just by knowing English. No, that impression is utterly wrong.

What happens when the foreign correspondents keep dishing out bullshit stories from India, without ever having set a step out of their anglicized elite bubble?

India gets a pathetic representation in the opinion of people in their home countries.

https://twitter.com/vakibs/status/1144894374830071808

Simultaneously, the English media within India must be reformed. Responsible English language newspapers should have a full translation of their articles into one or more Indian languages. If they are saying bullshit, that will then immediately register feedback from Indians.

We need to create magazines like the Courrier International which commission translations and reports of media from various countries. We cannot just keep reading English language media. That is very stupid. We must also read and critique Chinese media, Japanese media and so on.

This is a long term project that must be realized as a public-private partnership. It is an extremely important strategic imperative. The longer we delay, the more pain we have to suffer continued bullshit in the foreign press, and in the English press of India.
(end of thread)