The Pop Cultures of Hate | Kunal Purohit

Kunal Purohit is an independent journalist, writer and podcaster.

In his latest book, H-Pop: The Secretive World of Hindutva Pop Stars, Kunal profiles Hindu radicalisation in popular culture through three primary characters: a singer, a poet and a youtuber.

In this interview, he breaks down the ideological, cultural and market logic of Hindutva popular culture in contemporary India. Calling it the most ‘insidious form of communalism’, Kunal draws transnational parallels between similar cultures of hate in Rwanda and Myanmar, that played an active role in genocide and mass murder. He delves into the systemic nature of Hate, role of social media platforms like Youtube in funding radicalisation and the Hindu diaspora’s patronage of Hindutva popular culture.