India before the election: The “YouTube educator”

Millions of followers, billions of video views: Political influencer Dhruv Rathee’s anti-government videos are met with great response in India. They are probably a nightmare for India’s Hindu nationalists.

When Dhruv Rathee gets going, it moves millions. “Namaskar Dosto,” he greets his followers, “Hello friends” is what it means in Hindi – and the 29-year-old has a lot of them. More than 20 million people follow the Indian on YouTube alone, and a renowned journalist recently described him as the “greatest and most loved YouTuber of his generation.”

And that’s probably why a certain video was so popular a few weeks ago. “Is India becoming a dictatorship?” the YouTuber asked provocatively. “Obviously no,” is probably the initial answer from his followers, he says himself. Apparently everything is fine in the country: “We can vote for any political party we want. The politician who gets the most votes comes to power. So there is still democracy in our country.”

But it’s not that simple – and to explain this, Dhruv Rathee spends half an hour listing in detail what suggests that India’s democracy is in danger: how the media is controlled and investigative authorities are used against the opposition – and how it is overall is about silencing critics of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Hindu nationalist party, the BJP.

The government’s influence on the media

Above all, it is important to him to be factually correct, he said ARD-Interview. And that’s why he cites reputable sources for everything presented in his videos. Behind this is the thorough investigative work of many often unknown journalists, which Rathee believes is not sufficiently recognized elsewhere.

The most important newspapers are largely dependent on government advertisements, and there is also little criticism on television, according to political scientist Vikram Visana from the University of Leicester. “The media environment in India now consists entirely of pro-Modi, pro-BJP news channels. And they are essentially owned by large corporations, i.e. companies that have benefited from Prime Minister Modi.”

Work from a safe distance

And that’s why it’s primarily YouTube where independent journalists can still find a mass audience. In India, almost half a billion people use the video platform. Anyone who has seven or even eight-digit follower numbers can easily finance themselves through advertising that runs between the videos.

But he is not a journalist at all, says Dhruv Rathee, but rather a kind of “YouTube educator”. He and his team are concerned with formulating complex topics in simple language: politics, science, history, social issues or current news.

However, Rathee is not doing this from India. The 29-year-old did his master’s degree in Karlsruhe, he is married to a German woman – and also speaks German. And that’s why he now works from Europe – from a safe distance, so to speak.

Concern for democracy

The government itself has never said anything publicly about his videos. But he is particularly subject to massive hostility from media outlets close to the government. Rathee is damaging India’s reputation abroad, is the accusation, especially after the “dictatorship” video. In addition, so-called trolls were hired to target him “from a certain party” and conducted online campaigns against him. It’s about destroying his reputation.

In fact, his videos are unlikely to please India’s Hindu nationalists, precisely because they reach so many people in the country. Mathematically, each of India’s 500 million YouTube users has seen four of his films. And he wouldn’t be the first to have his YouTube videos blocked at the instigation of the Indian government.

Precisely because he dares to take a bleak view in his video, which has been seen millions of times. If the situation in India deteriorates further after the elections, Rathee said at the end of his half-hour “dictatorship” video, then it won’t be long before the country becomes like Russia or North Korea. Elections would still be held. “But in reality, democracy will have taken its last breath,” said Rathee.

Would he perhaps not be able to return to India one day because of such statements? Rathee is calm about it. “I hope it never comes to that,” he says with a laugh. “I still firmly believe that the people of India will choose wisely before it is too late.”