Indian Media, Deepfakes, and the Rise of Digital Nationalism

Indian Media, Deepfakes, and the Rise of Digital Nationalism

Having once been celebrated as the living heartbeat of the biggest democracy in the world. Indian media has gone through the process of transformation that has proven to be a deadly metamorphosis it went from being a stronghold of accountability into a propaganda factory run on jingoism, distortion and the show man ship of deceit. The moral decay of the fourth estate of India which is long been suspected is exposed now before the international community. In the recent past, most prominent Indian media outlets have been backed into the corner as the authors were forced to publicly retract with apologies when exposed to peddle sensationalist misinformation and deepfake accounts. And this is not just journalistic misjudgment, it is a accusation of a breakdown of the infrastructure and the truth got left on the sacrifice altar of patriotism and prime time ratings. India today is a country being held hostage not by its external enemies but its homegrown media- an industry that has stopped reporting news but is now in the business of creating national hysteria. This turnaround did not happen in a short period of time. It has carefully and very well been engineered in the last 10 years with major forces in both political and media coming together in a plot to foment hyper nationalism especially against enemies like Pakistan. It is it manufactured outrage video editing inflammatory panel discussions, the Indian media houses have been fighting ideological war rather than pursuing a laudable agenda of serving the interest of the people.

The person does not have to go far to observe the politics of play book at work. The trend started in the Pulwama attack in 2019 followed by the one in 2025 and it is consistent and rather scary. The Indian media channels go ballistic and start shouting crying conspiracy and terrorism by Pakistan demanding military retaliation and vilification of opposing male voices without waiting either forensic evidence or some official reports. The subsequent media trial is not conducted to unearth the truth, but to create the feeling of nation being a victim and thus testifying to a show of aggressiveness. The media ignores inquiring whatever is the reason that farmers are on the street. The minorities do not feel safe anymore and price inflation is soaring out of control. The media chants anti-Pakistan messages and nationalistic slogans. During the process journalism is not only compromised but is used as a weapon.

During the present regime headed by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi the media has attained the status of a militarized front that harbors the tone and the operations of the military. Anchors do not consider themselves as journalists but as warriors of ideologies. Media have now become digital combat zones where the truth does not only get distorted but also gets dug. Instead of the facts being bought before them in front of the viewers now it is scripts that are created to create a heightened Hindutva agenda and drown out the opposing willing. Indian Muslims who are already being sieged by draconian policies and increased hate crimes are now more demonized by the media that views them as permanent suspects. This is not the indication of a healthy democracy but of a country that is headed into government control propaganda.

People in other parts of the world are not oblivious of this media circus. Under the pressure of watching bodies around the world and human rights organizations warning the world a few Indian publications have been desperate to cover their backs. Other news groups that include Hindustan Times have lately had their fabrications retracted due to the international spotlight revealing grossly untrue statements and made-up information. Important reporters who were regarded as the people who are telling or reporting the truth, reality were forced to publicly apologize because of spreading false news or stories. Although this reversion is inevitable, it is nothing short of the window dressing they hardly restore the impact damaged over the years to Indian international reputation. The world has started to realize that the actual danger to democratic values in South Asia is not cross border stresses but from inside the media environment of India itself.

Pakistan has been fighting terrorism at the cost of many decades, even economically and at the cost of human life in many cases yet has made dialogue, transparency and regional cooperation its priority. Islamabad has demonstrated maturity as well as strategic decorum even after being instigated by the Indian media rants on baseless claims. Nevertheless, these hearings are too often overwhelmed by the ruckus in the newsrooms in Indian media whose absolute priorities are framing and maintenance of control over the defined narrative. It is through these studios that peace is sabotaged on daily basis.

What is jeopardizing the Indo-Pak peace is not military standoff or diplomatic paralysis but the calculated war mongering that every night runs on the Indian screens. Such media spectacles not only represent a kind of mood of the nation they cause it. Through that they end up producing a more misinformed more hostile and more resistant to peace than ever before a public. The TRP mandate of honor to continue war has turned the final state of war as entertainment and not last resort. Not only do anchors act as uniformed generals and debates as battle plans, but all the news items are analyzed through a nationalist superiority filter.

In the meantime, Pakistan still interacts with the international community at the diplomatic level economic agreements and peace building activities. It has consistently avoided the temptation of responding toward the retaliatory rhetoric even after being provoked. As Indian media is forging an ideological blindfold on the people of India feasting them with paranoia and artificial threats. Pakistan is gradually rebuilding the image of itself through dialogue and multilateralism. This difference of method can scarcely be greater nor its results more different. The axis of the opinion making process has shifted to the point when India masses are becoming more isolated and deprived of world views being instead fed a continuous loop of unchanging victimization and holy wrath. The rest of the world is apprehensively observing that shift. Facts are not sacred anymore in the contemporary India only narratives are. Media has changed its role of informing the citizens into brainwashing them. The fact that Indian media has been walking down the path of jingoism and deceit is not a crisis of journalism but a crisis of democracy. Until India snatches back its media freedom that is under the grips of propaganda and back to the laws of accurate and balanced reporting, it is bound to lose not only their credibility in the international market, but as well as their entire democratic identity.