Reporters Without Orders Ep 257: Musahar community of Bihar, Hindutva surge in MP

This week the host Basant is joined by Newslaundry’s Prateek Goyal and Newsreel Asia’s Tej Bahadur Singh.

The discussion begins with Bihar’s Mushar community and Tej explains the narrative of his video report. Prateek elaborates on how Madhya Pradesh is the epitome of Hindutva where the Home Minister himself protests and criticizes any new film release. Basant also talks about a video that went viral last week with an individual representing a religious group in Madhya Pradesh and how Mushar Samuday still lags behind on social and other parameters.

Tej’s report shows why people of the Mushar community still lack opportunities after 75 years of independence. The narrator dons a character named Chandeshwar Majhi of the Mushar community, who voices the anguish and hardships of the community through his own sufferings. He highlights that the community has received no facilities promised to them despite the fact that Mushar Samuday was recognized as Maha Dalit, with 23 other communities, by none other than the Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.

The discussion moves to Prateek’s report , where he talks about how people are harassed in the name of Hindutva and the mechanics of interfering in a consensual relationship between a Hindu girl and a Muslim boy, through the trope of love jihad. He recounts one such case where a Muslim boy from Khandwa, MP, ran a cyber cafe and used to chat with a Hindu girl, and was harassed by local Hindutva supporters because of it.

Produced by P Madhu Kumar, recorded by Anil Kumar and edited by Umrav Singh.

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