Akshae Golekar

The New Anti-Indian Narrative Abroad

· 7 min read

There is a new kind of narrative forming against Indians abroad.

You can see parts of it in the UK, the US, Japan, Australia, Canada, and across social media platforms. Some of it appears organic. Some of it comes from local immigration politics. Some of it comes from racism. Some of it comes from economic anxiety. Some of it comes from genuine cultural friction that happens when large populations migrate and settle in new societies.

But some of it also looks coordinated.

That is the part India must study seriously.

For decades, Indians abroad have largely been seen as law-abiding, educated, hardworking, family-oriented, and economically successful communities. Indian doctors, engineers, founders, researchers, students, finance professionals, and technology workers have built strong reputations across the world.

This reputation is not accidental.

It is one of India’s biggest soft-power assets.

It also has economic value.

Indian talent has become part of India’s global negotiating strength. Countries that need skilled workers increasingly look at India as a source of human capital. Indian professionals abroad build companies, contribute to host economies, send money back home, support families, invest in India, and strengthen India’s global network.

This is a powerful national advantage.

And any rational adversary would notice it.

If India’s skilled diaspora becomes a strategic advantage, then weakening the image of Indians abroad becomes a strategic objective.

This is where the narrative war begins.

The attempt is not always direct. It does not always look like propaganda. It may look like memes. It may look like viral videos. It may look like “street interviews.” It may look like crime clips. It may look like hygiene jokes. It may look like immigration panic. It may look like isolated incidents being repeated until they feel like a pattern.

The danger is that videos from Pakistan, Bangladesh, or other South Asian countries can be circulated online as “Indian.” Isolated clips from India can be amplified as if they represent 1.4 billion people. Poverty, disorder, crowding, or civic failures can be used to define the entire country, while India’s scientific, entrepreneurial, democratic, military, and technological strengths are ignored.

This is not simply racism.

This is narrative compression.

A complex civilisation is reduced to a few humiliating images.

And once that image is repeated enough, it starts shaping perception.

Why China Would Be Rational to Amplify This

We should not study China emotionally.

We should study China strategically.

China understands narrative power extremely well. It has spent years building influence systems, media ecosystems, platform strategies, and perception-management capabilities. China knows that global image is not only built through infrastructure, exports, manufacturing, or military strength. It is also built through storytelling.

China has its own contradictions.

It has world-class cities, skyscrapers, high-speed rail, factories, ports, technology companies, and modern infrastructure. But like every large country, it also has poverty, inequality, pollution, social challenges, and neglected regions.

The difference is that China has been far better at managing what the world sees.

India has not.

India is a far more open society. Our weaknesses are visible. Our debates are visible. Our poverty is visible. Our disorder is visible. Our political fights are visible. Our internal criticism is visible. That openness is a democratic strength, but in the internet age it can also become a narrative vulnerability.

An adversary does not need to invent everything.

It only needs to select, amplify, distort, and repeat.

That is why India must become more serious about perception warfare.

If hostile actors can amplify the worst images of India, mislabel South Asian content as Indian, and push anti-Indian sentiment abroad, then India’s global reputation can be damaged without a single shot being fired.

This is not a conventional war.

This is a mind-war.

The Modi Government and the Skilled Youth Advantage

One of the major strategic shifts in recent years has been India’s growing confidence in its skilled youth population.

India’s young professionals are not just job seekers. They are economic assets, diplomatic assets, and soft-power carriers.

When Indian students, engineers, doctors, researchers, finance professionals, entrepreneurs, and technology workers move abroad, they do not disconnect from India. Many remain close to their families. They send remittances. They invest. They create cross-border opportunities. They build bridges between India and the world.

This gives India leverage.

Countries that need talent need India.

Countries with ageing populations need India.

Technology ecosystems need India.

Healthcare systems need India.

Research institutions need India.

Startups need India.

This is a powerful position.

But the stronger India becomes through its people, the more likely it is that adversaries will try to damage the reputation of those people.

That is why anti-Indian hate online should not be seen only as a social issue.

It should also be studied as a strategic issue.

The Problem With India’s Response

India’s response to narrative warfare is still too slow.

We are good at reacting once something becomes big.

We are not yet good at detecting it early.

By the time a hateful narrative becomes a trend, it has already entered the public mind. By the time a fake video is fact-checked, millions may have watched it. By the time a correction is issued, the emotion has already spread.

This is the weakness.

India needs narrative early-warning systems.

We need tools that can detect abnormal spikes in anti-Indian content across countries, platforms, languages, and communities.

We need to identify when old videos are being recycled.

We need to detect when non-Indian South Asian content is being labelled as Indian.

We need to map bot-like amplification.

We need to distinguish organic criticism from coordinated hostility.

We need to track which influencers, pages, accounts, media nodes, and communities are pushing certain narratives.

We need to understand whether a campaign is local, ideological, commercial, racist, political, or foreign-influenced.

Most importantly, we need to respond without becoming propagandists ourselves.

India should not fight lies with lies.

India should fight lies with speed, evidence, intelligence, and credibility.

What India Must Build

India needs sovereign narrative tools.

Not censorship tools.

Not troll armies.

Not emotional shouting.

Professional tools.

Strategic tools.

Tools that help ministries, armed forces, diplomats, public institutions, and civil society understand what is happening online before it becomes a crisis.

A serious narrative defence system should be able to:

This is where Digital PR becomes national infrastructure.

Digital PR is no longer only about brands.

It is about countries.

It is about communities.

It is about perception.

It is about protecting truth at speed.

India Must Learn, Not Complain

China is good at narrative management.

India should learn from that.

Not by copying China’s authoritarian methods.

Not by hiding reality.

Not by suppressing criticism.

But by understanding that perception is power.

India cannot afford to be naive about the internet.

A country can build roads, ports, companies, weapons, satellites, and AI systems. But if it loses the perception war, its rise can be slowed, questioned, mocked, or delegitimised.

The world does not only respond to facts.

The world responds to stories.

And if India does not tell its own story, someone else will.

Often badly.

Often unfairly.

Sometimes deliberately.

My Position

I believe India must build this capability urgently.

I am working on this because I believe narrative sovereignty will become as important as digital sovereignty, cyber sovereignty, and AI sovereignty.

India needs the ability to see narrative attacks early.

India needs the ability to understand them scientifically.

India needs the ability to respond professionally.

And India needs to protect the reputation of Indians abroad, because they are not just migrants or workers or students.

They are part of India’s global strength.

The next conflict may not begin at the border.

It may begin on a phone screen.

A false video.

A hateful meme.

A manipulated trend.

A recycled clip.

A coordinated attack on Indian identity.

That is why India must prepare.

Because the future of warfare is not only physical.

It is psychological.

It is digital.

It is reputational.

It is narrative.

And India must be ready to fight that war with intelligence, ethics, and speed.


Sources:
There is evidence that China-linked influence operations exist globally, including large coordinated networks removed by Meta and other platforms. Meta’s 2023 takedown of “Spamouflage” was described as the largest Chinese influence operation it had removed, spanning thousands of accounts across many platforms https://time.com/6310040/chinese-influence-operation-meta\ Research also shows state-sponsored influence operations use emotional language, sentiment manipulation, and coordinated amplification to shape public opinion https://arxiv.org/abs/2505.07212 & https://arxiv.org/abs/2407.18098\ There is also India-specific reporting and analysis on Pakistan’s information warfare using AI-generated content, bot networks, and hashtag campaigns against Indiahttps://www.orfonline.org/research/pakistan-s-information-warfare-strategic-implications-and-india-s-response
Reuters reported that a U.S. commission alleged China ran a campaign to discredit Rafale after the India-Pakistan conflict, while China denied the allegation. https://www.reuters.com/world/china/china-ran-campaign-discredit-french-rafale-fighter-after-india-pakistan-conflict-2025-11-20