Blog: Hardik Pandya - macho or ‘mawali’?

The author shares findings of a research conducted by the Indian Institute of Human Brands (IIHB) among millennials on social media

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Blog: Hardik Pandya - macho or ‘mawali’?

Hardik Pandya and his ‘Mai’ made headlines in the media all week, this last week. Social-media too was agog with L'affaire Hardik. Memes, tweets, forwards … but rarely a kind word for the embattled, and bruised, cricketer.

The Indian Institute of Human Brands (IIHB) commissioned a research amongst millennials over last Friday and Saturday (Jan 11/12) on social-media. A total number of 589 respondents were covered. The findings are being shared exclusively with Campaign.

Hardik Pandya
	Agree	Not Agree	Don’t Know
Macho	275	299	15
‘Mawali'	473	106	10
Vile	462	115	12
Sexist	502	63	24
Egotistic	375	182	32
Narcissistic	312	232	45
Misogynistic	460	107	22
Naïve	407	137	45
Boastful	507	50	32
Arrogant	357	167	65
Gullible	388	129	72
Uneducated	510	39	40
Crass	502	67	20
Talented	366	178	45
Aggressive	302	252	35
Good cricketer	402	145	42
Nice, but misguided	207	275	107
Unable to handle fame	522	27	40
Needs counselling	475	87	27
Has a future	360	196	33

	Agree	Not Agree	Don’t Know
Trapped by Karan Johar	522	55	12
Just boastful, didn’t mean it	320	234	35
Got carried away	475	100	14
Shows education is necessary	501	81	7
Poor family values	495	80	14
Poor upbringing	475	92	22
No mentoring	312	233	44
Can be helped	355	212	22
Kohli should have been more supportive	172	362	55
BCCI being too harsh	407	150	32
Social-media over reacting	275	259	55
Media being too critical	260	257	72
Media is kinder to Bollywood stars	393	145	51
Punishment will be deterrent	407	87	95
Punishment will be example to peers	517	65	7
Likely to lose endorsements	522	47	20
End of the road for him	275	232	82

Verdict obviously is highly weighed against Hardik Pandya. Public opinion is heavily negative on the cricket all-rounder. Hardly any sympathy for the man. The entire social-media noise has centered more on Pandya being uneducated, hence crass. The misogynistic aspect of the cricketer has largely been discussed on Twitter and Facebook more related to his lack of adequate education, and insufficient attention accorded by his family to his proper upbringing. In the IIHB survey, this is being more than adequately reflected.

Respondents signalled very strongly that Pandya would lose his endorsements. While the survey was in progress, the first of his big endorsements, Gillette, announced it was distancing itself from the hard-hitter. So, the public knows.

Despite all the negativity, it was still felt that BCCI is being too harsh. Maybe Diana Edulji needs to go somewhat easy on the young cricketers.

Koffee with Karan
	Yes	No
Regularly see KWK	184	405
Saw episode with Hardik + Rahul	86	503
Saw episode/saw again after controversy broke out	422	167
Missed seeing the episode	175	414
Unfair of Star to pull down episode from the net	532	57
Read "Aaj mai kar ke aaya!" on social media	512	77
Everything else except "Aajmai …" was okay	236	353
Rahul said nothing really objectionable	542	47

The pulling down of the Koffee with Karan episode by Star TV has not been very positively received by the survey respondents. Interestingly, the boast, "Aaj mai kar ke aaya!" that seems to have ignited all of Hardik’s woes, was seen by most people in social-media rather than on the television episode.

K L Rahul
	Agree	Not Agree	Don’t Know
Guilty as Hardik Pandya	72	506	11
Unwittingly in the same frame	536	43	10
Not really guilty	542	33	14
Being on Koffee with Karan avoidable	235	282	72
Merits no punishment	510	59	20
Should be let off with a warning	530	54	5
BCCI being unfair/judgemental	522	65	2
Nice guy	435	94	60
Good behavior reflects good upbringing	497	70	22
Restrained behavior shows good education	472	104	13
Has a future	460	112	17

K L Rahul by all accounts has just become a default victim of the entire episode. His only crime seems to be that he was on the show with Hardik Pandya. Just bad timing, as far as he was concerned. Or perhaps, to be more accurate, bad company. The contrast in the comport of Rahul versus Pandya is also not lost in the feedback.

Dr. Sandeep Goyal, a doctorate in Human Brands, tracks, chronicles and analyses all major happenings in the celebrity space.

Source:

Campaign India