In the aftermath of Hamas’ October 7 attacks when militants killed hundreds of Israeli civilians and took more than 100 people as hostages, social media platform X (formerly Twitter) saw the glorification of mass female suicides or “jauhar,” in the form of photos and comments posted by Indian internet users.
In response to a video clip showing an unconscious and unclothed woman lying in a truck amongst Hamas militants, many Indian X users, including those with hundreds or thousands of followers, publicly praised or justified the need for jauhar: the practice of Hindu women dying by fire during wars, mostly in precolonial India.
What is jauhar?
Jauhar refers to the outdated act of mainly Hindu royal women in North India dying by suicide or being forced into mass pyres in order to avoid capture and sexual violence at the hands of enemy soldiers.
Jauhar has existed for centuries and multiple instances of it were recorded throughout periods of India’s history, including during the earlier years of Mughal rule.
Sati, the now criminalised act of burning Hindu women to death after their husband’s demise, is different from jauhar in terms of its intention.
An older instance of jauhar, the mass suicide of female Rajput royalty during the 1303 Siege of Chittorgarh led by Alauddin Khalji, has become mythologised due to the belief that Khalji wished to capture the kingdom’s beautiful queen, Rani Padmini, whose existence historians have largely deemed to be mythical rather than factual.
The 2018 Bollywood period film Padmaavat directed by Sanjay Leela Bhansali and starring Deepika Padukone, Shahid Kapoor, and Ranveer Singh brought jauhar back into mainstream discourse, as watchers debated whether the film glorified the painful and patriarchal act.
Padmaavat concludes with a Rani Padmini-figure (played by Padukone) entering a mass pyre to escape a fictionalised version of Khalji (played by Singh) and is based on other creative adaptations of the Rani Padmini legend rather than historical sources.
Pro-jauhar rhetoric in the 21st century is often used to demonise Muslim men and portray them as sexual assaulters or foreign conquerors, while simultaneously conveying the message that Hindu women are better off dying than surviving sexual assault and/or living with men of other faiths.
Though most social media platforms have policies which prohibit content glorifying self-harm or suicide, jauhar has largely slipped through the cracks because it is culture-specific and historical in nature.
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Justifying and glorifying jauhar on X
Within hours and days of the October 7 attacks, one could easily find posts on X (formerly Twitter) which used Hamas’ abduction of civilians to make a case for jauhar.
Verified X user @ishkarnBHANDARI, who had around 402,000 followers and described themselves as an advocate, posted on October 7: “The practice of Jauhar in India, can be understood today with what the terrorists are doing to Israel women.”
Screenshot of an X user commenting on jauhar and linking it to the Hamas attacks
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@ishkarnBHANDARI
X user @SinghShaktiBJP, verified and with more than 22,000 followers, shared a post referencing Hamas on October 7 and used it to explain why “our mothers” practiced jauhar. The post also had an image, classified as likely AI-generated according to one image detector, showing a group of richly dressed women standing in front of a flaming pyre. The exact same text and photo was also published by several other accounts on X.
Screenshot of an X post commenting on jauhar
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@SinghShaktiBJP
X users shared videos of the wounded woman in the Hamas truck, juxtaposing it with video clippings of the jauhar scene from the Padmaavat film where the queen enters the flames with a number of royal Rajput women while Alauddin Khalji battles his way into the fort to capture her.
A collage of posts showing jauhar justification or praise on X; the Padmaavat film’s Alauddin Khalji (played by Ranveer Singh) can be seen in the image on the extreme right
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Posts sourced from X and edited on Canva to cover images of graphic violence
Other accounts placed clips of Khalji from the same film alongside video clips of Hamas militants driving away with the injured woman they had captured.
Many Indian X users who shared such posts praising this form of ritualistic suicide spoke about preserving purity, caste or gender-based honour, dignity, respect, and bravery.
Screenshot of an X post justifying jauhar and using scenes from the Padmaavat movie, though incorrectly attributing the clip to Mughal times.
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Image from X, scrolled down to show the number of views
Glorification of jauhar on YouTube
Under YouTube videos that show clips or songs from the film Padmaavat, dozens of user comments – some of which are years old – praise jauhar.
According to YouTube-parent Google’s Community Guidelines, the platform does not allow media that “promotes suicide, self-harm, or eating disorders, that is intended to shock or disgust, or that poses a considerable risk to viewers.” This policy covers the comments posted under videos as well.
One comment from three years ago, left in response to a Padmaavat clip and liked over 900 times, read: “Can you imagine hundreds of women walking into fire willingly..Women who lived for their men and their pride!! Such a purity!! What a Love!! Respect from Hyderabad # Telangana!!”
More recent comments referenced the violence in Israel.
“Anyone here after watching what Islamic terrorists of hamas did to women in Israel???,” read one comment posted on October 31.
“Watched this scene after naked body of israeli women was paraded by Palestinians and now I understand why those women did what they did,” said another comment from three weeks ago.
The film’s mass suicide scene has been censored by YouTube and requires users to sign in to confirm their age before viewing it. The platform also provides viewer discretion and self-harm warnings before playing the video. However, the comments are visible to all.
Screenshot of some YouTube comments left under the jauhar scene from the Padmaavat film
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YouTube
Many of the YouTube comments again praised and glorified the act of jauhar, while others used the movie’s fictional 14th century storyline to villainise 21st century Muslims, clearly violating YouTube’s Community Guidelines against hate speech targeting protected groups.
Screenshot of some YouTube comments, including Islamophobic hate speech, under the jauhar scene from the Padmaavat movie
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Image sourced from YouTube and edited on Canva to hide explicit language
Glorification of jauhar on Meta apps
While recently posted jauhar-related content was easy to find on X and YouTube, this was more challenging to locate on Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp, and Threads due to less sophisticated keyword search features. While Threads did not have many references to jauhar, Instagram had kept up old user comments which glorified the act. Many of these were under video clips taken from the Padmaavat film.
Screenshot of old comments glorifying jauhar on Instagram
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Instagram
The Hindu reached out to Google and Meta to learn how they plan to address jauhar-related content, Islamophobia, and antisemitism across their products both during the Israel-Hamas conflict and in the future, but did not receive a response.
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