“My mind is just clouded by a heavy fog. I can’t think of anything else right now,” says Ayesha Haider*, who was one of the women targeted in the “Bulli Bai App” controversy. The app was created and managed by a bunch of radicalised, young people (including women), who auctioned off Muslim women using it.
The trauma caused by this Islamophobic episode solicited Ayesha to deactivate her social media accounts.
She is deeply disappointed at how the current ecosystem of India has normalised abhorrence and misogyny. “This was not that India I truly believed in.”
The case of Ayesha and many other young women from oppressed entities in the society, and by extension, also on digital media, tells us a lot about how healing from trauma has become their own responsibility, while the ones proliferating hate get a free pass.
Fake News Travels Faster Than Light
India—a nation of 1.3 billion individuals—is also home to ancient sciences on mindfulness, other discourses, and sex education. Yet, the culture is such that topics pertaining to sex and mental health are considered taboo.
As known, words have a great impact on our behavior, and also, our mental health. When you take care of plants, they grow. Similarly, our mind is like a plant. When it is nicely nurtured, it prospers.
But, seeing how fake news and hate speech travel faster than light and sound in India’s present ecosystem, one can only sense a dystopian story. The content of such kind has a direct ramification on our mindset.
Thus, a toxification of the social psyche is the new normal. Sumit Kumar* has unsubscribed to the DTH (direct to home) service. Currently, he is a student of psychology at Mumbai University.
Mainstream Indian Media Has Lost Its Way
After seeing a TV (television) debate against reservation (social justice policy) on some Hindi news channel, he is disappointed at how such content can incentivise his college friends to bully him further, with casteist slurs.
He has experienced such instances before. He says that, “The role of TV media should be educating the people, not telling them what to think about.”
He strikes the nail in the coffin by saying that, “The state of Indian media has almost reached the point of Radio Rwanda. Sadly, the quality of free speech in India has lost its consciousness of responsibility and sanity.”
Sumit’s case can also be tracked to a study (2019) undertaken by economist Deepankar Basu, of UMass Amherst’s (University of Massachusetts Amherst) Political Economy Research Institute.
Hate Speech Is On The Rise On Social Media
The findings state that there has been an increment of hate crimes by 300% (against minorities) in India since 2014. In the same year, a study by the American Civil Society Research figured out that 40% of content on social media is filled with casteist and sexist slurs.
The lockdown period (2020-21) also saw a 20% inflation in hate speech against minorities on social media. These levels of hate speech are not something that can be organically born.
It is verily a political outcome of toxic parenting and irresponsible media discourses, leading to detachment in the equations of social equity and fraternity. It takes a huge toll on the mental health of recipients (especially religious and sexual minorities).
The above data, when socially observed, tell us how the Indian society is gradually suppressing its oxytocin levels. Oxytocin is a chemical substance that plays a huge role in activating our friendly behaviour, love, and affection.
Hate Is Being Shoved Down Our Throats
The special issue of the love jihad law, or anti-conversion laws, is very much in sync with the condemnation of personal choice, consent, and individual liberty.
The quantum of hate speech that was seen recently in the Haridwar convention (2021) consists of an apathetic scope, especially when it has a chance of misusing Serotonin levels.
Serotonin (also a chemical substance found in the brain), on the other hand, plays a huge role in boosting status and pride. The so-called “Hindu pride” being promoted by extremists like Yati Narsinghanand is culturally detrimental to the social health of India.
Cognitively, hate-mongers like him can simply make us mentally xenophobic, which India’s future cannot afford if she is to preserve her democratic integrity and constitutional credibility.
We Spend Very Little On Mental Health
Hate speech is not free speech. To say it is like sayin that there’s no difference between an apple and a banana. Words are like arrows and they have the power to draw blood without physical assault.
In this nation, the GDP (gross domestic product) spent on mental health is less than 0.33 paisa per individual. It’s a matter of shame to learn this.
The total amount spent on mental health assistance is comparable to what the Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani makes in just three hours, or a day’s expense in a trip abroad by the Indian prime minister, Narendra Modi.
India currently has 9000 psychiatrists, 2000 psychiatric nurses, 1000 clinical psychologists, and 1000 psychiatric social workers.
We Don’t Have Enough Mental Health Professionals
The country would need an additional 30,000 psychiatrists, 37,000 psychiatric nurses, 38,000 psychiatric social workers, and 38,000 clinical psychologists.
According to a study published in the Indian Journal of Psychiatry, it will take 42 years to meet the requirement for psychiatrists; 74 years for psychiatric nurses; 76 years for the psychiatric social worker; and 76 years for clinical psychologists, to provide care to the total population.
Had Buddha been alive today, he would be quoted: “We become, what we speak and listen to.” It’s high time to reflect and introspect our mental health, by unsubscribing from the matrix of hate speech.
Hate speech, when tolerated, will beget hate crimes and it’s our individual-cum-social onus to snuff out the scope for hate speech, before we all end up feeling extremely sorry for the way our civilisation has turned out.
*Names changed to protect privacy