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ABSTRACT
This paper examines the audiovisual genre of Hindutva pop and its connections to Hindu right-wing violence in India. Hindutva pop music videos instigate violence against Muslims and advocate the establishment of a Hindu state. Examining the YouTube channels on which these songs circulate, as well as the textual aspects of music videos, I argue that the genre becomes a machine for the transmission of political affect. Consequently, I argue for what I call “violent spectating” – a visceral and affective politics of spectacularized hatred that takes advantage of digital platforms but exists in constant dialogue and exchange with right-wing extremism offline.
Acknowledgements
This article was developed over the course of two workshops – the SSRC Media & Democracy Workshop on “Extreme Right Radicalization Online” (2020) and RESTS (Race, Ethnicity, Science, Technology, and Speculation): Mellon Interdisciplinary Seminar, Fordham University (2021). The author would like to thank the participants and discussants for their feedback, as well the anonymous peer reviewers whose comments have shaped this article into its final form.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
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3 Eviane Leidig, “Hindutva as a Variant of Right-Wing Extremism,” Patterns of Prejudice 54, no. 3 (2020): 215.
4 Dibyesh Anand, “Anxious Sexualities: Masculinity, Nationalism and Violence,” The British Journal of Politics and International Relations 9 (2007): 262.
5 Anustup Basu, Hindutva as Political Monotheism (Durham, London: Duke University Press, 2020), 199.
6 Leidig, “Hindutva as a Variant,” 216.
7 Anne-Marie Fortier, “Proximity by Design? Affective Citizenship and the Management of Unease,” Citizenship Studies 14, no. 1 (February 2010): 19.
8 Ajay Skaria, “Why Hindutva Is a Racist Supremacism—Not Merely Communalism or Majoritarianism,” The Wire, Sep. 10, 2021, https://thewire.in/politics/why-hindutva-is-a-racist-supremacism-not-a-communalism-or-majoritarianism.
9 Aishwarya Iyer, “‘The Day My Blood Boils’: How Songs Incited Hate at a Navratri Rally in Rajasthan’s Karauli,” Scroll, Apr. 11, 2022, https://scroll.in/article/1021548/; @Hindutvawatchin, “This is from Sarangpur, Madhya Pradesh. Mob of Hindutva brandishing swords and playing loud music in front of a mosque,” Twitter, Apr. 12, 2022, https://twitter.com/HindutvaWatchIn/status/1513857758117785602.
10 Slavoj Žižek, The Plague of Fantasies (London, New York: Verso, 1997), 43.
11 Mayur Music, “अयोध्या में बनेगा बाबर शौचालय Sandeep Acharya 2020 Hit Viral Song HD Video Ayodhya-Hinduwadi Song” [Babur Toilet will be Made in Ayodhya Sandeep Acharya 2020 Hit Viral Song HD Video Ayodhya-pro-Hindutva Song],YouTube, June 24, 2020, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2Z66yibcCY . While the channel has been taken down for offensive content, a version of the video can be found in other YouTube channels including one that goes by the moniker “Traditional Music”: https://youtu.be/wuJHle8PsHM.
12 Thomas Blom Hansen, The Saffron Wave: Democracy and Hindu Nationalism in Modern India (Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1999), 173.
13 Ashish Avikunthak, Bureaucratic Archaeology: State, Science, and Past in Postcolonial India (Cambridge, New York: Cambridge University Press, 2021).
14 Ahmed, The Cultural Politics, 43.
15 Ibid.
16 Hansen, The Saffron Wave, 173.
17 Ricky Varghese, “Confluences: Of War Porn and Nationalism, at the Limits of Memory,” Porn Studies 7, no. 1 (2019): 136.
18 Sarah Jewitt, “Geographies of Shit: Spatial and Temporal Variations in Attitudes Towards Human Waste,” Progress in Human Geography 35, no. 5 (2011): 608–26; Assa Doron and Ira Raja, “The Cultural Politics of Shit: Class, Gender and Public Space in India,” Postcolonial Studies 18, no. 2 (2015): 189–207.
19 Shoaib Daniyal, “‘Jai Shri Ram’ Might Be a New Slogan – But the Use of Ram as a Political Symbol is 800 Years Old,” Scroll, June 8, 2019, https://scroll.in/article/928508/from-ayodhya-to-parliament-a-very-short-history-of-jai-shri-ram; Aditya Menon, “Jai Shri Ram: How a Chant Became a War Cry for Attacking Muslims,” The Quint, June 28, 2019, https://www.thequint.com/news/politics/jai-shri-ram-slogans-anti-muslim-lynchings-in-india.
20 Shakuntala Banaji, “Vigilante Publics: Orientalism, Modernity and Hindutva Fascism in India,” Javnost-The Public 25, no. 4 (2018): 333–50.
21 Sara Ahmed, The Cultural Politics of Emotion (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2014), 46.
22 Christiane Brosius. Empowering Visions: The Politics of Representation in Hindu Nationalism (London: Anthem Press, 2005); Peter Manuel, “Music, the Media, and Communal Relations in North India, Past and Present,” in Contesting the Nation: Religion, Community, and the Politics of Democracy in India, ed. David Ludden (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1996), 119–139.
23 Basu, Hindutva, 187.
24 Brosius, Empowering Visions, 6.
25 Ken Hillis, Susanna Paasonen and Michael Petit, eds. Networked Affect (Cambridge, London: The MIT Press, 2015), 6.
26 Walter Benjamin, “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction,” in Illuminations, ed. Hannah Arendt, trans. Harry Zohn (New York: Schocken Books, 2007), 241.
27 Caitlin Bruce, “The Balaclava as Affect Generator: Free Pussy Riot Protests and Transnational Iconicity,” Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies 12 no. 1 (2015): 48.
28 Eugenie Brinkema, The Form of the Affects (Durham, London: Duke University Press, 2014), xiv-xvi.
29 Rebecca Lewis, Alternative Influence: Broadcasting the Reactionary Right on YouTube (New York: Data & Society, 2018), 25.
30 Oliver Jutel, “Donald Trump, American Populism and Affective Media,” in Routledge Handbook of Global Populism, ed. Carlos de la Torre (London, New York: Routledge, 2019), 250.
31 Jutel, “Donald Trump,” 251.
32 Marc Steinberg, Anime’s Media Mix: Franchising Toys and Characters in Japan (Minneapolis, London: University of Minnesota Press, 2012), 7.
33 “You Can Now Buy PM Modi Toy for Just ₹958,” Asianet Newsable, Mar 31, 2018, https://newsable.asianetnews.com/india/pm-narendra-modi-stuffed-toy-available-flipkart-amazon; Samit Basu, “Bal Narendra is a Deeply Dull Comic Book That I Cannot Imagine Any Child Voluntarily Reading,” Caravan, April 28, 2014, https://caravanmagazine.in/vantage/bal-narendra-deeply-dull.
34 Sandeep Acharya Ayodhya, “अरे पापियों मत मारो ये गाय हमारी माता है -Singer Sandeep Acharya Ayodhyawasi New Hinduwadi Song 2020” [Hey Infidels, Don’t Kill the Cow, She’s our Mother -Singer Sandeep Acharya from Ayodhya New Pro-Hindutva Song 2020], YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2uZc_BoA3Dw.
35 Rahul Mukherjee, “Mobile Witnessing on WhatsApp: Vigilante Virality and the Anatomy of Mob Lynching,” South Asian Popular Culture 18, no. 1 (2020): 17.
36 Mukherjee, “Mobile Witnessing on WhatsApp,” 88.
37 Sandeep Acharya Ayodhya, “हिन्दू मतलब सबका बाप- Singer Sandeep Acharya New Kattar Hinduwadi Song” [Singer Sandeep Acharya New Hardcore Pro-Hindutva Song], YouTube, June 29, 2020, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZHdM45NeM0 (Currently unavailable).
38 Aishwarya Iyer, “Behind ‘Bhagwa’ Music: How Hate Is Being Sold as Entertainment,” The Quint, October 6, 2019, https://www.thequint.com/videos/documentaries/jo-na-bole-jai-shri-ram-song-how-spreading-hate-is-now-entertainment.
39 Gilles Deleuze, Difference and Repetition. trans. Paul Patton (London, New York: Continuum, 2001), 208.
40 Deleuze, Difference and Repetition, 209.
41 Prem Krishnvanshi official, “Tik Tok Viral Song- जो रोजा नही रखते वो अच्छे नही होते | Jo Roja Nahi Rakhte Wo Acche Nahi Hote- New” [TikTok Viral Song-Those Who Don’t Observe Roja Are Not Good People | Those Who Don’t Observe Roja are Not Good People], YouTube, April 20, 2020, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x2eXvo33SZI.
42 Rishi Iyengar, “This is What it's Like When a Country Actually Bans TikTok,” CNN Business, Aug. 13, 2020, https://edition.cnn.com/2020/08/13/tech/tiktok-ban-trump-india/index.html
43 Thomas Lamarre, The Anime Machine: A Media Theory of Animation (Minneapolis, London: University of Minnesota Press), xi.
44 Lamarre, The Anime Machine, xxiii.
45 Sriram Mohan, “Locating the ‘Internet Hindu’: Political Speech and Performance in Indian Cyberspace,” Television & New Media 16 no. 4 (2015): 341.
46 Mohan, “Locating the ‘Internet Hindu,’” 339.
47 Shakuntala Banaji and Ram Bhat, WhatsApp Vigilantes: An Exploration of Citizen Reception and Circulation of WhatsApp Misinformation Linked to Mob Violence in India (London: LSE, 2019), 4, 21.
48 Sriram Mohan and Aswin Punathambekar, “Localizing YouTube: Language, Cultural Regions, and Digital Platforms,” International Journal of Cultural Studies 22 no. 3 (2019): 23.
49 Sanjay Srivastava, “The Making of Toxic Hindu Masculinity,” Firstpost, March 18, 2019, https://www.firstpost.com/india/the-making-of-toxic-hindu-masculinity-6266861.html.
50 Kajri Jain, Gods in the Bazaar (Durham, London: Duke University Press, 2007), 350.
51 Kajri Jain, Gods in the Time of Democracy (Durham, London: Duke University Press, 2021), 254.
52 Mukherjee, “Mobile Witnessing,” 87.
53 Jain, Gods in the Time, 225.
54 Bruce, “The Balaclava,” 45.
55 Christophe Jaffrelot, “Election Results Invite Questions for Liberals. Worldwide, They Lack Their Rivals’ Discipline,” The Indian Express, May 24, 2019, https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/narendra-modi-vikas-lok-sabha-elections-5745364/.
56 DJ4X.in, “कट्टर हिंदू - Kattar Hindu 2020 Dialogue DJ Competition Song | DJ Priyanshu” [Hardcore Hindu- Kattar Hindu 2020 Dialogue DJ Competition Song | DJ Priyanshu], YouTube, January 12, 2019, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=60Jppp94Wtk.
57 Kattar Hindu, “The Hindu Official Song,” YouTube, July 19, 2019, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzuZRhe62PI.
58 “Laxmi Dubey: National Singer,” www.laxmidubeyonline.com.
59 Himanshi Dhawan, “Sing a Song of Saffron: How Hindutva is Going Pop,” The Times of India, November 18, 2018, https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/sunday-times/sing-a-song-of-saffron-how-hindutva-is-going-pop/articleshow/66671679.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst; Mansi Dua, “Sound and Fury: The Voices Creating Aggressive Hindutva’s Soundtrack,” The Indian Express, January 22, 2019, https://indianexpress.com/article/express-sunday-eye/aggressive-hindutva-soundtrack-fury-internet-5545915/; Kai Schultz “India’s Soundtrack of Hate, With a Pop Sheen,” The New York Times, November 10, 2019, https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/10/world/asia/india-hindutva-pop-narendra-modi.html.
60 Sikata Bannerjee, “Gender and Nationalism: The Masculinization of Hinduism and Female Political Participation in India,” Women’s Studies International Forum 26, no. 2 (2003): 176.
61 LAXMI DUBEY OFFICIAL, “KASHMEER NA DENGE, कश्मीर न देंगे,धारा 370, SINGER-LAXMI DUBEY 9754467266,8817588887” [We Won’t Cede Kashmir, Article 370,SINGER-LAXMI DUBEY 9754467266,8817588887],YouTube, August 10, 2019, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AnL0fZGAeC8.
62 LAXMI DUBEY OFFICIAL, “HINDU AAYA हिन्दू आया, SINGER-LAXMI DUBEY 9754467266” [The Hindu Has Arrived, SINGER-LAXMI DUBEY 9754467266], YouTube, March 24, 2019, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gjh-bmDjxQ.
63 Schultz, “India’s Soundtrack.”
64 Hansen, The Saffron Wave, 214.
65 Devind pal Bhej, “BAGHAWA RANG NEW HINDU KATTAR SONG 2018 by DJ SAGAR JHANSI
” [SAFFRON NEW HINDU HARDCORE SONG 2018 by DJ SAGAR JHANSI], YouTube, August 25, 2018, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OjqqkTrBco8.
66 Dj Santosh RBL Bhakti, “बकरे की अम्मा कब तक खैर मनाएगी | 2021 Yogi dialogue | Kattar hindu dialogue | Dj Santosh RBL” [How Long Shall the Mother’s Prayers Save the Kid | 2021 Yogi dialogue| Hardcore Hindu dialogue| Dj Santosh Raebareli], YouTube, Oct. 24, 2021, https://youtu.be/16CFmcEATZU.
67 DJ KING KOTRA, “Kattar Hindu Jaikaara Dialogue - (Kargil Maar Dhaar Dance Mix) - Dj Ps BaBu Sikandarpur -&-Dj King K” [Hardcore Hindu Triumphant Dialogue - (Kargil Fighting Dance Mix) - Dj Ps BaBu Sikandarpur -&-Dj King K], YouTube, July 26, 2019, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DBgMe5cTimc.
68 Varghese K. George, “A Hindutva Variant of Neo-liberalism,” The Hindu, May 23, 2016, https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/lead/a-hindutva-variant-of-neoliberalism/article5868196.ece.
69 Adrija Bose, “Hindutva Pop: When Music Moves Mountains and Builds Temples in Pakistan,” News 18, Nov 20, 2018, https://www.news18.com/news/immersive/hindutva-pop.html.
70 Peter Manuel, “The Regional North Indian Popular Music Industry In 2014: From Cassette Culture to Cyberculture,” Popular Music 33 no. 03 (2014): 397.
71 Sahana Udupa, “Enterprise Hindutva and Social Media in Urban India,” Contemporary South Asia 26, no. 4 (2018): 453.
72 “Supriya Music,” YouTube channel (About), https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_fCD2aeqAeE_k_OISE-VWg/about.
73 “Wave Music.” YouTube channel (About), https://www.youtube.com/c/BHOJPURIWAVE/about.
74 “Mayur Music,” YouTube channel (About), https://www.youtube.com/c/MayurMusicMM/about.
75 “Janata Musical And Pictures,” YouTube channel (About), https://www.youtube.com/c/JantaMusicalandPictures/about.
76 Basu, Hindutva, 201.
77 Manuel, “Music, the Media, and Communal Relations,” 131.
78 Nayanika Chatterjee and Sajid Ali, “The Hindu & Muslim DJs Behind India’s Hate Soundtrack,” The Print, August 14, 2018, https://theprint.in/politics/the-hindu-muslim-djs-behind-indias-hate-soundtrack/96671/.
79 Lev Manovich, The Language of New Media (Cambridge, London: The MIT Press, 2001), 76–77.
80 Kathleen Stewart, “Afterword: Worlding Refrains” in The Affect Theory Reader, ed. Melissa Gregg and Gregory J. Seigworth (Durham, London: Duke University Press, 2010), 340.
81 Adi Kuntsman, “Introduction: Whose Selfie Citizenship?” in Selfie Citizenship, ed. Kuntsman (Cham, Swizterland: Palgrave Pivot, 2017), 14.
82 Wendy Hui Kyong Chun, Updating to Remain the Same: Habitual New Media (Cambridge, London: The MIT Press, 2016), 3.
83 Chatterjee & Ali, “The Hindu & Muslim DJs.”
84 Marie Thompson and Ian Biddle, “Introduction: Somewhere Between the Signifying and the Sublime,” in Thompson & Biddle ed. Sound, Music, Affect: Theorizing Sonic Experience, (New York: Bloomsbury, 2013), 11.
85 Georgina Born, “Music and the Materialization of Identities,” Journal of Material Culture 16 no. 4 (2011): 380.
86 Teresa Brennan, The Transmission of Affect (Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press, 2004), 49.
87 Tony D. Sampson, Virality: Contagion Theory in the Age of Networks (Minneapolis, London: University of Minnesota, 2012), 86.
88 Jodi Dean, “Affective Networks,” MediaTropes eJournal II, no 2 (2010): 21.
89 Dean, “Affective Networks,” 39.
90 Dangerous Speech: A Practical Guide, Dangerous Speech Project (April 19, 2021), https://dangerousspeech.org/guide/.
91 Iginio Gagliardone, “Defining Online Hate and Its ‘Public Lives’: What is the Place for ‘Extreme Speech’?,” International Journal of Communication 13 (2019): 3073.
92 Dangerous Speech.
93 Ahmed, The Cultural Politics, 46.
94 Ibid., 91.
95 Ibid., 45.
96 Zizi Papacharissi, Affective Publics: Sentiment, Technology, And Politics (New York: Oxford University Press, 2014), 116–117.
97 Dj Santosh RBL Bhakti, “Bhagwa Dialogue Beat Making | Kattar Hindu Dialogue | Hindu Attitude Dialogue | Dj Santosh RBL” [Saffron Dialogue Beat Making | Hardcore Hindu Dialogue | Hindu Attitude Dialogue | Dj Santosh Raebareli], YouTube, May 4, 2021, https://youtu.be/YYWNSZx2ExM.