The right word: Terrorist

Time of India

28-04-2025

Arnab Ray is the author of "May I Hebb Your Attention Pliss" and "The Mine". He blogs at http://greatbong.net and can be followed at @greatbong.
On Pahalgam and the West's 'militant' bias
Words matter. The progressive liberati tell us they matter so much that your survival as a decent human being depends on being sensitive enough to correctly gender a houseplant on social media. Nouns, adjectives and pronouns must be treated with the reverence accorded to ancient artifacts found at an archaeological dig. You would imagine that when Hindus are hunted down and murdered in Pahalgam, Kashmir – murdered for the crime of existing – then NYT would deploy that same obsessive precision. Surely, they would reach for a familiar, correct word, the word they use for the perpetrators of 9/11. You know, terrorists.
But no. When Hindus die, the term that gently floats down is 'militant' – a word so gloriously beige that it sounds like someone got a bit rowdy at a PTA meeting. 'Militant' – not a monster, not a butcher – just a spirited political activist with poor anger management. Makes you wonder if the target of their attack were soldiers and tanks…or families on vacation. Spoiler: it was families.
Jacques Derrida – patron saint of people who quote books they've never finished – taught us that language encodes hidden power structures. Well, here's an easy one: when Western media call terrorists 'militants', it's because Hindus, in their worldview, can never be victims. Hindus are cast as permanent oppressors, with violence against them cast as 'punching up'. No different than storming the Bastille – violence, sure, but to be seen in the larger context of historical justice, or, wait, there is a word for it, karma.
There is a side-show of clowns that enable this, pushing a pseudo-academic thread of messaging, namely that Hinduphobia isn't real. It's a 'constructed term', they say, from the comfort of panel discussions that smell faintly of Sauvignon Blanc and moral cowardice, used by Hindu fascists to protest when the chickens come home to roost – or militants come to do their 'militanty' things.
Terror exists. All religions are targeted where they are in the minority. Some groups, though, get murdered twice: first by bullets and again by the slow suffocation of their truth. Meanwhile, their killers get to keep their moral alibi, polished and gleaming, courtesy of Western media houses.
Yes, words matter, especially when they come from organisations of influence. It's long past time we used the right words. And called out those who do not.
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