what is the proximate issue? the repeated suspension by twitter of user @Trueindology for no good or apparent reason
what is the preponderant issue? systematic silencing of a non-left perspective in twitter india in particular, but also in the rest of the world, eg. the US
what is the root cause? the ability of the military-industrial complex in the US, ie the Deep State, to set a narrative that is deeply damaging to india’s national interests; and india’s inexplicable hesitation in pushing back on it.
the narrative is not neutral, nor is it without consequence in the real world. in the US, we have seen how the story of hunter biden’s laptop was sunk without a trace; earlier in how tulsi gabbard, candidate for POTUS, was turned into an unperson; in india similarly the story of explicitly treasonous and seditious behavior by certain individuals, including rioters and mediapersons, is swept under the rug, and there are no consequences to them. and framing, for instance: the farmer agitation is being turned into a Sikhs being oppressed narrative right in front of our eyes
there is a certain effort in the US to protect freedom of expression, and whistleblowing: there is a move to pardon both julian assange and edward snowden, both of whom may have exposed classified information, military and diplomatic
what TrueIndology did is far more benign: nothing treasonous. his only crime is that he quotes primary historical sources to support his assertions, and very often he shows the claims esp of the ‘eminent historian’ type to be totally bogus.
so TrueIndology has acquired a huge and loyal following on twitter, which irritates the votaries of the “trust us” school of history, committed leftists who have played havoc with the narrative and who made the Ram Janmabhumi issue such a problem, when it could easily have been settled amicably
this doesn’t sit well with the leftist ecosystem because he makes them look like complete amateurs, so his reward is that he is frequently suspended and bullied
the latest episode, the preponderant cause, is a little sad, an IPS officer named D Roopa in Karnataka, who’s actually a pretty decent sort, got into a twitter argument with TrueIndology, and lo! and behold, he got not just suspended but deplatformed with no explanation whatsoever!
so this goes back to the root cause. there is a narrative that is put forth most eagerly by the Economist, FT, NYT etc which seeks to firmly entrench in Indians the idea that they are second-class people, and that India will never catch up
there is a corollary narrative, which is to pave the way for the genocide of Hindus, after demonizing us as monsters. that facile narrative is being challenged and largely defeated by some people and that is the real reason they don’t like True Indology
in 2011 i had written an article “India is finally seeing the birth of alternative journalism” which was liked by amitabh bachchan. unfortunately, SM has now become compromised. i like the next phase: citizen journalism, as exemplified by substack or ghost, (balaji srinivasan talks about it) but the power of distribution is still with the big guys and the GoI has to do something about them
and what can the GoI do? what should the GoI do? TrueIndology suspension is a symptom that like the narrative is getting away. there is the chinese idea of “killing the chicken to scare the monkey”. the chicken is twitter, which really doesn’t matter that much in the scheme of things. but the indian market matters, and will matter a lot, to facebook, google, amazon, apple, NYT, FT, theeconomist, WaPo, etc.
therefore, use “buyer power”. impose conditions on them. which includes the use of indian laws. eg. there are powerful laws against the inaccurate portrayal of the borders of the country: these include non bailable warrants. suspend their licenses. freeze their accounts. block their IP addresses.
you think the monkeys will notice? you bet they’ll notice. this is also the old panchatantra story of the serpent which became pacifist; it only had to hiss and lunge to deter, it didn’t have to bite. deterrence is worth a lot, and the TrueIndology episode is the moment to use that so that these people don’t run roughshod over us.
Podcast Episode 9: TrueIndology incident is a watershed social media moment