I have been watching the growth of web services aimed at the Indian demographic. There are not that many sites that cater exclusively to Indians. Sites like Rediff are rare and some traditional newspapers like Times of India do have a decent online presence. Most of the popular articles on these sites are all link baits with some eye catching title and an image mostly sexual in nature. The content of that article will mostly be recycled images. Rediff and Times do this a lot. We are a country with a billion+ population and a significant online users. It tells us the same thing as any other demographic, that sex sells. But the most insightful part of this is the comments section on all these articles.

In almost all of these sites the comments and people commenting appear to be so full of hate and there is really no civil discussion that happens. There are a lot of comments inciting people by insulting South Indians or North Indians blatantly. Though disturbing, I left them out of the consideration marking them as trolls though its a large number of them. Most of the other comments that people take issue with and tend to use obscene language and personal insults to respond to are, surprisingly, comments or observations that come from an outside group. These are most likely opinions coming from a person who grew up in an atmosphere that is not middle class India, like some one from a different country (either Indians or not). Why do we do this? Are we not capable of civil debate? Can we not accept that people outside of the country really do see us differently to what we are used to thinking? Can we not see that people with different upbringing and values judge different scenarios differently? For example people from Jammu, Assam and Kerala cannot all think they same way let alone outsiders.

I initially thought its the kind of people the sites attract, its a small section of what India is and cannot really take it for granted (or write a blog about it yet). Rediff, Times are well known to be awful sites to engage in any civil discussions. So I visited other sites. I was told that the situation is dire in regional language sites also like Idlebrain for example, where people apparently insult their mothers in the filthiest language possible just to support their favorite actors. Then I looked at something as harmless as YouTube videos. It seemed pretty harmless because you don’t watch an old Rafi song if you don’t like it and don’t bother commenting on it. But to my surprise the discourse turned sour even there. For example see the comments in this pleasant song from CID – yeh hai bombay meri jaan.

The biggest surprise of all was Reddit. I was really happy when I found a Indian subreddit on there. The assumption was given reddit’s reputation and the etiquette people follow there, it would translate naturally to /r/india and finally I have found a place to have rational discussions and you know may be even organize to make things happen for the better. But the situation there is depressingly similar to other sites. Every comment that appears different to the “accepted” view is not just voted down but responded to with vile personal accusations. Every article submitted that portrays India in a different light has comments saying (and upvoted) this is written by a white guy that wants to belittle India or the writer hates India. At this point I am forced to think this is a trait in us as Indians that makes us act this way. Are we as a society so insecure in India, our culture and what people perceive us to be? Can we not accept criticism or just even a different point of view? Why do we yell and try to shut the other person down rather than really trying to understand where they are coming from and learning something about ourselves? The only positive thing with reddit is harmless articles and/or articles praising India do not yet degenerate into ugly name calling.

Its depressing to say the least. It will be even more depressing when comments on this article degenerate into calling me a India hater. I hope not 🙂