The Underrepresented ‘Other’: Portrayal of Religious Minorities in Hindi Language Cartoon Shows

Abstract

Media are sites of struggle for representations, and cartoon shows on television can immensely impact the psyche of young viewers. Drawing upon Bandura’s social cognitive theory, George Gerber’s cultivation theory and symbolic annihilation, this study investigates how the symbolic annihilation of minorities takes place in Hindi language cartoon shows. We examine how Hindi language cartoon shows produced in India methodically underrepresent characters belonging to minority communities using qualitative content analysis of four such shows. In this article, we question the positioning of these characters in secondary, antisocial roles identifying them either as ‘other’/foreigner or ‘other’/negative. This symbolic annihilation of religious minorities in Hindi language cartoon shows resembles the symbolic annihilation of racial minorities in the English language cartoon shows.