“IIT WAS NOT for YouTube, I would leave this profession,” confesses Ravish Kumar, a seasoned animator and winner of the prestigious Magsaysay Prize, considered the Asian version of the Nobel Prize. For a long time an anchor NDTV, one of the few sober news channels in India, Mr. Kumar left it at the end of 2022 when it was bought by Gautam Adani, an Indian billionaire known for his close ties to the country’s Prime Minister, Narendra Modi. Today, Mr. Kumar is an independent journalist with a channel on YouTube, with over 10 million subscribers and 20 million views per week. The video-sharing site has become a haven for independent voices, from marginalized journalists to political satirists.
Take Dhruv Rathee, a 29-year-old YouTuber who has become a leading figure in online dissent. With around 20 million subscribers, his channel is one of the most popular in India. A recent video in which he claims that India has descended into dictatorship has been viewed 32 million times in just one month. Other veteran journalists, formerly national-TV anchors, like Punya Prasun Bajpai, Abhisar Sharma and Ajit Anjum, host shows with large audiences. Satirists such as Neha Singh Rathore, a folk singer, and Kunal Kamra, a comedian, add an edge on the digital front.
