Decades after India threw off the yoke of British colonial rule, Europe and the West have long depicted the country as a "land of snake charmers". Western publications and other critical outlets worldwide continue to fall back on a well-worn trope: framing the nation through the lens of "India is poor, yet is punching above its weight". A fresh demonstration of this prejudice is currently unfolding across international coverage of the BRICS India Summit in New Delhi.

Global Coverage Focuses on Framing India as Underdeveloped Rather Than Event Outcomes

Beyond biased opinion columns, several foreign outlets have pushed a skewed narrative through deliberate photographic framing during the summit proceedings. The New York Times ran an article carrying the headline "As Oil Prices Rise, BRICS Leaders Have What U.S. Doesn’t: Iran at the Table". The featured image in The New York Times piece highlighted official BRICS signage with an ordinary moped rider passing right in front of it. That photograph was captured by Reuters photojournalist Francis Mascarenhas.

On 11th September, the French state-owned network France24 published its own report titled "Putin arrives in India for BRICS summit set to be dominated by Middle East, Ukraine wars". It led with an image credited to Sajjad Hussain of Agence France-Presse (AFP), showing a summit promotional board bearing the portrait of Prime Minister Narendra Modi as a cyclist pedaled past.

Al Jazeera, the state-backed Qatari broadcaster, used an almost identical visual composition in one of its summit-related reports. Its selected image showed another cyclist riding directly in front of a BRICS promotional poster—a frame also taken by Reuters photographer Francis Mascarenhas.

German public broadcaster DW chose an image showing an individual resting near an official summit sign during intense daytime heat, shot by IANS photographer Qamar Sibtain.

Similarly, the China Global South Project illustrated its coverage using an image of a man walking directly in front of a roadside hoarding of Prime Minister Narendra Modi installed ahead of the high-level meeting in New Delhi, a visual sourced from Reuters.

A parallel visual formula appears throughout the reporting of The Guardian and several other Western media houses. This pattern has not been confined to the 2026 BRICS Summit; it emerged with identical consistency during other major international gatherings hosted by the country, including the G20 Summit.

India’s Expanding Global Footprint Reflected Through a Distorted Foreign Lens

Whether the subject is the 2026 BRICS Summit, the G20 Summit, reports on milestone GDP growth figures, a newly built international airport, an advanced semiconductor manufacturing facility, or a successful space launch by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), the international press regularly pairs these developments with peripheral images that present calculated visual juxtapositions.

An analysis of this recurring pattern reveals a set of fixed visual tropes: a dusty curb, a hand-pulled cart, a three-wheeled auto-rickshaw, a passing cyclist, or a packed city street. These elements are deliberately deployed to prompt impressions of "ambitions versus reality" or an idea of "two Indias" in the minds of international readers.

No matter how substantial an accomplishment a developing country secures, its portrayal in global headlines is routinely compressed into an easily recognized visual shorthand.

Some commentators argue that domestic observers are overreacting to an everyday urban scene, pointing out that when Europeans commute on bicycles it is viewed as progressive, whereas Indian cyclists in news photos draw immediate complaints. However, this comparison collapses under scrutiny. Commuting by bicycle in European cities for lifestyle or environmental reasons is entirely different from the reality of daily transport in India. A large section of the population travels by bicycle under blistering heat not out of leisure or fitness choices, but because motorbikes remain financially out of reach.

This persistent editorial bias has sparked strong public pushback across India. Many commentators have criticized this approach as "poverty porn", while others have pointed fingers at local contributors for supplying Western newsrooms with these exact frames.

The trend is deliberate and documented. Wire photo services routinely distributed, and international editors selected, photographs framing cyclists, auto-rickshaws, and low-powered two-wheelers directly against towering BRICS backdrops in the capital.

Historical precedent shows this is a longstanding editorial habit:

The 2014 Mars Orbiter Mission: When ISRO placed the Mangalyaan spacecraft into Martian orbit, The New York Times published a cartoon showing a barefoot man in a dhoti and turban leading a cow while knocking on the door of an "Elite Space Club"*—a caricature widely condemned as racist and condescending toward an emerging space program.

• The 2025 Tesla Debut: When Tesla launched its inaugural commercial showroom in Mumbai, Western coverage highlighted images framing passing three-wheeled auto-rickshaws right alongside the brand’s storefront rather than focusing on the facility or opening ceremony itself.

These compositions are not accidental street snapshots. Photojournalists intentionally hunt for extreme contrasts, and foreign photo desks actively select those specific frames over dozens of alternatives—such as modern conference venues like Bharat Mandapam, well-lit summit zones, high-level diplomatic convoys, or upgraded infrastructure. Opting for a bicycle or moped beside a glossy summit billboard is a conscious editorial decision designed to manufacture narratives of "ambition versus reality", "grandeur versus grit", and a "country punching above its weight".

This visual strategy draws directly from colonial-era framing. The British colonial trope of a "land of snake charmers" reduced an ancient civilization to an exotic curiosity defined by destitution and superstition—populated by street performers, ascetics, dust, and decay. For generations, an accurate picture of the country was kept out of international view.

That shorthand has evolved: the turban and flute have been replaced by the contrast of a modern superpower billboard positioned over a struggling pedestrian. This allows news outlets to project an underlying message of backwardness without explicitly putting it into text.

In earlier decades, this skepticism took the form of the economic label "Hindu rate of growth". Today, the framing has grown more indirect. Because India's massive scale and rapid ascent cannot be ignored, news desks rely on rigid visual formulas: space satellites placed next to cattle, modern shopping malls beside informal settlements, luxury electric vehicles beside three-wheelers, and diplomatic summit banners positioned against mopeds and bicycles.

Auto-rickshaws, bicycles, and crowded roads are undeniable aspects of daily life, just as socioeconomic challenges and underemployment remain real issues. But these features do not constitute the whole picture.

India ranks as the fourth-largest and fastest-growing major economy in the world, with severe poverty rates declining steadily. The country’s digital public infrastructure has become an internationally recognized model, and ISRO’s cost-effective space achievements have proven consistent and repeatable.

In a nation of 1.4 billion people, state-of-the-art international convention centers naturally coexist with traditional street transit. This does not validate the narrative of an irreconcilable divide often pushed by Western commentators. There is only one India, containing immense diversity across every sphere of life as it navigates the realities of national development.

The issue rests entirely on the insistence of foreign media organizations to treat everyday economic realities as a visual prop for underdevelopment. In an era where visual media wields tremendous power in shaping public perception, this form of photojournalism reinforces outdated stereotypes that the country continues working to dispel.