Kunal Kamra’s comedies promote science and reason
Kunal Kamra’s online popularity has surged recently. A year after its release on YouTube, his Stand Up Comedy 2019 has gotten nearly 17 million views, despite being over 12 minutes in length. His “Stand Up Comedy 2018” has gotten over 14 million views. Several other videos have been viewed over five million times, large numbers even by Indian standards. Over the past eight months, the subscribers to his YouTube channel, Shut Up Ya Kamal, have jumped by 60% to 1.6 million.
Choosing Hindu nationalism over a motorcycle?
In Stand Up Comedy 2019, Kamra says that when he was young his mother constantly pleaded with him to pray so that the Hindu Gods would protect him. Now, he says, extremists want him to protect the Hindu faith, which they claim is under attack. Did something happen to reduce the power of the Hindu Gods, he asks?
Kamra, 31, also talks about education and jobs as being more important. A proud father tells his son he will gift him a motorcycle to celebrate his graduation. Kamra asks if the son is going to reply: “I don’t want a motorcycle. I want to promote Hindu nationalism”? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Su_ydENa2w
In 2017 he started a YouTube Channel Shut Up Ya Kamal, with Ramit Verma, 29, who edits the videos and podcasts. Kamra does not seek to boost viewership by chatting with Bollywood or cricket stars. Instead he invites artists, social activists and politicians, including writer-lyricist Javed Akhtar, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, Dalit leader Jignesh Mevani and a youth leader of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Several of the episodes have gotten over a million views. One of them, Kamra’s 40 minutes of conversation with former student leaders of Jawaharlal Nehru University, has over four million views.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tVxQ9-HvVFU
“Cow’s urine cures cancer”
There are other comedians like Kumra, Hindus who expose the harm caused by rising Hindu extremism. They include Varun Grover, Sanjay Rajoura and Rahul Ram. Their videos and podcasts are in Hindi, mixed with English words and phrases, the way Indians educated in English language schools chat among themselves.
Several videos by Grover on YouTube have over five million views. In one of them, he examines claims that drinking a cow’s first urine each morning will cure cancer and other major diseases. Cows, he jokes, are relishing their high status under the BJP government. For instance, they stroll on to airport runways and force planes to be diverted to other airports. htthttps://www.youtube.com/wa?v=3Su_ydENa2w
Grover, 40, grew up in Uttar Pradesh and has a degree in civil engineering from the world-renowned Indian Institute of Technology. His mother was a teacher and father an engineer in the army. In 2005, after working as a software consultant in Pune, he moved to Mumbai to pursue a career as a script writer. While working as one of six writers for The Greatest Indian Comedy Show, he realized he had a talent for stand-up comedy.
Kamra is a college drop out with dyslexia
In one of his stand-up performances, Rajoura dissects the claims by Hindu extremists that Indians were the first to make major scientific discoveries and that too thousands of years ago: including plastic surgery, the internet and Einstein’s theory of relativity. As proof, the extremists say that the discoveries are mentioned in the ancient Vedas, the holy book of the Hindu faith. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5tKwiCCkZSc
Rajoura, 46, got a degree in science from Delhi University and a master’s degree in computer science. He worked as a software engineer in Mumbai, Delhi, Jaipur, San Francisco and Singapore. In 2009, he switched to being a stand-up comedian and actor.
Kamra grew up in Mahim, Mumbai, where his father ran a pharmacy store. Being dyslexic, he has trouble reading emails and says he has never read a book. He dropped out of college and interned with MTV, India. Then, for six years, he worked as a production assistant for Corcoise Films.
In 2013, at the suggestion of a friend who is a stand-up comedian, Kamra took the stage at a comedy club in Mumbai. He got a loud ovation from the crowd, but “only because everyone else was really bad," he told LiveMint. “My material was quite sexist…I’m quite ashamed of it now because I really should’ve been better informed."
Exposing superstition and false claims
Kamra and the others have seen their popularity rise because many educated Indians are upset over the attacks on science and reason. Through their witty insights, which make us laugh, the comedians expose the absurdity of the unscientific claims and the twisted logic, of claiming to protect Hindus by attacking Muslims, of Hindu extremist leaders.
The comedians are also among the brave few who publicly criticize Modi, his government and the ruling BJP. Their videos, easily accessible on the web including through cellphones, are a welcome alternative to the constant, euphoric support for Modi’s government and Hindu nationalism in the mainstream media, especially on the major TV channels.
American media’s self-censorship in India
It is not just Indian owned TV channels which avoid criticizing the government. American media companies, which distribute comedy shows in India, are either not showing or censoring episodes which may displease Modi and the ruling BJP.
In February for instance, on the eve of President Donald Trump’s visit to India, Bloomberg reported that Hotstar did not broadcast an episode of John Oliver’s Last Week Tonight. Every Sunday, John Oliver offers concise, clear insights on politics and other issues, mainly in America. The episode, which was not distributed by Hotstar in India, offers one of the best insights into the economic and other problems under Prime Minister Modi and the rise of Hindu extremism. In less than two months, the episode has gotten nearly ten million views on YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qVIXUhZ2AWs
Hotstar, which has 300 million subscribers in India and costs $50 a year, is the country’s largest on demand video platform. It is owned by Disney which produces Star Wars, Mickey Mouse, Cinderella and other films as well as TV shows. Disney views India as its largest potential market. A spokesperson for the Indian ministry of Information & Broadcasting told Bloomberg that the government was not involved in decisions made by Disney and other American media companies.
Death threats
In 2018, in a Facebook post offering advice to young comedians, Kalra says “As a comedian having a political opinion comes at a cost.” Corporations, venues, brands, event planners and others avoid hiring those critical of the government. Also, he adds, “Slowly and steadily you will even see that comedians who started out with you, don't want to be seen with you on social media because they don't want to risk what they have going for themselves.”
Kamra’s friends and family members have been threatened by Hindu extremist trolls online and via phone calls. Kamra was evicted from his apartment in Mumbai by the owner, because of his views. His phone number has been widely circulated leading to verbal attacks. He is accused of being a communist and receiving payments from communists.
Several of Kamra’s live shows have been cancelled, including in Baroda, Surat and Mysuru, due to threats of disruption by supporters of the ruling BJP, according to news reports. He faces death threats, including from a man from Ludhiana repeatedly threatening to “shoot a bullet up my ass,” Kamra said on one of his videos.
An accidental political critic
On his Twitter account, Kamra pokes fun at his critics by describing himself as “A propagandist masquerading as a comedian, A card holding member of the CPI (Communist Party of India) & an owner of the new I-phone basically a total hypocrite.”
Kamra views himself as an artist trying to make a living through his comedies and not as a political activist. “Let me be very clear—for me, Shut Up Ya Kunal is primarily interesting content that can help fill seats at shows," he told LiveMint. “Yes, you can bring about awareness, you can help change minds, but it can’t be at the expense of not having good jokes."
Kamra was not interested in politics, assuming all politicians are pathetic and corrupt, he told Quartz last year. That changed in 2017, after he put up his first standup comedy video on YouTube: “…I saw people coming at me because I was trying to make fun of the prime minister and the party in power, that gave me the sense that there is something wrong with the regime.”