Umeed: What first steps should someone take if they want to create satirical content to counter hate speech?

TSV: The first step is to stay thoroughly informed: your satire can only cut through if it’s grounded in current events and accurate context. It’s equally important to understand who you’re speaking to and who you want to reach: craft your satire so that even those who initially disagree feel compelled to engage. Given the fleeting nature of online attention, lead with a clear, punchy hook that makes your main point obvious at a glance, then provide deeper context in accompanying captions or follow-up slides. Building an audience will take time. Our page grew steadily over a year and a half. So, perseverance is key and every misstep is simply a lesson that helps you improve. As you develop a core following, look for ways to expand beyond your base by translating popular posts, collaborating with creators in other spaces, or adapting your format for different platforms. Finally, remember to practice self-care. The online world can be overwhelming, so schedule breaks and set healthy boundaries to avoid burnout before you’ve had a chance to make a lasting impact.

Umeed: What skills or resources would you recommend for someone aiming to create effective satirical content in the counter–hate-speech space?

TSV: On the technical side, start by mastering basic design and editing tools—Canva for graphics, Premiere Pro or free alternatives for video, and simple audio-editing software if you plan to add voice overs. These platforms are surprisingly accessible, and there are countless tutorials on YouTube to get you up to speed. If you’re more comfortable with writing or drawing, exploring comic-strip tools or even pen-and-ink sketches can be just as powerful. The key is to leverage whatever medium plays to your strengths.

Beyond the tools, strong research habits are indispensable. You need to stay current on news and understand the context behind each story you satirize. That background knowledge gives your work depth and credibility.

Of course, you need creativity and a good ear for humor—knowing how to spot irony in real events and turn it into a clear, punchy narrative. Studying classic satirists, from Monty Python to local literary giants, can help you learn timing, tone, and structure.

Finally, persistence and passion are essential. Building an audience takes time, and you’ll make mistakes along the way. Treat each post as a learning opportunity, iterate based on feedback, and keep challenging yourself to refine both your craft and your message. With dedication and the right mix of skills, anyone can start using satire to challenge harmful narratives.

Umeed: What advice would you give creators on maintaining anonymity and ensuring personal safety when tackling sensitive, controversial issues through satire, especially in a country where dissent is criminalized?

TSV: Anonymity is crucial in our ecosystem. We only revealed one team member’s voice during a recent Swaddle podcast appearance—otherwise, we stay behind the curtain. You can choose to go public—some pages do and accept the risk of doxing—but anonymity dramatically reduces those threats, even though no measure can eliminate risk entirely.

Use secure tools. A privacy-focused email like ProtonMail, a reliable VPN (though free options in India can be scarce), and always mask your location. Minimize your digital footprint by keeping separate accounts for personal and satirical work, and never reveal identifying details in your posts or metadata.

Remaining anonymous protects not just you but also your relationships and creative autonomy. If power knows exactly who you are, it can silence you, or pressure you into self-censorship. In an environment of heightened surveillance, anonymity lets you speak truth to power without fear of immediate reprisal and keeps outside pressures from influencing your content.

Umeed: What do you think about collaborations? How important are partnerships in amplifying counter–hate-speech work or is it better to work in silos?

TSV: Collaborations are crucial. They let you tap into demographics and skills you don’t have in-house. In a moment when repression targets every sector, forging alliances against a common threat is essential. Instagram makes these partnerships easy—cross-posting stories, co-hosting live sessions, tagging each other—but real impact goes beyond any single platform. No person, page, or organization can do it all alone. Every collaboration strengthens the bridge between communities and expands the reach of counter-hate narratives.

Umeed: What would you recommend, whether at an individual or organizational level, for anyone looking to address hate speech? Any must-read publications, creators, or tools?

TSV: I’d begin by immersing yourself in reputable news and reporting outlets that delve into South Asian and global issues—publications like The Caravan, The Quint, Scroll, and Wired offer in-depth analysis, while regional platforms such as Maktoob Media provide critical on-the-ground perspectives. To understand effective satire, study global exemplars like The Onion and John Oliver, then observe how Indian comedy creators on YouTube and Instagram tackle politics and social norms with humor and insight. For rigorous background, turn to academic research via Google Scholar: look up studies on hate speech, propaganda, and digital media, and practice translating those dense findings into accessible posts or visuals. Video essays offer another powerful model—channels like Philosophy Tube and ContraPoints demonstrate how to blend analysis with engaging storytelling, and emerging Indian essayists are producing similarly thoughtful deep dives on caste, identity, and media narratives. Finally, arm yourself with basic design and editing skills—tools like Canva or free video editors will let you craft compelling graphics and clips—and don’t shy away from open-access repositories such as LibGen or the Internet Archive to source books and reference materials. Ultimately, your toolkit will evolve through continuous learning, following diverse voices online, and experimenting across formats—text, image, video, or audio—to find the methods that best amplify your counter–hate-speech message.

The post A Practical Guide to Countering Hate and Propaganda with Satire in India and Diaspora first appeared on Umeed.

We spoke with one of its co-founders to explore their inspiration, approach, and the power of satire as a tool for countering hate and propaganda.

Umeed: What inspired you to start The Savala Vada and use satire as your medium to counter hate and propaganda in India?

The Savala Vada: There was a sort of vacuum—I kept seeing narratives going abroad with no effective counter-narratives reaching their intended audiences. There were some counter-narratives, but they struggled to gain traction. I looked up pages like Kanda, a Marathi Mumbai–based satirical outlet, but they went inactive. Meanwhile, I watched a lot of Western-centric news, John Oliver and the like, and thought, “Why not do India?” I’m comfortable with English as my primary language, and English can reach diverse parts of India.

There’s an accessibility debate, but I decided on English. There’s so much news, so much strife and hate—how do you jolt people out of that constant exposure to brutality, violence, hate speech, and fascism? Satire became the tool: exaggerated truths, irony, humor. India is the perfect context for it, and I’m glad more people are entering this space.

As we lean toward dystopia, the lines between satire and reality blur—things move so fast you can’t tell true from false. What inspired me was this gap: the right wing, the Hindu nationalist movement, has a robust WhatsApp machinery. I’m not sure I’ve dented that behemoth, but when posts go viral and stir outrage, they create controversy. Controversy means two sides—what’s the other side? It’s about challenging assumptions, offering another perspective.

That’s the page’s purpose: to question what we take for granted. News reports what happened; satire engages people who might not otherwise pay attention. News readers read the news, pop-culture followers follow pop culture—how do you reach those who ignore the news? Our job is to bridge that divide, to say, “Here’s an issue that’s funny but actually very dark, and you need to notice it.” That urge—to fill the gap, spark discourse, set the record straight—got the ball rolling.

Umeed: What makes satire so effective?

TSV: Satire isn’t new. Satirical expression has always thrived in India. Historically, satire flourished under authoritarianism: in the Roman Empire, only the court jester could safely mock the king, and street dramas subverted power by exposing its absurdities. Satire works because it paraphrases what people are thinking and lays bare its folly. It holds up a mirror to society, exaggerates facts, and uses irony to reveal truths that straightforward reporting often cannot.

Take a recent BJP minister’s claim that Priyanka Gandhi was “elected from Kerala because it’s mini Pakistan full of terrorists.” A logical rebuttal is, “Kerala is part of India—how dare you?” Our satirical response embraced “mini Pakistan” completely, creating a tongue-in-cheek tourist guide to mini Pakistan: Kerala’s beaches, the Sabarimala pilgrimage, the oldest mosque, the oldest temple, the oldest church, and a 98 percent literacy rate. By amplifying opponents’ falsehoods to absurdity, we leave them with nothing left to counter and expose their narrative’s emptiness.

In a context where censorship can make even factual reporting risky, satire lets us “report falsehoods” instead—because the government is already peddling lies. We take those fabrications, exaggerate them further, and subvert them. When freedom of expression is curtailed, the most potent response is to state exactly what the power structure demands…and then go one step beyond. That subversive twist is what makes satire extraordinarily powerful in India today.

Umeed: What led you to choose English as the primary language for your Instagram content, and how do you balance its broad reach with the need to engage non–English-speaking audiences?

TSV: Absolutely. English is the language we’re most comfortable with, so it’s the one we use. If we had equal capability in other languages, we’d use them too. But English is the most inclusive “linked” language—while Hindi reaches many, it excludes large swaths of the Northeast, South India, and the diaspora. In fact, if you count second- and third-language speakers, India has the world’s second-largest English-speaking population.

We design our captions so the first slide features big, bold, simple text. Anyone with a basic grasp of English can digest it, and from there people often translate or share in regional languages.

We operate in a digital ecosystem—Instagram—where English predominates. If we were running a newspaper, regional languages would be essential. Online, though, English lets us reach a broader base. We’ve seen our posts shared by people from Kashmir to the Maldives to New York’s diaspora—all in the same language. That’s rare and powerful.

Umeed: How important is it for your content strategy to reach the Indian diaspora?

TSV: Our Instagram analytics show that India accounts for only about 80% of our audience; the remaining 20% comes from the US, UK, UAE, and other communities. Since we’re from Kerala, we know there’s a large diaspora in the Gulf, too.

Second, diaspora communities often seek a connection to their homeland, and many find it in right-wing nationalism. You’ll see people abroad, earning dollars, becoming complacent, and even working to build a “Hindu Rashtra” at home.

The emergence of genuine counter-narratives is a recent phenomenon, but it’s doing great work, especially around issues like caste in the US. Online, and with greater financial flexibility, western-based individuals can devote time to this cause as a side project, whereas many in India are simply too busy to engage at the same level.

You now have networks of young “activists” in Western institutions—from college Hindu collectives to groups at Oxford—who normalize Hindutva under the guise of Indian nationalism abroad. For example, a progressive friend of mine moved to a Western institution and was automatically added to its “Hindu” society, only to find it was pro-state and pro-Hindutva.

Our page counters that by posting in English to reach both Indians and the diaspora, showing them that an alternative narrative exists. Comedians like Abby Govindan repost our stories and say how much it helps them understand local issues, because information access is challenging when you’re abroad. Online ecosystems make that access possible, and that’s why our work is so crucial.

Umeed: Moving on to approach and strategy, how do you decide which issues or incidents to focus on? What makes a particular piece of news, hate speech, or propaganda a good candidate for satire?

TSV: There’s no rigid method, but we stay up to date with current events and pick elements that the average voter needs to know and that impact their lives. If an issue doesn’t directly affect them, we show how it still influences their world and make those connections clear.

We cover large-scale issues alongside smaller stories, such as the “blinkered ambulance” scandal or incremental GST [Goods and Services Tax] hikes on popcorn. Though minute on the surface, these examples link to broader systems of oppression. Satire lets us frame these complex topics through pop-culture references and relatable experiences, breaking the news into bite-sized, accessible pieces.

We don’t preselect topics so much as follow our intuition: Is this relevant? Does it merit discussion? If yes, we satirize it. For instance, when India launched its third nuclear submarine, we riffed: “The world’s 14th hungriest country launches a ₹14,000 crore submarine.” We only rearranged a few words and highlighted societal ironies, yet it prompted people to ask, “Why can’t we talk about it like that?”

So, it’s a blend of intuition, relevance, and deep familiarity with issues that resonate, those people need to know if we want society to head in a better direction.

Umeed: Do social media platforms play a critical role in promoting satire? With today’s global reach, we can share content everywhere—but which platforms work best? Are the most effective ones those where hate speech is rampant (so you can subvert it), or those with largely well-meaning audiences? In your experience, which medium gives your satire the greatest impact?

TSV: Social media has been transformative for accessibility. We started with just thirty followers, and through persistent posting and engagement, our reach has grown phenomenally. But this power is concentrated in a few platforms—and that creates vulnerabilities. For example, our joint video with The Juice Media was taken down on YouTube after a government notice, even though it remains viewable on Instagram. On Instagram, story views can cap around 1,000, and we constantly worry that the platform could remove us—our website backup isn’t even live yet.

As for which platform to target, we chose Instagram deliberately. While Twitter and WhatsApp carry the bulk of hate speech in India, Instagram hits a middle ground: it’s widely used here (unlike TikTok, which is banned), yet it isn’t as text-heavy as Twitter. India’s youth gravitate toward audio-visual content, and Instagram’s format meets that preference. Its virality is “controlled” as stories disappear after 24 hours, encouraging shares without permanent clutter—and its moderation tools let us delete comments, block users, and filter hate speech.

That blend of broad reach, engaging format, and creator control makes Instagram the most effective medium we’ve found for sharing satire and countering harmful narratives.

Umeed: How do you know if your work is making an impact?

TSV: That’s a great question. In truth, we can’t measure impact in a single metric. Instead, we look for signs in the small moments: DMs and comments from people saying, “You’ve helped me unlearn so much,” or “I shared your post in my family’s WhatsApp group and it sparked a debate.” Those individual reactions, whether it’s a conversation about Karwa Chauth traditions or a challenge to ingrained beliefs, tell us we’re doing something right, even if it feels modest compared to the scale of the problem.

Beyond personal messages, our page’s growth, now over 83,000 followers despite occasional shadow bans, shows there’s an audience hungry for a counter-narrative. People engage, share, and discuss issues they’d never questioned before. 

None of it is a silver-bullet solution, and there’s still a long way to go. But each comment, share, and new follower represents a small victory and proof that alternative perspectives can gain traction. That momentum gives us hope and signals that others might pick up the torch with their own tools and experiences.

Umeed: Have you seen examples where your satire has sparked constructive conversations or shifted people’s attitudes?

TSV: Our page tends to grow during moments of national moral crisis, one major spike was around the Ram Mandir inauguration last January. We also see engagement around gender and queer issues: male followers often interact when we satirize regressive practices. Satire isn’t polite. It lays bare uncomfortable truths, and yes, we’ve been called insensitive or too dark. But the world is dark, it deserves that unflinching mirror. We’ve seen comments thanking us for challenging norms, DMs saying people have changed their perspectives, and ongoing discussions where none existed before. It may be a small impact, but it’s an impact nonetheless.

The post How Satire is Combating Hate and Propaganda in India and Diaspora first appeared on Umeed.

We spoke with Swami Raghavendra about his efforts to counter hate, the current climate of division, and the steps needed to promote greater harmony.

The Umeed Project: What inspired you to speak out against hate speech?

Swami Raghavendra: I have a plot of land in Bihar with a mazar, which we refer to as Miya. Spiritual leaders from all religions gather there. We have always lived in peace and with harmony but lately we’ve begun to witness growing tensions.

I’ve read Swami Vivekananda and Sahajananda—they played a big role in inspiring me to do this work. Mahatma Gandhi is also a source of inspiration. When we deeply understand our religion, hate naturally falls away. 

It was after the 2021 Haridwar Dharma Sansad, led by Yati Narsinghanand, where blatant hate speeches were delivered, that I felt compelled to speak out. He completely maligned Hinduism. A religious gathering that calls for the killing and erasure of a community goes against the very spirit of religion. That was the main reason.

There’s a shlok in the Atharva Veda about India being like a land of many religions, languages, and cultures—nurturing all like a cow feeds her calf. All religions should be treated equally, with love and kindness. 

Umeed: Did you face any challenges when you started out speaking against hatred?

Swami Raghavendra: Yes, a lot. But we follow what’s written in the Bhagavad Gita (holy Hindu scripture), and we don’t focus on personal hardships. We don’t talk about the adversities we face. Becoming sadhus (Hindu holy man) was our way of dedicating our lives to this land, to this country, to its people.

Shankar Dayal Saksena once wrote, “A nation is not a piece of paper.” A nation can only progress when we live peacefully, without hurting anyone’s religion or culture. That’s what we’ve dedicated our lives to.

Umeed: Why do monks like Narsinghanand give hate speeches?

Swami Raghavendra: They want shortcuts to success. They’re going through an identity crisis. They think this will make them popular in modern India. Some imams and pastors also go on national TV debates for Rs. 5,000 and mislead the masses and divide people. This is being deliberately done by people who own these media channels to keep Indians divided. 

Umeed: What is hatred on rise even in places where people used to live peacefully?

Swami Raghavendra: Hatred was much lower in villages. People lived peacefully. But mobile phones, fake news, and social media platforms are spreading hate. Hate can’t last a lifetime. Tell me—can you have a fever forever?

Umeed: No.

Swami Raghavendra: Exactly. Love is an innate human feeling. Humans cannot live in hate forever. Psychologically, hate is a kind of illness. It doesn’t last, it hasn’t in the past, and it won’t in the future—this is my prophecy.

The only promise we must make is to stay on the right path and work for communal harmony. With our wealth and our health, we must dedicate ourselves. This hatred will end soon.

Umeed: What are the steps to combat this?

Swami Raghavendra: Conversation. Dialogue is the only way. People need to engage in debate and discussion and truly understand each other. After interfaith dialogues, intra-Hindu conversations are just as important.

So first, we need conversation. Second, we must celebrate festivals together. Third, we must support and uplift those sadhus and sants (saints) who promote peace and communal harmony—those who say “tum gulab lao, hum Ganga jal layein (You bring roses, we will bring Ganga water) ,” upholding the Ganga-Jamuni tehzeeb (It refers to the centuries-old syncretic culture of northern India that blends Hindu and Muslim traditions, languages, arts, and customs, symbolizing communal harmony and shared heritage). These peacemakers should receive resources. When a sadhu gives hate speech, he gets security, cars, and funding. Power changes people. We need religious figures and leaders who speak the language of love.

Umeed: How do Hindu religious scriptures address hate and divisive ideologies?

Swami Raghavendra: Our scriptures teach that we must not go against any religion—and anyone who does, is not following true dharma. What has the Sangh (Hindu nationalist groups) done? They’ve misled people by misinterpreting our texts and claiming things that aren’t true. The sages called that dharma which does not go against any other faith. Religion is not a political party

Umeed: What is your message for aspiring young Hindu spiritual leaders, monks, and saints?

Swami Raghavendra: I’ll quote Acharya Vinoba Bhave: every spiritual leader should read the scriptures of all religions. Secondly, remember that humanity and love are the first steps toward spirituality. Never spread hatred among people or between religions.

Umeed: What is your idea of India?

Swami Raghavendra: India should be a garden where every flower can bloom freely and independently, spreading its own unique fragrance.

The post Hate Cannot Last Forever: Swami Raghavendra’s Vision for an Inclusive India first appeared on Umeed.