Western media’s relentless bias against India stems from deep-rooted civilizational jealousy and colonial guilt. Unable to accept a rising, ancient culture that outshines the West in ethics, intellect, and innovation, they vilify India through distortion and propaganda. Their hostility reveals fear of a resurgent India they can neither control nor comprehend.
For decades, Western media has systematically misrepresented India, not as an emerging civilizational power or a democratic, cultural, and technological force, but as a chaotic nation mired in religious strife, poverty, and backwardness. This portrayal is not accidental; it is the consequence of a deeper civilizational discomfort. India, with its rich and ancient heritage, spiritual depth, and growing strategic influence, stands in stark contrast to the materialist and exploitative legacy of Western colonial powers. As India rises confidently in every domain, the West’s historical guilt and present-day insecurity are increasingly expressed through their media ecosystems, which act as both mirrors and megaphones of elite anxieties.
The West’s history is soaked in conquest, colonization, and cultural erasure. Modern Europe and North America amassed wealth not by innovation alone but by plundering the resources of Africa, Asia, and the Americas. Their dominant religious and political institutions sanctioned genocide, slavery, and repression, while their religious leaders lived in palatial luxury. India, by contrast, never colonized others. It contributed freely to the world from the concept of zero and advances in medicine, astronomy, and metallurgy to spiritual systems like yoga and philosophies like Vedanta. But colonial powers constructed an artificial hierarchy that framed Western civilization as the pinnacle of progress and dismissed Eastern civilizations as primitive.
This false hierarchy continues to echo in the language and tone of Western media. When India asserts itself, be it by sending a spacecraft to the Moon or building a digital public goods infrastructure that serves a billion people, Western outlets do not celebrate it as progress. Instead, they question whether such a nation “should” pursue such ambitions when slums still exist, a question rarely, if ever, asked of Western nations that built cathedrals and space programs during times of domestic oppression, segregation, and poverty.
Take, for instance, the coverage of India’s second wave of COVID-19. Western media outlets splashed disturbing images of funeral pyres across front pages, often without consent or cultural sensitivity. The message was clear: India was failing. Yet when similar or worse death tolls occurred in the U.S., Italy, and the U.K., the media coverage was clinical, data-driven, and sympathetic. No grotesque visuals, no moralistic editorials. Such selective framing is not journalism; it is narrative warfare.
This pattern was equally evident during the abrogation of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir. Western media parroted Pakistani talking points, framing the constitutional move as autocratic. They ignored the decades of Islamist militancy, the forced exodus of Kashmiri Hindus, and the daily violence funded by Pakistan’s ISI. When India’s largest democratic exercise, its national elections take place, these media outlets do not celebrate the participation of 600 million voters. Instead, they search for signs of majoritarianism, electoral manipulation, or communal polarization.
India’s economic and technological rise has been met with equal discomfort. When Chandrayaan-3 made India the first country to land on the Moon’s south pole, headlines in the Western press asked whether India should “focus on poverty instead.” Yet these same nations built intercontinental missiles and held global trade monopolies while large segments of their population were enslaved or disenfranchised. UPI, CoWIN, and Aadhaar, innovations that revolutionized how a billion Indians access money, medicine, and identity are either ignored or cast as Orwellian surveillance. The reality is this: a confident, self-reliant India disproves the West’s long-held myths of supremacy.
Even India’s soft power is not spared. Yoga, which originated as a profound spiritual and philosophical practice in India, is appropriated, commercialized, and rarely acknowledged for its Indian roots. Hindu festivals are framed in negative terms- Diwali becomes a pollution event, and Kumbh Mela is labeled a “super-spreader.” Meanwhile, mass gatherings in the West are celebrated as expressions of freedom and culture. Hinduism, one of the most pluralistic and non-dogmatic traditions in the world, is routinely reduced to caste caricatures or branded as regressive, even as Western religions with far bloodier histories of forced conversion and conflict are treated with respect.
This hypocrisy is not just academic. It is strategic. Western media often functions as an extension of their geopolitical and corporate interests. It is no coincidence that these outlets show heightened interest in India only when tensions rise during border conflicts with China, diplomatic friction with Canada, or disagreements at global summits. Behind the façade of journalistic inquiry lies a deeper intention: to shape global perception and restrain India’s moral and strategic authority.
Interestingly, many Western governments are actively courting India for trade, defense, technology collaboration, and diplomatic partnership. Yet their media arms continue to berate or undermine India’s achievements. The contradiction is glaring. When India successfully mediated between warring nations or held its ground at the G20, media coverage focused not on the diplomatic breakthrough but on superficial controversies. When India promotes cultural cooperation with Africa or launches welfare programs in Southeast Asia, Western narratives often ignore or belittle these efforts. It is almost as if a resurgent, confident, and self-directed India threatens the foundational assumptions of the post-colonial Western order.
And perhaps it does. India’s model- spiritual but scientific, rooted yet progressive, non-aligned but assertive — is civilizationally incompatible with the Western model of exploitative capitalism and aggressive proselytization. This difference manifests not just in economics or politics, but in fundamental values: community over individualism, dharma over domination, harmony over hegemony. This is why Western media cannot fully grasp or represent India. They don’t just dislike India’s actions, they fear what India represents.
To counter this, India must not retaliate with censorship or mimicry. Instead, it must lead with its strengths. First, it must build global media platforms, newsrooms, content hubs, and documentary centers that represent its voice, not as state propaganda but as civilizational storytelling. Second, it must empower its diaspora now present in key positions across Silicon Valley, Ivy League institutions, and global finance to act as cultural bridges and narrative correctors.
Cultural diplomacy must be elevated. Indian embassies should do more than issue visas they should organize cultural events, fund Indian chairs in foreign universities, and amplify India’s artistic, linguistic, and philosophical contributions. Just as South Korea transformed its global image through K-pop and cinema, India must use its cinema, literature, cuisine, and traditions to win hearts globally.
Technological diplomacy must also be sharpened. India’s fintech, digital governance, space capabilities, and health infrastructure are models for the developing world. Rather than seeking Western validation, India must share these tools with willing partners in Africa, Southeast Asia, and Latin America- a quiet but powerful rebuke to the condescension of the Western media.
Finally, India must also tell the truth about the West- not to demonize, but to demystify. The U.S. and U.K. face massive homelessness, addiction crisis, racial tensions, and declining civic trust. Many European economies are stagnating under bureaucratic weight, demographic decline, and cultural fragmentation. Crime, social alienation, and ideological confusion are tearing at the fabric of Western societies. These are not signs of leadership, they are warnings of decay.
India need not manufacture false narratives. It must simply tell the truth about itself and about the world. The time to seek Western validation has passed. India stands today as a civilizational force capable of offering a new model, not of domination, but of balance, not of exploitation, but of co-existence. Western media can continue its campaigns of distortion. But the world is watching, and many are beginning to see through the fog.
Rather than beg for fair representation, India must build its own mirrors and speak with its own voice. The time has come not to react, but to lead. With dharma as compass and truth as ally, India’s civilizational journey can once again inspire the world whether the West is ready or not.