Yeh Jo India Hai Na: Why Did We Let Fake News About Kerala Blasts Fuel Hatred?

The fake news factory flourished during the several hours that passed before the truth about the blasts emerged.

On Sunday, 29 October, three blasts took place at a prayer meeting of Jehovah’s Witnesses in the Kalamassery township of Ernakulam district in Central Kerala.

(Photo: The Quint)

Yeh Jo India Hai Na, here it is a complete mystery why we keep falling for fake news! Why are we such repeat suckers for misinformation? Why do disinformation campaigns flourish here?

We are not short of information. If anything, most Indians receive a lot of it.

And now, the availability of news and other information on video, on the simplest of mobile phones, at very low data rates, has ensured that illiteracy and poverty are receding as hurdles for us Indians to access information.

It would follow that as rational people, getting news from multiple sources would help us compare, evaluate, and sift out the truth from the lies, sift out the rumour, and sift out the malicious lies.

But often, that doesn’t happen; the consequences of which range from the tragic to the ridiculous. And in all these cases, we do not emerge looking good.

The Big Lie: It Was Not a Gathering of Jews

On Sunday, 29 October, three blasts took place at a prayer meeting of Jehovah’s Witnesses in the Kalamassery township of Ernakulam district in central Kerala.

At least three people were killed and around 40 were injured.

And almost as soon as these blasts took place, the fake news factory started – essentially asserting, falsely, that radical Islamist terrorists had bombed a Jewish gathering.

Sample these social media posts.

@rohanduaTO2, "…4 blasts rock Kerala where Jews live in Kalamassery… do you all still doubt The Kerala Story."

@MajorPoonia tweeted, "…a coordinated terror attack, today on Jews, tomorrow on others. Wake up Bharat!"

But, was the prayer meeting at Kalamassery a gathering of Jews?

No.

Jehovah's Witnesses are a Christian sect. They are not Jews at all. But those who wished to spread this fake news chose to gloss over this fact. And many of those who did not know fell for this fake news.

In fact, The Quint’s fact-checking team WebQoof has also confirmed that there are simply no Jews living in the Kalamassery township and that just 15 Jews live in all of Kerala.

Decades ago, Kerala did have a few thousand Jews but now, all but a few of them have migrated to Israel and other parts of the world. You can read the details of that fact-check here.

So, How Did the Fake News Factory Flourish?

The other massive accusation was that the bombing was carried out by ‘radical Islamic terrorists’. That was also proved wrong several hours later, when Dominic Martin, a disgruntled member of the Jehovah's Witnesses sect, surrendered to the police, claiming that he had carried out the blasts. He had even posted a video explaining his actions on Facebook.

But during the several hours that passed before the truth emerged, the fake news factory had flourished. The people behind these factually incorrect social media posts were either deliberately trying to spread fake news or were people who had fallen for this fake news.

We should be asking why this happened.

Well, firstly because we do have a thriving number of people intent on spreading anti-Muslim hate in India. Fake news and misinformation, anti-Muslim rhetoric, and abuse are routinely spread by these individuals and groups. The Quint’s fact-checking team has regularly called out such bigoted fake news and also identified several repeat offenders.

The conflict in Gaza, between the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF), which are mainly Jewish, and the Palestinian militant group Hamas, essentially Muslim, has created a fresh opportunity for hate-mongers to paint India’s Muslims as ‘terrorists’. And so, the moment the Kalamassery blasts happened, they went into overdrive.

The question to ask is – why did some people unsuspectingly share this fake news when it appeared on social media feeds? Why did many of us believe these claims to be true? Let’s face up to the fact that some among us were ready and willing to believe these claims.

There is even a name for this thought process – confirmation bias. When we get information that is in line or in keeping with any preconceived notion that we already have, we tend to ‘believe’ that information. Our bias, our prejudice, tells us to believe that this ‘news’ must be true.

Take a look at this tweet.

@MrSinha_ said, "…serial bomb blasts.. Jews are targeted. Do we even need an inquiry to know who did it???"

This person was so ‘sure’ that the blasts had to be the ‘work of Muslims’ that he even advocated for skipping further inquiry into the matter. For him, it just ‘had to be’ Muslims.

His evident bigotry even prevented him from checking whether the victims were Jews. Did he know who the Jehovah’s Witnesses were? Probably not. But his bias pushed him to ignore that and jump straight to the most convenient conclusion.

India Needs To Stay Objective

A sad spin-off to the terrible situation in Gaza is the fact that it is providing fodder to those spreading hate against India’s Muslims. Suresh Chavhanke, the head of Sudarshan News, is a regular hate speech offender.

He recently went on air asking – ‘Kya Yahudi hi Yaduvanshi, yaani Yadav hain?’ – claiming that ‘Yahudis’, as Jews are called in Hebrew, Arabic, and so, even in Hindi, were in fact Yadavs. He asserted that because of this ‘connect’, India’s Hindus must support a Jewish Israel.

Chavhanke’s claim is both laughable and dangerous.

Those spreading such misinformation are possibly aware that their claims are false and fabricated. But they go ahead, expecting the prejudices of their audiences to kick in, leading them to believe even the most absurd communal claims.

At such a precarious time, Yeh Jo India Hai Na, it needs to stay objective.

We should be condemning the violence of both, Hamas and the Israeli forces.

Instead, we are believing fake news and taking sides, as per our biases. And this is leading to more hate, which we do not need.