On Indian Twitter, a harmless comment can soon invite vitriolic abuse – even religious attacks. On July 1, Mumbai-based comic Kenny Sebasti...
On Indian Twitter, a harmless comment can soon invite vitriolic abuse – even religious attacks. On July 1, Mumbai-based comic Kenny Sebastian took to the social media website to flag the loss content creators have faced after the Modi government banned the Chinese app, TikTok. He was soon attacked by a prominent Hindutva handle Madhur Singh.
As Singh countered Sebasatian on the TikTok ban, he also abused the comedian in Hindi, referring to a common Hindu nationalist trope: that Indian Christians are “rice bag converts” – a slur that accuses people of following Christianity not because of their convictions but due to the purported material benefits they receive from following the religion.
As Sebastian was attacked repeatedly on religious grounds, fellow comic Agrima Joshua stepped in, adding a tweet in his support. That in turn set off a coordinated attack on her, with trolls digging up a 16-month-old video in which she had mocked misinformation around the proposed Shivaji statue off the Mumbai coast. Joshua’s critics incorrectly claimed that the video was insulting to the Maratha king.
It’s not twitter if someone doesn’t call you a rice bag convert :)
Actually I learned a lot from “the placard guy” who apparently fights for causes but doesn’t...
