Reality is hard, reading the news is exhausting, delulu is the solulu. But here's an Instagram page named after a popular, lip-smacking South Indian snack that is serving news on a satirical platter to those Instagrammers who just can't stop doomscrolling.
The Savala Vada.
"Our ideals are rooted in the teachings that underpin an equal, casteless, and classless land," the team behind The Savada Vada tells The Quint.
But who are they and why do they do what they do?
The page, which came into being on 21 July 2023, is run by a group of university graduates specialising in the social sciences. Although they have their roots in Kerala, the Instagram page covers "national, international, and state affairs from beyond."
They print from "Mavelinadu – the mythical land of the Asura King Mahabali from the story behind Kerala's Onam festival," the team tells The Quint, adding, "Over time, we have understood that anonymity is important to be able to criticise and cover issues honestly without fear of backlash."
Tackling News With 'Ethical Misinformation'
The Savala Vada is inspired by the US-based The Onion, "which is why we have named the platform after a popular onion snack from Kerala called 'savala vada'," the team tells The Quint.
Much like The Onion, posts by The Savala Vada – by the team's own admission – "is bizarrely worded and outlandish for the very reason that the line between reality and fiction is blurring with each passing day."
Take a look at this post, for example.
"Our vision was born out of this landscape of Indian current affairs, which leaves many happenings ripe to be satirised, to raise awareness through what we like to call 'ethical misinformation' rather than fake news," the team says.
The page is also inspired by other satirical outlets like an earlier Indian version of The Onion called The Kanda (which hasn't posted on Instagram in a while) and Australian outlets like The Betoota Advocate and Juice Media which publish a series of 'Honest Government Ads' on YouTube "that are hilarious, educational sources."
"We try to do our own 'desi' spin on The Onion … We wanted to set the record straight and follow the cardinal comedic rule of punching up, not down."
But why satire?
"Real news often masquerades as satire, which makes our job tougher by the day. Satire helps to call out the intentions of a particular 'path' by exaggerating and using irony to draw disparities. We think of it as a tool to critique contemporary politics and point out issues that warrant deeper scrutiny while ridiculing attempts to divide people or flame tensions," the team says.
"We live in a digital age where information overload is all around us – weaving comedy and information together could encourage people to learn more, uncover other facets of a particular issue, and pay attention to the news. Given the constraints of Indian journalism – with declining press freedom and journalistic coverage – satire seems to be a way to bypass these traditional, conventional ways of censorship that other forms of actual journalistic media often deal with."
They add that satire is not bound to the same structures of conformity and "corporate sway" that other media conglomerates are.
"Satire is also supposed to be funny (we try to be!) – and this enables it to reach audiences who might not have earlier had an interest in issues. But linking them to popular culture or bizarre headlines can illicit responses and reach across traditional divides. Using comedic tropes, pop culture references, outlandish headlines, and punchlines can provide a sense of respite at a time when it feels bleak and dreary," they say.
From Issues in Colleges to War on Gaza
The Savala Vada, in over 500 posts, has covered news related to protests, foreign affairs, higher education issues, climate change, and films, among others.
"If there is something important to be covered – something that pertains to what happens in and around our county that will have repercussions on future policies, government actions or events – we do it," the team tells The Quint.
The team says that sometimes, Instagram users DM them to highlight issues happening around them, "like increased fee hikes or attacks on marginalised communities."
The page also has quite a few posts on Israel's war on Gaza.
"The Indian media's coverage, or the lack of it, on Palestine seems very disconcerting. Even Indian news outlets use the same terminologies as Western media and don't seem to give it the importance it deserves. We are a country that emerged from direct imperial rule and has held historical solidarity with the people of Palestine. But now, it appears that our governments and policies are instead arming an ethno-state that is perpetuating a genocide using weapons manufactured by 'Indian companies'."
"Our posts on Gaza also allow us to draw a connection with the alienation of the Muslim community in India, the persecution of Christian communities in Central India, or the ongoing state repression in Kashmir," they add.
The team says they also try to amplify issues that aren't covered by the mainstream media. "Mainstream Indian journalism, because it tends to have a Savarna-North Indian Bias, does not give equal importance to South India, the Northeast Region, Kashmir, Island territories, tribal areas, or issues relating to minority communities, women, linguistic minorities, queer communities, and others … if any media house is caught breaking 'protocol', they are instantly rebuked," they allege.
Online Abuse, Shadowbanning
The Savala Vada's anonymity, however, does not protect the team from online hate.
"We've received all kinds of online backlash – hate speech, attempted doxxing, shadow bans by Instagram, vilification. We get all sorts of slurs, unsolicited DMs and so on. We've been called 'jihadi', 'ricebag', 'Pakistani', 'Khalistani', 'brown sepoy', 'East India Company reincarnation', 'anti-national', 'woke', 'Chinese bot farmer', 'sick-ular' and a whole bunch of expletives that are quite frankly unprintable."
The team claims that social media users have threatened to file lawsuits and FIRs against them for covering certain issues. "Our post on 22 January was our most popular to date but also had thousands of hate comments pile up. Reading through them does take a toll on one because it is in a way a revelation on what millions of our own citizens actually believe in – that some communities don't deserve the same rights or respect as others…"
The team also alleges that Instagram has "shadowbanned our account for multiple 'violations'."
"Our story views seem to have an unofficial top limit of 1,000 people – meaning, only 3.27% of our 29K followers even see our stories at maximum. We think this is, perhaps, because we have been posting about Palestine. Some of our posts were deleted and flagged as "Going against guidelines on dangerous individuals and organisations."
In October 2023, scores of Instagram users had taken to social media platform X to claim that their posts on Gaza were being "shadow-banned" by the Meta-owned social media platform.
While many claimed that their followers were being blocked from commenting on and sharing their posts, others alleged that the views on their Instagram Stories about Gaza and Palestine had drastically dropped compared to previous Stories.
Responding to concerns about the visibility of Stories, Meta spokesperson Andy Stone had denied the claims, saying that it had nothing to do with the content of the posts, instead, they had identified a bug.
'We Are Hopeful'
The Savala Vada, which is primarily an Instagram page, does not generate any revenue at the moment, but the team says they're thinking of opening the page up for crowdfunding to help set up a website.
"We've been approached to have paid collaborations with other pages or college events, but we've declined because we feel that even if we are to be supported monetarily, it has to come voluntarily from our readers – to whom we are solely accountable," they say.
The group, meanwhile, stresses that "the work we do is nothing compared to the actual journalism that Indian journalists on the ground are doing" and that they try to amply the work of independent media publishers and journalists.
There are some upsides to running a page like this too, the team says.
"We get to see that a lot of people resonate with our posts and that gives us hope that there are indeed people who wish to see change for the better. Seeing people interact, share our content, and often comment on how funny but bleak some posts are giving us the will to continue."
Recalling an instance of audience engagement, the team says that after the attacks on minorities in the run-up to and after the consecration of Ram Mandir in Ayodhya, they hosted an Instagram Story series to understand how people were feeling.
"Many shared about how they were feeling unsafe, how they were worried for their friends and family. Especially for our writers from minority communities, we were constantly feeling a sense of cognitive dissonance between the celebration and the mourning that seemed to unfold on our phones and the streets."
"But knowing that there are others feeling the same way and attempting to find humour in dark times is something that makes the effort worth it," the team says.
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