"The Kerela Story" and ISIS recruitment tactics.

 

On 5th May 2023, the Kerala Story was released to domestic audiences in India. In the three days since the total collection of the film stands at 35.75 crores. Many tout the film as being a revolutionary piece of art exposing the truth and shedding light on a very important topic. Others criticize it, calling it a propaganda film full of inflation and exaggeration of facts. The movie deals with the story of three women who are indoctrinated into radical Islamic ideas and ultimately join ISIS. It is said to be based on real events but there has been a lack of evidence pointing to such specific cases. However, the recruitment of women into ISIS through similar tactics is a reality in the world at large. The claims of the film that 32,000 women have been recruited by similar tactics was proven to be false but the non existence of any such cases is also not true. The Indian Government reports around 200 individuals have joined ISIS from Kerala since 2014. 

ISIS or the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria is a radical militant organization and quasi state that believes in Salafi jihadism i.e. establishing a global caliphate on radical Sunni Islamist ideology. It gained notoriety for capturing a large part of Syria during the Syrian Civil War in 2013-15, for its brutal and vicious videos of maiming, beheading and torture, and rampant destruction of cultural heritage sites. It started as a supporter of Al Qaeda and took advantage of the fall of Al Qaeda to establish power. At its height in 2015, it controlled 5,40,000 square kms of land in Syria and Iraq, the size of UP and Maharashtra combined. The United States of America organized and supplied coalitions of militant groups and democratic forces against ISIS in Iraq in 2015 and Syria in 2016. By December 2018 ISIS was declared defeated by President Trump and the "Baghdadi era" of ISIS came to a close. However pockets of ISIS still remain functional in Western Syria and the Euphrates river valley. They have retreated back into the shadows and continue to spread their propaganda online and recruit members. 

 

ISIS recruitment is based on three pillars to which it owes its success. These are recruitment at an early age, radicalization in prisons and exploitation of social networks. The recruitment focuses more on the adolescent periods as this is when the individual expands one's circle beyond the family. It is also when most individuals today start accessing the Internet and social media which ISIS uses to its advantage to spread its propaganda. This is where ISIS has historically performed well. In its early inception, ISIS was notorious for its methods of conquest. They would flood the area with spies and gather all information on important people. Then strategic kidnappings and murders were conducted to disillusion the masses. Jason Burke, an investigative journalist defines their strategy as "terrorize, mobilize and polarize". Through their savage and ruthless techniques they would strike fear and chaos into communities causing people to take irrational decisions. Through mobilization of key figures they would spread their propaganda and portray themselves as the saviors and all those who oppose them as enemies. 

The same tactics can be seen in modern internet recruitment tactics. Social media enables recruiters to establish contact with people across the globe they would otherwise not have been able to engage with. The Saudi Interior Ministry claims that 80% of Saudis recruited by ISIS was through internet recruitment. Lacking a central structure ISIS relies on the various communities throughout the web to sustain itself. Its presence can be seen in Twitter, Telegram, Youtube, Facebook, Instagram, Whatsapp and many more. Lacking a central structure makes it more difficult to ban them from these platforms and they have successfully spread films, video games, infographics, reports, magazines and radio. Thus we see how successfully ISIS has managed to adapt to indoctrinate the modern youth.

  

This is the reality that director Sudipto Sen says that he wants to portray in his film and we see similar methods of indoctrination used by the film's antagonist to recruit the character of Adah Sharma. Indoctrination always happens in slow steps with minor actions affirming larger decisions. The isolation from the family, the fear that the person is kept in with claims of threats from every direction. And the claim that all problems will be solved and that the only answer is joining them is characteristic of ISIS recruitment tactics. According to the Observer Research Foundation, almost 80-100 women were recruited from Kerala into ISIS through similar methods which is uncharacteristically high for Indian states. Therefore the film does shed light on an all too real problem plaguing Kerala. 

However the insinuations and the repercussions to Kerala politics and Hindu-Muslim divide in India, whether intentional or not, is very noticeable. Kerala has had a history of leftist parties dominating the political structure and the Bharatiya Janata Party has been trying to gain a strong foothold in the State. The film does help them rally support as it points to the failures of previous governments in a state that is majorly Hindu Malayali (54%) with Muslims (24%) and Christians (18%) as minorities. The film also helps promote the theory of "love jihad" that the opposition claims is a conspiracy theory cooked up by Hindu nationalists. However although the relevance of 80 recruitments in the politics of a state of 34.8 million people can be argued. It must be seen that what is called "love jihad" is a far too real tactic of ISIS recruitment. Although its relevance can be argued, since ISIS has been subdued and it isn't really a threat to the strong democracy of India, it is true that women are being brainwashed into joining the organization through such tactics.

In ground reality, the film while being praised by many people all over India and earning large in the box office is also being met with strong opposition. Theatres in Kerala and Tamil Nadu have stopped screenings of the films. West Bengal banned the film outright with CM Mamata Banerjee declaring it a threat to peace in the State. On the other hand, the Kerala High Court refuses to stay release of the movie claiming that it does not promote hate against any community and that ISIS is not a religious organization. Thus we too as citizens must understand that criticism of radicals and extremists of a community does not mean a criticism of the entire community itself. Criticism of Nazis does not mean all Germans are evil. Similarly criticism of ISIS does not mean all Muslims are evil. 

However turmoil and unrest will continue as it always has. The seeds of Hindu Muslim divide in India were sown a long time ago and it is not in my capacity to dive into that rabbit hole in the course of this article. Exaggeration and inflation will naturally take place in the media but it is our job as citizens to stay informed of the facts to develop proper opinions. Only then can we fix the terrible gash that cuts deep in our society. 

Written by Ariyaan Moktan.