The outrage over the latest Quantico episode, which explores ‘Indian terror’, forgets the fact that in the show, Chopra is American protecting US interests
Warning: spoilers ahead.
The latest episode of the show Quantico, starring Priyanka Chopra in its leading role, has hit a raw nerve with many Indians because it has an “Indian nationalist” (read: Hindu) as the antagonist.
In this episode, Chopra’s character, FBI agent Alex Parrish, uncovers a plot to launch a nuclear attack on American soil. She and her team discover that it was to take place during an India-Pakistan summit, over the Kashmir issue, in New York. They initially suspect a Pakistani student of masterminding it but Parrish finds a rudraaksh on one of the terrorists, leading her to conclude that the terror attack was actually planned by Indian nationalists to frame Pakistan.
Predictably, the episode did not go down well. Many Indians on Twitter were outraged that a show with an Indian actress in it could paint a Hindu in bad light. The episode is also apparently “pro-Pakistan” because for once, the bad guy isn’t a Muslim from Pakistan.
Unfortunately, Priyanka Chopra is facing the brunt of the blow. How could she, an Indian Hindu actress, be in an episode that explores the possibility of Hindu terrorism? Doesn’t she know that only Muslims can be terrorists?
But Priyanka Chopra never signed on to be an Indian ambassador abroad. She’s just a South Asian actress trying to make it in Western film and television. She hasn’t shied away from her Indian nationality but neither has she overtly re-affirmed her Indianness since she moved to New York. She’s a working professional who is known in Bollywood for taking on different kinds of roles, and I think she’s doing her best not to be pigeonholed into the token brown woman role in Hollywood.
And it might just be working. She hangs out with American actors and actresses, she may or may not be dating a Jonas brother, and she very deliberately wore Western clothes to her friend Meghan Markle’s wedding.
She’s the first South Asian to be in a leading role in an American TV show. But even in this show, she’s not Indian. She’s American, and her allegiance is very clearly to the United States of America. She literally works to protect American national interests, both as an FBI and a CIA agent. In fact, the role of Alex Parrish was never intended to be “exotic”; she was written to be a white woman. So why does she have to be beholden to Indian nationalism?
But this isn’t the first time that the show has insinuated that an Indian can be a terrorist. Chopra’s character on the show is constantly framed and under suspicion because of her skin colour, and because of her Indian heritage. Alex Parrish herself isn’t trusted because she comes from a country that is well-versed in terrorism. Furthermore, Quantico has played dangerously with stereotypes in past episodes: the first season has hijab-clad women who are double agents. Why didn’t that upset Indian nationalists?
The default mode for most Indians now is that if you’re critical of India, the only logical conclusion is that you’re a fan of Pakistan. This reductive thought process kills any kind of healthy debate, which should be happening in a democracy.
Several complaints on Twitter are aimed at how this particular Quantico episode’s storyline is “unbelievable”. But this is a show that begins with Chopra’s character being accused of treason. Her character is fired from the FBI, hired by the CIA, part of a joint FBI-CIA task force, and then re-hired by the FBI. There are hostage crises, bomb blasts, endless conspiracies and of course, scandalous romance and intrigue.
Like any other show, Quantico has convoluted plotlines and endless drama. Portraying an Indian nationalist who hates Pakistan so much he wants to frame it for a terrorist attack is lower down than some of the other plot points, on the “believe-it-or-not” scale.
The argument that Chopra should not have acted in an episode that offends Hindutva pride also falls flat, because at the end of the day she is the lead actress on a show that has truly helped to cement her place in American pop culture. Quantico has been declining in popularity, and last month its production company, ABC Studios, cancelled it. It makes sense that the show’s writers wanted it to be as controversial as possible so that it could have higher viewership, and it makes sense that Chopra gets as much screen-time while she still can.
The most unacceptable article I’ve ever read
Indian , is itself a religion which is above everything, as it consumes and accepts every needy person as a citizen. That is why we do have a variety of religion living together . I’m also a muslim but I’m and Indian also and it respect every religion from. Terrorist never knew what religion tells whether he is hindu or muslim by birth but by its deeds he become a terrorist , a shame of humanity . Showing irrelevent thing considering any religion as it’s part is par vulger. Being an I also feel sorry about the script of #quantico showing Indian terrorism because it never takes not only hindu in consideration , actually we all Indian Muslims, Sikhs, Indian jews, and Nomads also get involved in it, and this must be cross countered for our dignity.
#NoReligionForTerrorists
Jai Hind Jai Bharat
Take a chill pil guys. It’s just a story (although many “fictions” are based on reality) and she is just doing her job. I don’t know why do our nationalists get offended so quickly. Show your patriotism first, question others later. Ganga is not clean, bank NPAs are increasing, half of the population is living below poverty line, education system we have is one of the worst, people are getting killed every day for expressing his feelings and non of these offends you except criticizing hindutava! What’s wrong with you! Can’t a Indian be terrorist? Of course he can. Being Muslim is not only criteria to become a terrorist and we have seen many instances where Hindus tried to create riots by putting beef in temple. Follow whatever religious ideology you want to follow, just keep it personal. Get a life and stop questioning about others “patriotism” for some utterly ridiculous reasons.
Nice try to deflect .. you fanboy/girl! I do not even want to step into muck of religion. But soiling image of india to be country of terrorist trying to nuke world! You may be ok with that? Perhaps you are also ok if someone make stories about your family in public. But most of the people are not and they feel betrayed and backstabbed.
How the fuck you can say that only a MUSLIM can be terrorist? Terrorists are people like you with biased views and a narrow mentality.
What do you mean by “Doesn’t she know that only Muslims can be terrorists”?
What a dumb and insensitive argument. What you did was segregate people by religion.
Stop trying to bring people down. It was only a story, things like this CAN happen. You need to stop making a huge fuss about something small.You need to Stop creating problems between your own people. Do something important.
Only close-minded people can say such a thing. How dare you. How dare you. How. Dare. You.
Till now, Terrorism was not supposed to be linked with Religion.. but why now?
It’s really silly & funny!
From one Hindustani naari to another… You asked for a real terrorist attack by real Hindus… Check out Ajmer Dargah bombing… That isn’t the only one. You can read about a lot more than that if you want to. Getting information in today’s world isn’t that difficult. Oh, you can check out KKK too… That’s a CHristian example. All religions have extremists. But no religion is defined by just those few bad eggs. There’s no reason to be outraged by this.
That being said, an act of Hindu terrorism whether in the real world or a fictional one, doesn’t change much for me. Hinduism has been around for a long time and has done a lot of good for this world. Extremist ideas cannot malign my religion so easily. I don’t need to be angry with every little thing like this. My faith is far bigger than that. Sincerely, a proud Hindu.
Another stupid Congress chamcha defending anti-national views….. How low can you stoop to impress gandhis’ and leftists??? This article is complete bulls**t
So after American TV, she is possibly looking for an opportunity in Pakistani Tv
Kachra article, waste of time. You Madam are either a dimwit or a deliberate commie. Like stated in one of the comments, can you enlist a single ‘ Hindu’ terror attack?
And yes, most of the terrorists are followers of Islam.
Kudos to Quantico story writer, director, and producer. The dark side of the saffron terror must find its rightful place in a universal medium like Hollywood serials. I haven’t watched it yet, but I’m sure Chopra has portrayed the character well. She is a brilliant actor.
Despite blaring out that terrorism has no religion it’s a fact that most terrorist attack are perpetuated by one particular religious clan. No one claims that Indians and especially Hindus cannot be terrorists but using the rudraksha to affirm the identity and that too with the background of the sensitive Kashmir issue was totally unwarranted. Whether the show is widely watched or not isn’t the concern but Priyanka is the lead character and by allowing such a narrative to be part of her series,she, as an Indian,has let us down considerably.
Please do not associate terrorism with any religion…. terrorism knows no religion
It was a such a dumb article… No nuances.. No intellectualy thought provoking arguments… Just stupid leftist viewpoints in the typical left vs right social media debate in the Indian context… These online Media outlets are supposed be next big thing but they hiring shallow incompetent people.
All farmers agitations are politically motivated to garner all subsidies, farm loan waivers etc from the government going to poll soon. The distress is high in some part and no distress is seen in another part of the state. If you look closely, farmers are also not letting any scheme of the government successful as now money comes directly in the bank accounts so a lot of corruptions has been abolished. Now Rahul Gandhi is saying to give the farmers price of the produce in cash. Just we are going back to the same old corruption. Unless farm production is linked to market demand and all small farmers and laborers are absorbed in industry, no government can solve this. What Rahul has promised, BJP can promise goodies twice of that. Is there any end to uneconomic SOPS
There is nothing wrong in the episode. Craps should not make it an issue . It’s only a serial and not a reality. In today’s world anybody can plot against any country or any religion. Muslims became terrorist the reason they were being looted by world powers off their oil and to safeguard they picked up their arms. What’s happening in Iraq and Syria is planned by world powers to rob them off their oil.
Terrorism is a thought which comes by staunch teaching of religion either Hinduism, Islam and Christianity a man who comes under this should think of it and keep away himself from hammering humanity… Quran says “we respected the mankind” how could we say Islam is a religion of terrorism?
Only Muslims can be terrorist?
Why? Where in Islamic scriptures have ever seen a Muslim been allowed to kill the innocent.
You have your head so far up your butt you can’t tell ‘left’ from ‘right’.
As for Priyankas’ case, she must be under a contract right? Ever thought about that?
There is no wisdom in your writing, you are all over the place. No fucus point in your article.
I wonder what kind of editor will approve this.
Who the fuck said that only Muslims are terrorists. Ppl saying this how can they forget abdul kalam, azad sir and all. Also we have in our industry Muslim actors more than Indian. Moreover this is just a show, they can show anything to increase their trp. No-one should take it to that personal level.
Yes show more Indians as terrorists, brainless, not so cool, job snatching, undeserving, plotting, twisted beings as if there isn’t enough hate crimes already
Thousands of incidents of homicides, massacres, cannibalistic nature of islamic terrorism is given the same degree of attention as a few incidents of thrashings here in India, now I don’t condone such incidents neither do I think that entire Islam is terrorist in nature, but when u treat both as at par it leaves a black mark on the face of the entire religion and the country and is totally unfair, a total injustice done by the entertainment and journalism industries.
Also, it’s really sad that both national and international media reports the same as if it’s the only thing exists and the only thing we should know, their journalism tries to make us think that Hinduism is no different from Isis
Coming to what Quantico has done, they should really consider the reality of the current situation, it’s reckless on their part to show a complete contrast to current world plot but we can’t really blame Priyanka Chopra
Oh fuck this shit another communist shitty article . When Muslim then terrorism has no religion and at the same time this fucker will shout Hindu terror.
Guys who feel outraged due to the airing of this episode, are the real terrorists as this is their mindset whicb makes them think wrong about this episode. I myself am a hindu Brahmin of age 18 and have a deep passion for the Indian army and will always support India in any manner i can. But after seeing the recent posts of my fellow Indians depresses me as the question asked by us is itself wrong i.e., “doesn’t she know that only Muslims can be terrorists”!! We on one hand are wanting to settle things with Pakistan kn a peaceful manner but on the other hand are passing such comments that deliver the message of anger and hatred to them… According to me, no person is different guys!!! Not a hindu not a muslim but all are one!! You wanna identify the terrorist… Then first kill the one insise yourself. Hope you get what I neant. Jai hind! N enjoy the othwr episodes of Quantico.. Priyanka is a national pride working hard for us and any comment her character passes is fictional but the ones passed by her aren’t!
Guys… There are a couple of errors in my spellings but please ignore them but not my message!
Is Vandana Menon/ the print suggesting that muslims cannot be Indians? Wooooooah!!! You’re more “Sanghi” than I thought. I think I may have found my new favourite digital publication.
Utter Rubbish.
Apologies for these words but that’s what came in my mind as I read this article.
Don’t you think that you have exaggerated things a bit.
It seems that you will be happy when Hindus will come out as terrorists.
Ma’am terrorists have no religion, it’s you who is Labelling them as Muslims.Even Islam says that they are the Worst Sinners.
But article is just concerned with criticizing and condemning Hindus and bringing out terms like Hindutva or Hindu Terrorism.
And you don’t even give a Shit about Quantico issue.
All you have got is an Opportunity to show your Fake Liberalism by showing support to the Muslims (Who actually don’t need your Venom Spitting deceiving Support) and Insulting Hindus whom You people have lately marked as the most Violent Religion of the world.
Just think for a while that in a Country where the religion in majority is condemned every now and then does nothing. That’s because the religion is truly Accommodating which you people don’t want to accept.Same goes with the Muslims of our country.
You know why? Because that’s what our culture is.
There is democracy in this country and the fact is that any person of any religion wants to live peacefully and merrily.
But thanks to people like you who with there sick minds and ill approach try to deviate and pollute our minds.
Just think that if you were in any other country,say any “Muslim” country like Saudi Arabia,your So called Liberalism would have been brutally mutilated in no time.Even you would have been struggling to find a Haven for your survival forgetting all your fake and lunatic concepts.
So please please have some sense while writing such articles as you are not showing the realiy but tricking many Gullible readers.
Lastly I don’t have any hard feelings for you but I needed to say something on this.
The problem here is that it is shown in the show that Indians are framing Pakistan by plotting a terrorist attack. This will obviously hurt the sentiments of Indian and a PC, a well known Indian actress, much loved in India, has no concerns regarding this. Also the show needs to understand that terrorists are terrorist, why potray their religion suddenly? Why is that Americans only see an Asian country as a terrorist country? In fact, Americans are known for attacking countries to impose their ideologies and to snatch resources.
It is hilarious how people watch entire shows with various other people being portrayed in bad light but do not know how to take things when they come to us. Indian movies are just as stereotypical as others we have portrayed so many people of diff race and nationalities as antagonists . Also please be human not all Muslims are terrorist . The definition of terrorist does not have a religion mentioned in it so the so called Hindus who just are cringing tat u got called terrorist while you point finger at Islam and yell terrorist just grow up. We should be thankful we are being painted as terrorist because if u wanna go by stereotypes then India at this point would be branded as the rapist country. So all people taking unnecessary offense need to chill
I think it has become a trend with all writers and editors (may be due to their communist mindset) to defend any person or act which is bringing a bad name to our nation’s image. For them money or their ideology values much more than faithfullness to their own motherland. They will try to proove themselves secular by constantly trying to blame and defame the religion of majority while continously and illogically defending d criminal acts of people from d minority community. Its plain hypocricy but that doesnt bother them as they r getting funded (possibly from rich sheikhs of middle east).
In d last 3 decades there have been thousands of incidents of terrorism where hardline muslim radicals have been prooved to be involved, but they will never openly say about it but given a chance to blame hindus or jews they will simply jump at that opportunity.
Ms Vandana Menon if u r reading this then u shud have the basic understanding that PC still has an Indian passport is an Indian citizen. We r proud of her talent and her achievements abroad. But any citizen of a country while visiting abroad, even as a tourists, is a representative or mini brand ambassdor of his/her country. And if his/her acts shows her nation in a bad light then d responsibilty for that also lies with that person. You cant really defend that act in d name of creative freedom or with any choice of words because in d end damage has been done. If u wont believe me then go and ask d little innoscent school boy in new york, belonging to hindu NRI parents, who wears a rudraksh bracelet for protection from evil.. and is now abused by his peers after d launch of this stupid Quantico episode.
It is great…This is called Equal opportunity employer….Since Indians …mainly Hindus will never be seen anywhere in terrorist activities ….USA has given her this opportunity to play the same in a TV serial.At least with this Pakis ..LeT, ISIS will be happy…Let everybody be happy to pretend to avoid realities and then face the consequences.Let the Alighty save the mankind by bringing peace and love.
How the hell can you say only Muslims can be terrorists?
OMG is 2018 still people are writing article on this. It is just a show!!! Grow up people and stop trolling PC she head done nothing wrong. Because of people like you our country is still developing.this article is shit and people who are trolling PC are shit.
i dont need to say anything else except than mention that both christianity and islam have their origins in violence and both have used oppression and forceful conversions to spread their religion.
when was the last time you saw a bunch of hindu nationals cross into another country, blow people up and then make a vid stating that hindus will rule the world and we will kill all who dont follow hinduism.
and then the use of rudraksh is not only stupid but makes fun of shiva. its amazing that you come up with an article to actually defend a stupid concept because its fake???
terrorism mentions muslims because muslims are the ones who use it as a tool, chinese are termed as cyber hackers because chinese are pretty well to use it as a tool. any story line has a factual premise behind it to give it value.
where is your factual basis to plan your arc around that hindus are terrorists.
its pretty obvious that when it comes to money, most of these actors would sell their mothers, country is a small thing.
THEY DONT GO TO OTHER COUNTRIES, BUT JUST LOOK WHAT THEY ARE DOING IN THEIR OWN COUNTRY. RAPING AND KILLING LITTLE GIRLS AND WOMEN. FOCUS YOUR PITY ON YOUR SITUATION IN INDIA.
STOP INCITING HATRED AND NONSENSE WRITING. IT A FRIGGING SHOW. GO MASTURBATE , DO YOGA , FOR GODS SAKE, DO SOMETHING. U WANNA START ANOTHER WORLD WAR WITH HINDUS ARE SO PEACEFUL NONSENSE!!!!!!!!!
Indians are just sick of these foolish authors who would try to find right in every wrong. “it leaves no room for healthy debate”, you idiot, go ask for a healthy debate from the families of people who lost their lives during partition or during wars or the hundreds who lost their lives in terrorist attacks. The soldiers are dying everyday defending the borders and you talk about a debate. I guess you have to lose a loved one to understand the situation.
What’s wrong with you lady Vandana? Is this headline appropriate? Can’t we just leave such drama aside and focus on real issues ? By coming up with such article you are unnecessarily putting things in people’s mind. Please use your knowledge for something better …
Reply to “Ooo so hindustani naari” Ms. Anupama goel – ever heard of malegaon blast case ? (you asked wether there is any real terror attack case with any real Hindus) here’s it…and a little piece of advice from a padilikhi hindustani naari to another ‘hyper-nationalistic’ hindustani naari – like someone famously said little knowledge could be very dangerous and especially when it is one-sided….makes you sound like a naive person !
Dear Anupama Goel,
Do you read newspaper?
Because if you do, then you must be aware of the following terror incidents.
1. Graham Staines Massacre
2. Mallegaon Blast
3. Samjhauta express blast
4. Mecca Masjid blast
Go read about them and then you will know that terrorism is not the sole property of Muslims.
Name one who was proven guilty? Malegaon blast was done by Muslims and later Congress framed Hindu outfit to save it’s butt licker Muslim votes.. and no Hindu yet proven guilty…
Kitne paise mile ?? Aise article likhne wale to desh ko bech den….. Moron, it is not about hindu/muslim, it is about India/Pakistan.
But you and your fraternity, who are living their lives on aid from the middle-east and western countries, can stoop at any level of low.
And may I also say that the writer of this series is trying to stir maximum controversy to get maximum viewers. So chill, guys. Gosh!
People get offended so easily.
Dear @AnupamaGoel , kindly get your brain checked. And stop generalising things. I am a Bharat Nari,and may I say you,ma’am are talking utter nonsense.
@Srinivas Why not?! Like get your facts right, people. Terrorism does not have any religion. No religion ever teaches to hurt other people. Its just people who form terror groups to hurt people in the name of God. Its sad to see what people have come to believeing. Real sad.
Well then who coined the term Saffron-terror , Indian liberal ?
Y, anything could be possible . Anyone can lose his mind and become a terrorist. The scenario shown in the episode could be possible, for politics. Let me be clear here Islam does not preach or promote violence ,it preaches to bear with patience. Not all muslims are terrorists. Anyone who engages in any violence has no religion or faith or else he wouldn’t have killed innocent people. Anyone who has faith in the Almighty would never harm another being. Please do not associate muslims with terrorism, others have committed genocide too but then they are called nationlists.
I don’t care for the story line. After all how many terrorist attacks have been mounted against the U.S. by Indians? Zilch.
Not all Muslims are terrorists, Islam is a religion of Peace and not hate..We live in a country where terrorist are made leaders..and Muslims are exploited. We do love our non Muslim brothers and sisters..for god sake stop Blaming Muslims as terrorists..
Stupid Author and stupidest article.
Our identity is with the Nation’s identity and we all are indian ambassador.
People like you are pseudo liberals and you only understand the language of money. How can you understand the nationhood and patriotism.
Q.Only Muslims can be terrorists??
A. No way (go to the link below)
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/omar-alnatour/muslims-are-not-terrorist_b_8718000.html
Still it’s your “opinion” .
I Respect it.
Very biased though.
That’s one stupid post. I am not able to understand what the author is trying to say. Basically she’s saying that it just a story and we should watch and enjoy the show. Sorry madam only a sake Indian can do this because wherever u go u can’t take out India from an Indian. She’s just mixing our outrage with Hindu Muslim angle but in reality it’s not, it just portraying India in bad light.
Unbelievably stupid logic in this stupid article.These people will do anything to uphold an agenda.And no Hindus cannot be terrorists because that’s not what Hinduism stands for.And as far as that opportunistic bimbo PC is concerned she has shown that she has zero respect and responsibility towards her nation.I think she should be disowned and we’ll see how well she fares.The writer of this pathetic article portrays out dating some ‘Jonas brother’ as her achievement.I think this itself tells us a lot about the kind of mentality of these ladies.
She really doesn’t have to be of a particular religion to be portrayed as a person from India. Especially Hinduism(Rudraksha..), which surely doesn’t promote concepts of killing people of other faith to promote itself. This just shows ill researched story of the TV shows and plain ignorance of the western pop culture and towards rest of the world. #Sad.
Wat a rubbish headline!!!
I am sure you are as dumb as your article. It’s Indians like you who are the reasons for westerners to take liberty to project Hindus as terrorists that too with Rudraksh .. being liberals thinker doesn’t mean just go against every nationalist ideology. Don’t cry when this thinking goes deep rooted in westerners that Hindus could also be terrorists . Just an idea is enough for people to believe which otherwise is not at all true..
Whatever be her Character, she still holds an Indian Passport. She is an Indian first n foremost. She should have the guts, to tell no.
She always claims she is a strong woman. But it seems Money Talks.
I just came across a Video on YouTube,
Priyanka’s Grandmother was a Christian. She was refused a burial in Kerala as she married a Hindu.
So is Priyanka a Practising Hindu or a Catholic ??
Maybe that’s why she thinks she is more American than Indian ??
Point to Note.
Itvwas never about Hindu Muslim agenda. It was about potraying Indians as terrorists. And it is true, Indians have never blasted a bomb in a foreign nation. And as a fellow Indian such racist potrayl surely hurts. You may be too liberal to consider patriotism. Maybe the say when they actually bomb our country, you may consider who the terrorist is. No difference between you and PC. Both of you can sell your country for money. Shame.
Priyanka chopra is a professional actress.Her role according to d script is decided by director/Producer not herself.We should be proud of her selection as first south asian actress trying for western films.The way she is discussed after attending royal wedding of harry n markel,i doubt,conspiracy is manipulatted against priyanka by her rival in profession.Moon choudhry,Guwahati,assam