News Brief
American Series 'The Boys' Mutes ‘Al Qaeda’ Reference For Muslims In India, Retains Swastika Link With Nazism
- According to reports, this censorship has not been done in other countries.
A poster of the series
The third season of popular American television series The Boys started streaming in India on 3 June on Amazon Prime. It is a superhero series where protagonists are not always good and noble but can be evil and arrogant.
It is learnt that Amazon, in India, has censored a derogatory reference to a Muslim character in the series. At the same time, a derogatory reference to Hindu holy symbol Swastika has been retained.
In a scene, a character uses an expletive before the word “Muslim”, and calls a Muslim character as “Captain Al Qaeda”.
In India, the expletive as well as “Al Qaeda” have been muted. This has been done not only for English, but also Hindi, Tamil and Telugu dubs.
The series carries a rating on Amazon Prime, which means it can be viewed by adults.
As per a website, this censorship has not been done in other countries reviewed by the website. The only country other than India that this website found is Turkey.
At the same time, an association of Nazism with Swastika has been retained.
Swastika, an ancient symbol of prosperity widely used by Hindus, Buddhist and Jains in auspicious rituals, has come to be attached with Hitler, through misrepresentation of history.
As per this article, what Hitler used was a symbol called "Hooked Cross” (“Haken Kreuz”) which he saw in a Christian monastery.
However, through years of propaganda, Swastika has been made synonymous with Nazism, so much so that it’s considered evil.
Some years ago, a news agency removed a picture of UN Ambassador Nikki Haley with a Swastika seen behind her at a Hindu temple in Delhi because, in their very words, ‘it was also used as a symbol by Nazi Germany’.
You can watch the censored and uncensored videos here.
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