The Independent newspaper was established in 1986, the founders intended its political stance to reflect the centre of the British political spectrum. However, it has been seen as left-leaning, a competitor to the liberal Guardian. What it also shares with the Guardian is its extreme anti-Hindu animus which compromises the very idea of it actually being ‘independent’. As with the Guardian, any complaint made about Hinduphobia goes unanswered or gets the standard automated response. It then quickly disappears just as dissidents of despotic regimes disappear into the maze of prisons and labour camps.
The Independent does not target any other minority community, people of colour and non-western culture as it does with Hindus, who are regularly portrayed as extremist, right-wing fascists, and much else. Now while the roots of the left-leaning Guardian lie in profits from slavery and support for the slave-owning states in the American civil war, the Independent’s roots are actually on the right.
It was created by Andreas Whittam Smith, Stephen Glover and Matthew Symonds, all of whom were former journalists at The Daily Telegraph. Indeed it was originally thought that it would attract readers primarily from The Times and The Daily Telegraph. It was sold to the Russian oligarch and former KGB officer Alexander Lebedev in 2010 having already moved into Northcliffe House which is owned by the same Daily Mail which supported Mosley’s British Union of Fascists in the 1930s. In 2018 concerns were raised when the Independent licenses its brand to a Saudi Arabian publisher with close ties to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. The question is does this again compromise the newspaper’s far from ‘independent’ stance when it comes to Hindus? Indeed its attitude reflects the haughty, arrogant colonialist and left-wing racism that is alive and kicking and to which the Independent provides a steady platform from which to launch its vitriolic propaganda.
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