SabrangIn recent times, a troubling wave of videos containing anti-Muslim content has surfaced in India, causing concern and controversy and alarm. This content is found far and wide on the internet. One such channel called Bhakti Today is noted to have links with the some of those employed or connected with the famed International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), a well-known Hindu organization with a global presence.
This investigative report by SabrangIndia aims to shed light on the alleged links between certain individuals employed and associated with ISKCON and who appear to be producing anti-Muslim propaganda videos. One such video, titled “The Kerala Story,” garnered attention for its portrayal of Muslim women and the implications it made about their beliefs and intentions. The controversial video, along with others, has been widely circulated on social media platforms, raising questions about the individuals who are associated with ISKCON and their role in disseminating prejudiced narratives.
ISKCON itself has had a significant impact on the lives of its followers and has fostered spiritual growth for many. However, the fact that some notable persons associated with this organisations’ are dishing out steady doses of anti-Muslim propaganda raises questions about the actual association, origin and spread of such content that is in direct conflict with the organization’s stated values and its stance on promoting unity and shared civilizational values in India.
When the movie The Kerala Story had hit the theatres and was roundly criticised widely for being Islamophobic, this video had gone viral too and was disseminated widely. It was a sleekly produced, organised effort at demonising a Muslim woman, with the implication that all Muslim women are the same – she was shown to both be a fundamentalist and a narrow-minded person. The Kerala Story, directed by Sudipto Sen and Vipul Shah made news and drew wide comment on its released in May 2023.
When SabrangIndia investigated this association –between associates and employees of ISKON and such content, the YouTube channel Bhakti Life stands up as an example. Some of the creators of video content on Bhakti Life are associated with ISKCON. One such video, The Kerala Story—the Bhakti Today version, was particularly insidious due to the wide viewership it had garnered thus far.
The Kerala Story – a stereotype gone wrong
The video, called Kerala Story– the Bhakti Today version, short story version of the controversial film depicts an interaction between three female friends, of the same age, having a discussion that veers into religion. The show depicts a black headscarf-wearing Muslim girl who immediately pushes the narrative of propagating Islam, deriding other religions, especially Hinduism. The other girl, counters her back, with a (seemingly more) reasonable and knowing tone insinuating that it is (only) the Muslim girl who has a hidden agenda. The episode fundamentally and insidiously tries to show Muslims as violent and even anti-India.
One of the characters even insinuates that religion should be preached by knowledge and not by ‘violence or money’. The implication is clear – Muslim women are fundamentalists, out to denigrate Hinduism and worse still, in cahoots with whoever is out there to convert Hindu women to the ‘cause of Islam’ aka the Kerala Story. In fact the video thumbnail bears uncanny resemblance to the film’s poster.
Coming close on the heels of the full length feature film, The Kerala story, criticised widely for taking insidious liberties with facts as well as for questioning the motive of Muslim women in mixed faith groups of friends, the video can only be called undisguised Islamophobia. According to the UN, Islamophobia is “Islamophobia is a fear, prejudice and hatred of Muslims that leads to provocation, hostility and intolerance by means of threatening, harassment, abuse, incitement and intimidation of Muslims and non-Muslims, both in the online and offline world.”
This video called Kerala Story– the Bhakti Today version has over 3.2 Million views, and the channel, Bhakti Today, has over 2.55 lakh subscribers. It is run by Ashwin Chaudhary and Prema Rupa. When we dug deeper, we found that these two were employed by Food for Life in Vrindavan. Prema Rupa is recorded as working at FLF as a ‘Client Relationship Officer’ from 2017 onwards, according to her LinkedIn account. The FLF website notes her to President, and describes her role as “Assistant to the President, FFLV USA. Premarupa assists FFLV USA President and takes care of the communication with all the donors and sponsors in the USA. She also assists the Indian Media department with her creative energy when required.” Ashwani Choudhary similarly seems to be employed by FLF as Head of Media since 2017. This organisation according to its website declares its mission of ‘serving humanity through love and compassion’.
Intriguingly, Food for Life, is located on the campus of the Sandipan Muni School in Vrindavan which in turn is listed on this ISKCON website as a part of ‘World Wide directory of official ISKCON Centres & Branches’
The decidedly Islamophobic nature of several of the videos on Bhakti Life, including the clearly biased ‘The Kerala Story’ video-the Bhakti Today Version‘, and the apparent links of the creators of the content, including occasional scriptwriter for the channel, Amogh Lila Das, with ISKCON raise some grave concerns about the values propagated by sections of this organisation.
And sure enough, on the YouTube channel Bhakti Today, well known preachers or Gurus can be seen making significant contributions. For instance, the writing credits of The Kerala Story-the Bhakti Today Version, video, which demonises Muslim women has been given to H.G Sundar Gopal Prabhu from Pure Devotion. Pure Devotion is an NGO with its offices in Rajasthan, operating in Vrindavan, purportedly to help old widows there. Though his links to ISKCON are not immediately clear, HG is an honorific His Grace that is added to senior members of ISKCON.
Sure enough in other videos on Bhakti Today, one can see the now disgraced (and suspended for a month) ISKCON preacher HG Amogh Lila Prabhu.
Amogh Lila Das also frequently appears on yet another channel called My Ashray. In the about section the channel is ascribed to HG VIGYAN VIHARI PRABHU, who writes the channel is ‘inspired from International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) founded by HDG A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada.’ On the website of ISKCON Delhi, Mr Vigyan Vihari is listed as its media head.
On My Ashray, Amogh Lila Prabhu picks up common communal tropes and weighs in. For example in this video, it will be difficult to ascertain if the speakers is a spiritual guru and not a crude propagandist. “Even in Europe there are people are victim to Love Jihad, they are there in Syria. Citing a case study on “one of their Brahmachaaris’, Amogh Lila Das narrates, “experienced the death of his father. Other Brahmacharies also wished to pay their respects and asked him if they could visit him at his home in Kerala. He replied to them that if they wish to come then they should come in ‘pants-shirt'”, essentially Western clothes and not the saffron robes typical to ISKCON preachers. If they were to go to the place in their saffron clothes, the shopkeepers there would refuse to sell them anything. Amogh Lila Das further argues into proclaiming how the movie Kerala Story is a ‘true story’.
Here is Lila Das weighing in into the Gyanvapi controversy at a news channel saying ‘While there should be an investigation, there is barely any need for one because it is so clear, structure wise, that is Shiv Ling, this structure is that of a Shiv Ling.” Here’s another problematic video where he says “Hindus are dhakkans and deserve to be converted because they are not ‘strong’ enough’. A variation of this is now increasingly seen in Maharashtra where speakers like Raja Singh often make the same claims.
Yet another YouTube Channel called Braj Girls has also uploaded a video about a skit against ‘Love Jihad’. Braj Girl is also noted to be the name of a band of school girls that is mentioned on the Food for Life website. This skit displays the story of Shradha who marries a man named Afthab against her parents’ wishes and ends up being abused and murdered by the man. The video discourages going against parents’ wishes, and seeks to seemingly generalise the case of Afthab. The skit also ends by a young girl saying, “‘The daughter from a new generation who spoiled the culture (sanskaar)-filled atmosphere, this new generation daughter then found herself cut in pieces.”
Love Jihad is widely seen as a Hindutva project to criminalise consensual inter-faith marriages in India. Other countries, none of them democratic, in the past have seen such experiments happen, for e.g., Nuremberg race laws in Germany under the Nazis and apartheid laws in South Africa and even strictures against interracial marriage in USA, and similarly the more recent, ban on Palestinian spouses of Israeli citizens from living in Israel.
There seem to be many such channels. Here’s another channel run by Venugopal Charan Das and called Associations which, among other videos about ISKCON and strictures about life, love and bhakti, inserts an insidious video about how Muslims slay ‘cows’ during Baqarah Eid. This is another channel that was started in 2014 and went dormant till three years ago, only to return a year ago with content that was dramatically different. The mixture is the usual – spreading the ISKCON message through videos with click bait titles like ‘kya ISKCON desh ko divide kar raha hai?’ But a video like this which weighs into the Kerala Story yet again, belies the fact that the channel is only about ‘to step into the light of knowledge and not to stay in the darkness of ignorance.’
What is ISKCON?
In the late 1970s, at the peak of its popularity, the Hare Krishna movement attracted approximately 10,000 followers living in communes across the United States. Originating from the teachings of Sri Chaitanya of Bengal in the 16th century, this Hindu sect, formally known as Gaudiya Vaishnavism, was introduced to America by the Indian guru A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami in the 1960s. The movement’s distinctiveness lay in its repetitive chanting of the phrase “Hare Krishna,” a practice believed by its adherents to hold great spiritual power and benefit all.
During the 1960s and ’70s, the Hare Krishna movement gained prominence in the counterculture, according to The Grunge, capturing the attention of influential figures within the hippie movement. Their appearance and chants became easily recognisable and were featured in popular movies, plays, and songs of the time. Public dancing and chanting became trademarks of the movement.
However, in the years that followed, alleged former members began to speak out about the reality of life inside Hare Krishna communes. As a result, the movement faced a significant decline in numbers, largely due to high-profile scandals involving allegations of corruption, widespread abuse, and even murder. Today, there are no longer Krishna boarding schools in the United States, reflecting the changes and challenges the Hare Krishna movement has undergone since its introduction to the country by Swami Prabhupada in 1966.
The movement has now become a global phenomenon and many of its devotees are not Indian nationals. However, in India too they have a burgeoning presence, with the ISKCON temple in Delhi being an iconic testimony to the significant and influential nature of the organisation.
The question is, why are some of the prominent associates of this a 57 year old credible organisation that has presence in countries like Malaysia and routinely gets government contracts, including serving meals for the governments’ mid-day meal scheme contract in Karnataka, openly using some of their own media personnel to produce sleek anti-Muslim propaganda.
Is it a case of going with the flow, or is there a disdain for shared civilisational values of India that has always made space for diversity. The answer to the question, either way, is worrying.
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