Manipulating words to create confusion in the minds of readers is an old trick in the media’s playbook. Most casual readers may never realize the psychological influence of the terminology being served to them. A glaring example is how the media routinely labels Muslim clerics or faith-healers as “tantriks”, “priests”, or “sadhus”—terms deeply associated with Hindu traditions—while concealing the actual identity of the accused. It’s a propaganda tool that’s been in use for years.
And it’s happening again.
Case in point: Dainik Bhaskar recently published a sensational report with the headline:
“40–50 women fall prey to tantrik in Mandsaur: Called husband insane, then sexually exploited them, village in panic.”
The man accused in the story is Mubarak Mansoori—not exactly the name one would associate with a Hindu tantrik. Locals report that in Mandsaur, Madhya Pradesh, Mansoori lured 40–50 women to his den under the pretense of exorcisms and ritual healing. Once there, he drugged and sexually assaulted them, even recording the abuse.
During the police investigation, fake IDs and obscene literature were recovered from his premises. Among the books seized were titles like “Shaam-e-Karbala” and “Islam and Sex”—hardly something from a tantrik’s library. Yet the media chose to represent the story as if a Hindu mystic were the culprit.
Let’s look at the Bhaskar headline again. Any uninformed reader scanning that title would immediately picture a man with ash smeared on his forehead, chanting mantras before a fire—not someone named Mubarak Mansoori. But that’s the idea: plant a Hindu image in the reader’s mind while the truth is buried in the fine print.
This is not an isolated case. The mainstream media, consciously or not, runs an agenda—confusing and demonizing Hindu cultural symbols while covering up religious identity when the accused belongs to a different faith. If that means using misleading terms or omitting key details, so be it.
OpIndia has been flagging this issue since 2019. Time and again, we have pointed out that when a Muslim cleric performs similar rituals of healing or “black magic,” the media never labels them tantriks—even though their actions are functionally the same. Why the double standard?
And Dainik Bhaskar is no stranger to this game. Just three days before the Mandsaur story, they published another piece with the headline:
“Mubarak Mansoori became Hindu Tantrik in Garoth, arrested: Targeted Hindu women, was into occult practices for 10 years.”
Later, in a follow-up report, they themselves admitted—based on locals’ accounts—that Mubarak comes from a Muslim family that moved to the village 30 years ago. So even if we give them the benefit of the doubt and say the initial report was misinformed, shouldn’t the outlet correct the earlier headline now that the truth is known?
But this isn’t their first offense. When a minor was kidnapped and duped in Meerut, the accused was Rashid Khan, but the word tantrik still made it to the headline. In Sitapur, when an Islamic cleric named Ishtiyaq brutally burned a girl with incense sticks in a supposed healing ritual, the media still painted him as a tantrik. And again, in Sultanpur, when a maulvi defrauded a Hindu woman, the label tantrik was used.
The pattern hasn’t changed from 2019 to 2025. Crimes committed by individuals from other faiths are still misrepresented using terms associated with Hinduism. Even in translations, Christian priests are often called pūjāris, subtly transferring blame and stigma onto Hindu figures. And when questioned, these distortions are justified under the veneer of “Ganga-Jamuni tehzeeb”—a façade of secular harmony that conveniently silences scrutiny.
The result? Readers are conditioned to associate heinous crimes like sexual exploitation and black magic not with the actual perpetrators, but with the Hindu identity the media implants in their minds.
