From ‘Food Jihad’ to ‘Love Jihad’: Rise of communal content online

If this is what they call journalism, we should probably pack up and go home.

This is a Telugu YouTube channel called Tejaswi News, accusing Muslim vendors of selling poisoned food at a tribal festival in Telangana.

There is no investigation, no medical evidence, and no attempt to verify whether anyone had actually fallen ill. What there is instead are cameras pushed into people’s faces, aggressive questioning, and a single phrase repeated again and again until it starts sounding like fact: “food jihad.”

Over a series of videos, Tejaswi News turns these small-time traders who sell a common local snack — a kova bun — into suspects in a larger conspiracy. And the anchors go from adulteration, to Rohingya Muslims, to questions about why Muslims are present at a Hindu festival at all. 

In one clip, a vendor is made to eat his own food on camera, surrounded by a crowd, as proof of innocence. This isn’t clumsy reporting or some momentary lapse in judgment.  This neatly fits into a format that has taken over large parts of the internet in India.

Selling hate.

Selling communalism.

Where everyday people are put on trial in public for clicks. 

This is happening across the country. Several people are doing the same. It’s about how easily hate can be manufactured, scaled, and defended online — and how seamlessly it plugs into politics, money, and ideology.

Let me explain.

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