The Literature Lounge24 Dec 2025

Decoding the Narrative: Umesh Upadhyay on Western Media Bias & India's Untold Story | The Literature Lounge

This episode of The Literature Lounge is a sobering audit of the stories we are sold.

Author Umesh Upadhyay, a veteran journalist with four decades across print, radio, TV, and digital, unpacks his book Western Media Narratives on India from Gandhi till now. He dissects the persistent lens of bias, born from his experience watching the skewed portrayal of India during the COVID-19 pandemic.

A conversation about who controls the narrative, who inherits it, and the cost of a silent media.

What this episode is REALLY about

Not objectivity.
Not neutrality.
Not dry academic theory.

It’s about:

The hidden history behind today’s headlines
The politics and racism embedded in Western coverage
Indian media’s complicity in a flawed narrative
Isolation as inspiration: writing a book during a lockdown
How a legacy of bias stretches from Gandhi to the Ram Mandir
The paradox of JNU: a past beacon vs. a present symbol
Why Indian success stories are often met with Western skepticism
A practical toolkit for readers to challenge dominant narratives
The future of India’s story and who gets to write it

If you’ve ever questioned why the world sees India the way it does, this episode has evidence.

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