How media uses terminology to change people's perception about movements: Creating positive or negative image, defaming protesters through clever vocabulary

Shams Ur Rehman Alavi

It's a classic example that how any movement can be shown in bad light or defamed by mere choice of words.

The terminology used can make a big difference in creating positive & favourable opinion about any movement or defaming it from the start. 'Pradarshan-kari' (protester), 'Andolan Kari' (agitation) or 'Updravi' (vandal).

From mid-80s to 90s, a term was 'Kar Sewak', denoting 'sewa' i.e. 'service'. Hence, the right-wing movement that continued for years and hurt the communal harmony of the nation, eventually leading to destruction of Babri Masjid, was seen as 'nationalist', NOT as a movement that affected India's law-and-order.

Reality is that in India, the 'mainstream media' is not neutral, it doesn't even show a bit of bias, rather, it goes to the extent of passing off vandals as 'nationalists' while the real victims who agitate for a cause are termed 'vandals'.

This hasn't happened in a day. Farmers had demands and top political leadership should have addressed it but instead when they marched to Delhi, most TV channels termed them 'anti-national', and for days it was claimed that the 'Khalistanis' had infiltrated the agitation. 

Certain channels were doing the round the clock vilification of farmers and their protest over the last two months. Those involved in widespread violence and movements to divide the country on religions lines can be termed 'nationalists' by media through selective choice of vocabulary. 

That's the power of words, the ecosystem. Otherwise, the woes of farmers, who sat in freezing cold and the large number deaths can be ignored. Further, victims are blamed as those causing 'disruption' by sitting on the roads, breaking law-and-order and causing trouble. 

Even, 'traitors', 'terrorists' are the terms used for certain protesters depending upon who is agitating. On social media, this gets amplified and the language is even more harsh. When the news along with one-sided coverage---TV showing just one aspect i.e.protester's entry, not the policemen's lathi-charge, it has a huge affect.

Most farmers who entered Delhi, had tricolour, yet, the TV channels had the audacity to cast aspersions on their patriotism. Now imagine the silence, when right-wing groups took out rallies in different states, carrying Saffron flags, hoisting them on mosques in MP, or even Hindu Mahasabha calling Republic Day, as a Black Day. 

Aakar Patel points out in a tweet, '14 people died in the Patidar agitation of 2015. More than 2000 Indians died during Advani’s agitation'. Riots had taken place in many Indian cities during Rath Yatra. It was never termed lawless or anti-national, rather, positive image was created. 

Rath Yatra had passed through umpteen cities across India and many of them witnessed riots. Later, it was this movement that culminated in attack on Babri Masjid and its demolition, which again resulted in communal violence across India and death of more than 2,000 people.

Those responsible for inflammatory speeches, call for 'Kar Sewa' and gathering mobs to destroy India's secular character, were not seen as anti-nationals, rather, media treated them as 'respectable leaders' and paved way for the radicalisation in society to reach the next and more dangerous level.

What you are shown day and night on most channels, and the words used by media, this ultimately creates public opinion. The role of media in changing perceptions, manipulating public opinion is overlooked. The threat is more than we even realise. 

Terrorism & Bomb Blasts in India: Hindus, Muslims, Communalism and other issues

It's tough to write a post after any terror strike as it has become a regular occurrence in this country and clearly we [India] are the worst victims of terrorism in the world.

Which country has faced so many serial blasts in most of its big cities in just a matter of few years? Having said this we must realise that those who die in blasts are human beings, who belong to various faiths.

If Hari Chand died in the recent blasts and Laxmi Kant is battling for life, there was Qasim also who died in the Delhi bomb blasts and Mohammad Farooq is in hospital. Terror has no religion and those who kill innocents are doing the most despicable act.

Whether there are blasts in Mumbai, Ahmedabad and Jaipur or in Muslim congregations in Ajmer, Hyderabad and Malegaon, it is the ordinary Indians, the breadwinners for their families who have died. Unfortunately this also gets communalised at times.

It is the biggest task for Indian police and security agencies to track down the killers. If everytime they catch the real SIMI operatives, how come they don't prevent the next attack. And strangely after every terror strike, the very next day the police comes out with a couple of new names. Suddenly, portraits are out and shown on channels.

If they were not aware about the strikes, how they suddenly get sure about these new masterminds? Gujarat police had recently claimed that they had caught the accused and busted the entire SIMI core group that was responsible for all major terror strikes in India recently. So how come Delhi was targeted?

In newspapers' columns and at websites & blogs, an unusual psyhological pressure is being put on Muslims to come out and condemn, as if they are involved in this. Muslims do condemn a lot but they don't have the PR expertise to do it.

They keep holding programmes, dharnas and staging protests but they don't get reported. Shall the go and drag reporters to the mosque and make them watch what is said in 'duaa' after the Namaaz, to show it on TV.

The fascist BJP says that it is appeasement that is responsible for this situation. This is a cunning way to portray the Muslim community as sympathisers of terror and ensure polarisation for its electoral benefit.

It is a criminal act to say that due to Muslim vote, the police are unable to act on SIMI. Do they mean that Muslims don't want terrorists to be arrested. Even in countries that don't have Muslim population living for more than a century, a main politican party can't speak in such irresponsible manner.

The police do go wherever they wish, catch anybody and arrest them. Who stops the police? In cases of terrorism, the suspects don't even get bail easily and police have ample time to interrogate. Now even the lawyers refuse to fight for any terror suspect even before trial. Still, if they are unable to arrest the culprits, its their failure.

In fact, it is the Muslims who are most affected by such terror strikes and wish the most that these terrorists get arrested. Muslims would be the happiest if the real perpetrators are brought to book at the earliest.

After every blast, it is Muslim who face further problems at the workplace and has trouble in finding a house on rent. The poor Muslims have the toughest time in getting employment. The Indian Muslim faces himself in a strange situation.

He wants to know who is causing these blasts and prays to God that these terror strikes should stop and the perpetrators be sent to prison for their lifetime. It is ironical that several News channels lose all sense of propriety.

One-sided reports that are often manufactured with the tacit leakage (or planting) of certain officials are beamed. News of Muslims donating blood at Delhi hospital doesn't get adequate coverage. However, there are stories about how politicians have been soft on SIMI because of higher Muslim percentage in UP.

All our life we have seen the same thing. I need not remind you that until recently we had our leaders and senior journalists making claims that no Indian was involved in terrorism and that Indian Muslims were not affected by this phenomenon.

Still, there was the similar psychological onus on Indian Muslims to 'come clean'. Muslims were then also the target and branded as the 'appeased lot'. It was not terrorism then rather it used to be MF Husain painting nude goddess, singing of Vande Mataram or any other such issue for which Muslims were asked to come out and prover their patriotism by condemnation and other means.

When there were no such issues, suddenly there was so much consciousness about medieval history that everybody had begun to appear an expert on past. The fundamentals were then up in arms against Muslim for 'atrocities' committed by Babar and Aurangzeb.

The Babri Masjid was ultimately razed. But much before that there was the charge of Muslims being 'pro-Pakistani'. The grouse was that Muslims favoured Pakistani cricket team. That they were fifth columnists.

I mean, if it is not terrorism, it can be any other thing for which Muslims would be put in the dock and hounded. It can be 'madarsas' or 'producing more kids' ...

There were then editorial page articles on 'Need for liberal Muslim to speak'. The Darul Uloom Deoband that produced tens of thousands of freedom fighters for this country, but it recently held anti-terrorism conference.

 

And not once, it held it across the country. But still you are asked to speak up. For the last two days I have been receiving abusive emails from people whom I don't know and the messages on my blog that are filled with hate for Muslims. I get such messages all the time and that's the reason I have moderated the comments posts.

Every couple of months I have to write such a post and then a new guy comes to the blog and posts kiddish questions or accuses all Muslims of bad things and I am expected to come clear. To whom and for what?

Indian Muslims have no guilt but are made to believe that it is all their fault. Even in case of the Nuclear-deal, there was a hullabaloo that Indian Muslims were opposed to it. Then also I wrote a post that ordinary Muslims are with the national interest.

Even Muslim leaders said that. Indian Muslims don't have a Muslim leadership that can organise mass protests and candle light vigils for the consumption of someone's eye. Indian Muslims don't have Muslim networks or organisations and they have full faith in Hindu leaders of various parties.

During the recent shrine board controversy, it was said that Muslims don't speak up and I posted a photo on this blog. Do we all need to get cassettes and set up loudspeakers on top of our houses, blaring the same things daily?

Communalising terror is the worst thing. Unfortunately the media and politicians are responsible for that to a large extent, as RSS has permeated every section of society.

Muslims are as much victims of terrorism as anybody. Perhaps more. So the need is for government and agencies to act and let's educated people retaliate wherever there are attempts to disrupt harmony, rather than blaming each other all the time.

If someone has to answer for this bloodbath, it has to be the police, the highly-paid officials of Indian security agenies, the ministers who get fat salaries apart from all sorts of allowances. It is surely not the 150 million Muslims of India.

Terror is a common enemy for all of us. There is another post on the same subject. Yaamyn has summed it up well. It is also an emotional outburst. Read it.