Dim Views

ON 9 MAY 2025, Pro Punjab Tv, a YouTube channel with 1.51 million subscribers, was running live coverage of the conflict between India and Pakistan, which had started in the aftermath of Operation Sindoor—airstrikes launched two days earlier that targeted what the Narendra Modi government described as “terrorist infrastructure in Pakistan.” In much the same vein as national television news, the channel had taken a blustering approach to the coverage—it had fighter jets and missiles flying on a screen behind the anchor. It also emulated the mainstream media’s shrill tone, glorifying the Indian government’s military attack and using phrases like “Pakistan’s nefarious act.”

Yadwinder Singh is the channel’s founder. Having worked with several other Punjabi media outlets before founding Pro Punjab Tv, he presents himself as a knowledgeable journalist. At the time of its launch in 2020, Pro Punjab Tv released a series of short videos featuring celebrities, including the comedian Kapil Sharma and the actor Swara Bhaskar, wishing him the best for his new venture. His first interview was with the then Punjab chief of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, who said “Sikh is not a religion. Sikh is a panth”—sect. But the channel developed its following primarily during the farmers’ movement in 2020 and 2021, when farmers from Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh marched to Delhi and were stopped at the city’s entry points—Singhu and Tikri. They were protesting the implementation of three agricultural laws, which the union government later repealed.

The protests had galvanised Punjabi youth, and there was palpable Punjabi pride on display at the protest site and across the state. The protests brought attention to facets of Punjabi history, especially its identitarian movements and leftist politics. Swarajbir Singh, a former editor of the Punjabi Tribune, wrote at the time, “This movement showed the world the beautiful face of Punjab, its philosophy of sharing, its militant heritage, which includes the Sikh gurus, Sufi saints, the Babbar Akalis, Bhagat Singh and his comrades, and the Ghadarites.” (The latter three were revolutionary movements against colonial rule.)

At the same time, mainstream national television channels were branding the protesters as Maoists and Khalistanis, a narrative pushed by the Modi government. Many young people from Punjab began countering these narratives through their personal social-media accounts—they visited the protest sites and posted videos documenting their lived experiences of the protest. Pro Punjab Tv and other YouTube channels began interviewing farmers and union leaders, and were reporting from the protest sites. Anti-establishment journalism had always been rare in Punjab, and for a brief moment during the farmers’ protest, it had appeared that these channels could provide an alternative.