New Delhi: Sequestered in the arid Los Alamos, New Mexico — J Robert Oppenheimer built the first nuclear weapon in 1945. Upon realising the enormity of what he had done, he echoed the Bhagavad Gita. “Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.” Unfortunately for him, Red FM podcast and radio show called India Classified busted his claim saying the Harappan civilisation beat him by a few thousand years.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Mann ki Baat isn’t the only radio program that is changing Indian hearts and minds right now. There’s a new Indian history being written and belted out every morning on Red FM. The singular goal is to instill pride in the wonder that is India. And everything from what is usually dismissed as wishful fantasies to conspiracy theories to pseudo-history are deployed toward this goal.
And India Classified is implying that the real truth about India has been deliberately buried. By whom? No straight answer.
“India has been invaded so many times. Everyone knows what America contributed to the world. What are they hiding? Why are there so many delays? [in providing information]” says Dhruv Lau, who writes each episode, occasionally assisted by a co-writer. Originally launched as a podcast, its success catapulted it into becoming a radio show as well. It has 81 episodes and each boast of an impressive listenership—ranging between 50,000 and 1 lakh.
Dhruv Lau is the show’s creative producer, worked at Google and in advertising. India Classified made him “a full-fledged writer.”
It’s one of Red FM’s flagship podcasts, consistently among its most popular. The show gives out a vibe of considered expertise –– the narration is smooth and slow-talking, with an overarching sense of mystery running through each episode. The host, Purab, speaks intimately to the listener as if he is divulging a secret. Slow and dramatic, the music adds to mystique.
There are signs of time travel in Panchavarnaswamy, a temple nestled in Woraiyur, a suburb of Tamil Nadu’s Tiruchirappalli. Dumas Beach in Surat may be haunted. There is presence of aliens in Ajanta-Ellora caves.
Earlier, the outlandish nature of such claims would have placed them squarely in the domain of conspiracy theories; meant to be lapped up by those residing at the fringes of the internet. But it is now for everyone, carefully mixed together with two categories that are being increasingly blurred –– a blurring of which people can’t get enough of these days –– myth and history.
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Trishul in Peru
It isn’t as if these claims are not backed by proof. All it requires is for you to not disbelieve.
In 2014, Y Sudershan Rao, then at the helm of the Indian Council of Historical Research (ICHR), also made references to ancient India’s nuclear arsenal, using the Mahabharata and Ramayana as evidence. “We have so many proofs that these events happened,” said Rao at the time.
Lau belongs to the same school of thought. “There is so much proof. These are not myths. They are part of history,” he says –– then going on to deconstruct the idea of a myth. “If you look at it, a myth is nothing but a common idea, spread through local languages.”
The Ramayana exists and was fictionalised by Valmiki. In the scene of India Classified’s latest episode, released 25 May, the epic mentions a trishul (trident symbolic of Hinduism) in Peru. Sugriv, a half-man and half-monkey Hindu deity, sends Sita to Peru to procure it. He gives her accurate directions and knows the exact distance she must travel; a testament to the reams of knowledge in Ancient India–that of exactitudes. A knowledge-base of cartography, topography, and geography that can rival only modern-day technology.
Not only are the stories in the Ramayana true, they are all encompassing: traversing the entire planet –– at least according to India Classified. “This is not an andh-bhakt [blind devotee] idea,” says Lau.
The episode, titled ‘Ramayana’s Connection with South America: Secrets Revealed’ opens with a declaration. “The Ramayana is based on real-life events. This is a fact known by the entire nation. Though, there is a small section who believe it is a myth.”
The evidence is overwhelming. The story has been conjured through material objects. An astra (weapon) supposedly belonging to ‘Indra Dev’ was found in Peru, Lau said.
Red FM’s mythverse
India Classified is not the only Red FM show turning ancient myths into white-noise for household chores and entertainment for long commutes. Himanshu Sharma hosts Holy Tales, another podcast that Red FM banks on. Similar to India Classified, it’s also won a number of podcast and radio-show awards. At the India Audio and Summit Awards this year, it won best spiritual podcast and best narrator.
Where the two shows differ is that Holy Tales focuses solely on obscure myths and sub-plots from the Ramayana and Mahabharata. One of its most recent episodes is ‘The Rishi Who Hates Women’. As the title suggests, Sage Vibhandak hated women and had never met a single one. But as luck would have it, he wound up married to Ram’s sister Shanta. Hosted by Himanshu Sharma, an astrology-enthusiast turned astrology-content creator, the show brings more such seemingly random stories to the table, for which exists a hefty audience.
“These are the stories that have been told to us as children, by our grandparents. But today youth don’t know them,” says Sharma.
Twenty years ago, television was dominated by the Ramayana and the Mahabharata. The content that has a hold on children right now is worlds apart. Moreover, the current generation is “very far away from these things,” adds Sharma. He is not wistful, but matter-of-fact, and uses this gap as an explanation of sorts for why mythology has entered public preoccupations with such a vengeance.
There’s an interesting multiverse gig – or mythverse – going on between the two shows. Whenever India Classified does an episode on Hindu mythology, Sharma is consulted. His astrology addiction led to him poring over Hindu holy books: the vedas, the puranas, and the upanishads. While Sharma has no ‘formal training’, he’s devoted many hours to reading extensively and claims he only provides facts–– unblemished and unfiltered.
Sharma doesn’t appreciate the ‘khichdi’ [convoluted mess] that has been made of mythology today, and is dismissive of newfangled mythology writers, particularly Devdutt Pattanaik. “They mix their own thoughts into it. Whatever’s written, take it as is,” he says. He scoffs at the feminist lens through which Ramyana is now looked at.
Sharma also makes Instagram reels that combine his dual passions. They typically have images of gods, superimposed on which is religious text that is either instructive or informative.
The day is Tuesday. Hanuman was born on a Tuesday. Jai Bajrangbali. Himanshu, as narrator, goes on to enlighten the viewer about ‘lesser-known’ facts about Hanuman. The comment section of his reels is ecstatic: ‘Jai Sree Ram’ and various permutations and combinations of emojis fill the screen.
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Myth meets fantasy
What Sharma does is exactly what India Classified and its makers are experts at –– they make rishis, devas and a flurry of characters from enduring Hindu stories come alive within the contours of a listener’s daily life. It is here that myth and fantasy enter.
Bhavin Dedhia is a 27-year-old software quality engineer. Listening to India Classified is part of her daily routine. She just moved away from her hometown, New Delhi, and the radio show is one of her few constants. “It makes me appreciate our culture,” she says.
Her favourite episodes are those that spotlight Ancient India. “So many interesting things have happened in India. But most of it is spread through word-of-mouth, it isn’t backed by research,” she says. This is unlike India Classified, which according to her, is filled with “facts and evidence.”
Though, myths in India Classified are packaged as history. “Myth and conspiracy can both be studied historically in time and context, but to believe in myth and conspiracy as real time events or occurrence is ahistorical,” says Nimra Rizvi, historian who studied at JNU.
All national dailies, Lau simply Googles. More than local museums, it is the guides, whose numbers he finds on Just Dial, who help him out. He uses the same system for the scholars he consults, typing out the subject matter and letting the algorithm and SEOs do their thing.
This is where the conspiracy theories kick in. India Classified had an episode on the monkey man of Delhi –– there were conflicting accounts of this half-man, half-monkey’s appearance, as well as of his attacks. What wasn’t in dispute as per the show, however, was that the entire city was hysterical. Despite topics as zany as this, the show’s episodes mostly arrive at affirmative conclusions. Chances are that aliens do exist. Your neighbourhood temple? It’s probably haunted.
While history by and large reigns supreme, the show’s most popular episode isn’t about any Hindu myth. Instead, it’s a conspiracy theorist favourite. Titled ‘Area 51 in India?’, it has around 2 lakh listeners so far.
“Is there a research base in India which conducts experiments on Aliens and Meta-humans, just like the USA’s controversial Area 51?” reads the description. The information is clandestine, hidden from ordinary people. It is only now that it’s being explored, even though it’s been around since 1947.
Lau is keen to platform such stories. His ultimate aim is to capture the zeitgeist, whatever it may be. “We try to explore the human mind,” he says, admitting that many are currently preoccupied with history, but that India Classified always “looks at both sides.”
“This is what works. This is what makes us India. The US never shies away from its history. Why do we?” he asks.
(Edited by Ratan Priya)