ABSTRACT
In 2017, two cases of media misrepresentation brought out strong protests from the Indian community in the United States. The first was the CNN series on religion called Believer, hosted by the author Reza Aslan, which featured a travelogue showcasing caste and cannibalism in India. The second was the acclaimed documentary The Problem with Apu by comedian Hari Kondabolu. The difference in these two cases of contestation though was the name under which critics and protestors raised their voices; CNN was accused of Hinduphobia and the misrepresentation of Hinduism and Hindus. The Simpsons was accused of bias along racial/ethnic lines (“Brownvoice,” similar to “Blackface”), and the question of Apu's depiction as a Hindu character was completely ignored in The Problem with Apu and also in the extensive press coverage that followed. In this chapter, I argue that this polarization needs to be addressed in order to decolonize the field of media research from the use of categories of analysis originating in the Western academy such as “Hindu nationalism” as a way of denying emerging categories of self-representation and agency for Hindus in America such as the term “Hinduphobia.” I argue that Hinduphobia needs to be recognized by scholars, journalists, and activists as a valid category of intervention in the media (and in talking about real-life concerns about terrorism and violence faced by Hindus), and propose a media content analysis methodology to study Hinduphobia along with examples from my ongoing study for the benefit of future researchers.
