When it comes to shaping narratives, the media is one of the biggest tools available for a country. Its ability to throw light on things to make them important and not talk about things that can make people unhappy makes it a must have weapon in your arsenal. Now that the Prime Minister of the UK is an Indian origin Hindu, the focus of the media was bound to shift at the 1.8 million British Indians. However, the perception of the British media still seems to be rotten with colonial prejudices.
The representation of the British Indians and Hindus in the mainstream media reeks of the same prejudices that were created by the colonizers which has created a negative image of the society. According to a survey, 59 percent of the participants had experienced or witnessed prejudice because of misrepresentation by the media.
The British focus on ‘cow, curry and caste’ shows the narrow and racially driven approach of the media while representing the British Indians. The reporting of the media on Hinduism is another factor contributing towards the negative image of the Indian community.
The state sponsored BBC is one of the most unreliable sources of information according to the participants of the survey. More than 90 percent of them found the platform biased against Hindus. Being a government funded channel also makes the UK government directly responsible for this hate driven propaganda.
Even after being part of the United Kingdom for so long, the British Indians still feel that they are treated differently. The failure of the state in creating a prejudice free environment is propelled by the media’s intentional misrepresentation of the Indians and the Hindus. This representation smells like the white supremacy that has failed to see beyond the race and religion of anyone.
