From tragedy to trolling: Himanshi Narwal, widow of naval officer killed in Pahalgam, faces social media trial
It took less than 10 days for social media users to do a full u-turn on Himanshi Narwal, the wife of late naval officer Lieutenant Vinay Narwal, who was killed in a terror attack in Kashmir on April 22. The couple had gotten married just six days ago, on April 16, and were in Kashmir for their honeymoon.
Vinay Narwal was among the 26 shot dead by terrorists in what is being dubbed the worst attack on civilians in recent history. Survivors, including Himanshi, had said that those killed were targeted based on religion. “They said he doesn’t look like a Muslim and shot him,” she said.
After the carnage, the image of a grieving Himanshi sitting next to her husband’s lifeless body soon became a symbol of the brutality that unfolded in the Baisaran valley.
The above image was aired by almost every news channel and carried across newspapers the following day. On social media, many, including the BJP, amplified the picture, or versions of it, to express solidarity with her or to make communal remarks, like “Even in death, only religion mattered” and “They asked for your religion, not caste“.
But by May 1, the tides turned against Himanshi; much of the sympathy for the late officer’s wife suddenly turned into hateful, abusive trolling.
The Turning Point
Many social media users accused the woman of ‘protecting jihadis’. Why? Because of an appeal she made on May 1, while attending a blood donation camp on her late husband’s birthday in Haryana’s Karnal.
“I just want the entire nation to pray for him that wherever he is… he remains in good spirits, he is healthy and at peace. That’s it… There is one more thing that I want, I do not want any hatred towards anybody. This is what’s happening. People are going against Muslims or Kashmiris. We don’t want this. We want peace and only peace. Of course, we want justice. Of course, the people who have done wrong to him should be punished.”
Her statement came amid a rise in ‘retaliatory’ hate crimes targeting Muslims and Kashmiris, and calls for boycott and hate in the aftermath of the terror attack.
But her public appeal for peace didn’t sit well with many social media users, who often share radical, far-Right content and identify with the Hindutva ideology, going by their bios.
Soon, many who were initially referring to her as ‘Himanshi Narwal’ stopped and instead began using her maiden name, ‘Himanshi Swami’, to address her. A few users online even began questioning whether she ever cared about her late husband and whether she qualifies for the monetary compensation she would receive as the widow of Vinay Narwal.
People dug into her past, scrutinised her decision to continue wearing the mangalsutra (a necklace worn by some married Hindu women), and brought up her old social media posts. Some even made remarks that suggested she was complicit with the terrorists. All of this seemed to be largely because her condemnation for what happened was largely devoid of any Islamophobic or communally charged rhetoric. It was rather the opposite.
Documenting Hate
Himanshi became the target of the social media hate machinery.
On May 1, X user @erbmjha posted Himanshi’s video, where she urges peace for all, with a sarcastic remark: “Sarv Dharm Vadapao ultra pro Max”.
Another X user, @PremPandey1011, followed up this post with claims that he knew Himanshi, adding that “she was student of MA CESP in SSS, #JNU , she used to love muslims a lot , Her daily habit was to visit Jhelum hostel of JNU , a boys hostel where Mainly Kashmiris lived. She was in Living relationships with Kashmiris!! [sic]” This person added that she “got her fate”. (Archive)
In a follow-up post, @PremPandey1011 added that he “doesn’t wish for Indians to develop a fake sympathy for such girl through media narrative”. He calls Himanshi underserving of any sympathy since he claims she might have been friends or even romantically involved with a Kashmiri or a Muslim person during her college days. (Archive)
Remember, these posts got thousands of views and were reshared by many.
Three days later, on May 4, the user added another post to the thread with an image of Himanshi. Text on the image made it seem like she was being quoted. It read: “I told my husband for Kashmir trip to show him army is fascist, And i don’t want to say any thing wrong about Muslims as I’m from DU and have many Muslim friends, I don’t want to ruin my friendship.”
Above this image and quote, the X user insinuated that “such girls” should not receive their late husband’s pension or any other compensation. They then shared a screen recording of those Himanshi followed on Instagram. The recording seemed to highlight that she followed many Muslims. A post of hers wishing everyone ‘Eid Mubarak’ was also mentioned. (Archive)
Presently, her Instagram account is private, and thus, details of whom she follows or what she shares are not publicly accessible. Additionally, details regarding Himanshi’s education mentioned by this user are available on her LinkedIn profile, which is public, so it’s possible that the details were taken from there. Note that the inflammatory quote attributed to her in the May 4 post was not reported by any credible news outlet and is likely fabricated.
Below are screenshots of these posts.
Click to view slideshow.
Another X account, @HPhobiaWatch, indulged in similar hateful, communal and misogynistic posts against Himanshi. Note that over a period, Alt News has been tracking @HPhobiaWatch’s posts that frequently target Muslims and amplify communal misinformation.
On May 2, this user shared a screenshot of a news report in which Himanshi’s image along with her appeal for harmony and peace were used. This was juxtaposed with an image of author Gurmehar Kaur holding a placard, which said “Pakistan did not kill my dad, war killed him”. Kaur, whose father was martyred in Kashmir in 1999, is among the prominent faces appealing for peace between India and Pakistan. However, she faced a lot of ire over this particular image with the placard, which first went viral in 2017.
“How low can you stoop for cheap fame? Insta Nachaniyas: I can show my body; Martyrs women : I can sell my deceased members body,” @HPhobiaWatch wrote in their post. ‘Nachaniya’ is a derogatory, crass term used for women dancers. (Archive)
The user then shared screenshots of old Facebook posts, allegedly by Himanshi, where she seems to be promoting a liberal view. These included posts from 2018 and 2019 in which she shared reports of a transgender anchor going on air for the first time on Pakistan television and how a Hindu girl saved a Muslim family from a mob attack. Calling her “big time secular, pro-pak and islam apologist”, @HPhobiaWatch made derogatory remarks like she will go trap another person after taking away compensation for Vinay Narwal. (Archive)
The following day, this user reshared @PremPandey1011’s X post and concluded that Himanshi felt “no remorse for her husband’s loss”. (Archive)
The post was amplified widely and attracted some nasty comments; some explicitly saying that she might have been involved in the terror attack.
Click to view slideshow.
Below are the other posts and reposts by @HPhobiaWatch targeting Himanshi. (Archives 1, 2)
Click to view slideshow.
Another X user, @Cyber_Huntss, actively participated in the trolling. On May 1, this account made posts to expose her “true character” and said that her remarks made the Right wing look like “fools”. The bashing and character assassination continued further. (Archive)
In one such X post, a screenshot of an appeal she made on her Facebook profile in 2018 was shared. The FB post was a link to a petition for Asifa, a seven-year-old Muslim girl who was found dead in Jammu and Kashmir’s Kathua district on January 17, 2018. The minor was raped and killed. The brutalities inflicted on her left many shaken. Seven individuals, including a minor, a special police officer and a temple priest, were among those accused. In 2019, six of the seven were convicted; one was acquitted.
But in the eyes of @Cyber_Huntss, sharing a petition in support of the minor rape-murder victim and demanding justice for her made Himanshi Swami “an active member of JNU’s tukde tukde gang”. This user insinuated that she “previously had affairs with Muslims while at JNU.”
“She shouldn’t be in mourning because maybe her first love will come back to her — maybe a Kashmiri. The one who is gone was a mother and father’s son… Spit on such a woman”, the caption of the post said in Hindi. (Archive)
A swarm of hateful comments and ‘whataboutery’ followed.
Click to view slideshow.
Things didn’t stop at that. The following day, on May 2, too, the user continued their hate campaign, “So brothers and sisters, today’s topic is Himanshi’s story, as told by her friends. It’ll be a spicy tempering, fried in a hot pan of oil, and there’ll be a lot to hear,” a ‘teaser’ of this so-called ‘exposé’ said. (Archives 1, 2)
The three-part ‘exposé’ was that she went to JNU for education and a reiteration of the same things mentioned by user @PremPandey1011. At the end, this user said that her life events make it clear that she had a ‘soft corner’ for Muslims and Kashmir because she dated them and had Left-leaning views; her appeal to peace for Kashmiris and Muslims should be read in that context, they insinuated. (Archive 1, 2, 3)
Click to view slideshow.
The fifth X user whose posts against Himanshi were also widely circulated was @ladynationalist, or Moana. This user, too, is aligned with Right Wing ideology, going by their X bio and often promotes Hindutva by targeting Muslims and minorities in their posts.
After Himanshi’s press statement on peace on May 1, this user posted her video along with a vulgar, sexual abuse, rubbishing her remarks. “behn ki l*di ke pati ko dharm puchhkar goli mari thi aur ye ab bhi secularism ka jhenda leke chal rhi” (Translation: “Her husband was asked his religion and shot dead but she is still waving the secularism flag”. (Archive)
Readers should note that this isn’t the first time @ladynationalist has targeted someone for expressing solidarity with Muslims. In May last year, after many civilians were killed in Israel’s bombing of Rafah in Palestine, this social media user similarly trolled and harassed many popular public figures who shared the viral graphic ‘All Eyes on Rafah’. This account also singled out Indian cricketer Mohammed Siraj, who shared the same graphic, for his religious identity.
X user @SonOfBharat7, whose posts amplifying communal misinformation have been documented by Alt News before, shared images of Himanshi Narwal and Aishanya Dwivedi side-by-side. Aishanya Dwivedi is the wife of late Shubham Dwivedi, another victim of the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack. (Archive)
The user suggested that while both the women were Hindu widows, the wife of Shubham Dwivedi was bare-necked and wore no lipstick, while Himanshi Narwal donned the ‘mangalsutra’. “Shubham’s wife is still screaming loudly that earlier she used to think everyone is one and the same, but now she knows that Muslims are only using Hindus as bait… But Vinay’s wife is suggesting to show love towards Muslims… In your opinion, who is right?” they wrote.
In a hurry to compare the grief of two women who suffered an immeasurable loss, the user even named the victim incorrectly.
A @RituRathaur posted on X that Himanshi was “protecting Jehadis” because she went to JNU, where she “befriended Kashmiri Muslims”. (Archive)
Her post had a screenshot of @PremPandey1011’s X post, where he claimed to know Himanshi, alongside an image from Himanshi’s Instagram feed, showing her with two friends — one of whom was Muslim.
How her grief was related to her past or present friendships with anyone belonging to the Muslim community was not clear.
A Complete Flip?
The extent to which many of these social media users flipped the narrative after Himanshi Narwal’s public statement did not fan anti-Muslim sentiments is interesting. Her appeal for peace seems to have deeply rattled many who felt she should have been angrier, hateful and going all out in her remarks to avenge the death of her husband.
We say this because the nature of the posts that the same users made on or after April 22, immediately after the attack when her image next to Vinay Narwal’s deceased body went viral, are quite different.
Moana (@ladynationalist) wrote: “She never thought she’d return home all by herself. 
” (Archive)
Sharing visuals from Vinay Narwal’s last rites on April 23 @SonOfBharat7 said: “Your heart will ache at the sight of this — A soldier’s wife giving him his final salute with a tearful “Jai Hind” … Lieutenant Vinay Narwal of the Indian Navy was given a heartfelt farewell by his wife, her eyes filled with sorrow. It was only the fifth day of their marriage when Muslim terrorists wiped away her sindoor—after asking about his religion.” (Archive 1, 2)
Meanwhile, @RituRathaur wrote: “This picture of young Hindu daughter sitting next to the dead body of her husband should give sleep less nights to Hindus…” (Archive)
Click to view slideshow.
These are just a few examples. For many, on social media, the Pahalgam attack and Vinay Narwal’s killing were “proof” that terrorism and Islam were synonymous; Himanshi’s image was used to reinforce that. Emotions amid such a distressful event were running high, and loss was being weaponised. As a result, there was a massive surge in Islamophobic rhetoric, especially on social media. Her tragedy became the symbol for public outrage and revenge.
As soon as Himanshi, as a survivor, did not ride this bandwagon, she was othered, turned into an object of loathing; her loss trivialised.
However, after the launch of ‘Operation Sindoor’ on May 7, Himanshi’s images resurfaced online. Many used her photos to say that the strikes were named after wives like her. Notably, some of those sharing these posts had been among the ones trolling her just days earlier. (Archives 1, 2)
Sympathise First, Despise Later
Apart from Himanshi Narwal, Arathy R Menon, daughter of N Ramachandran — another victim of the terrorist attack — also faced abuse from social media users who flaunt the Indian flag or Hindutva ideology in their bios.
While recounting the horrors of the fateful day when she saw her father die in front of her eyes, Arathy added that in that moment of panic and helplessness, she found support from two Kashmiri men. She said, “My driver, Musafir and another man, Sameer — they became my brothers. They stood by me through everything, took me to the mortuary, helped with the formalities… I waited there till 3 am. They took care of me like a sister… I have two brothers in Kashmir now. May Allah protect you both.”
Like Himanshi, she also faced much backlash for this statement. Some social media users went as far as saying it was better to be childless than to have a daughter like her.
Below are a few more instances of hateful posts and comments directed against Himanshi and Arathy.
Click to view slideshow.
In another case of the pro-Right hate machinery at work, on May 11, India’s foreign secretary, Vikram Misri, had to make his X account private because social media trolls, unhappy with his announcement of a ceasefire between India and Pakistan, began targeting his daughter. Old photos and posts of hers were circulated with distasteful remarks, and she was doxxed, with her contact number leaked online.
Apart from these instances, history has enough examples of how women often become easy targets of public anger, more so when they don’t subscribe to the populist ideologies of the time.
In an interview with Haryana Tak on May 7, when asked about the trolling she faced online, Himanshi simply said, “See, I cannot change anyone’s mentality. I know what my intention was, and it was simply to stress that no innocent person should be wronged. There should not be any hatred…”
The flipping of a social media narrative, some might argue, may not be one to focus on, considering these are not necessarily reflective of ground realities. However, targeting those who are grieving, especially women, for upholding humanity over hate seems to indicate that we, as a country, might be headed for dark times.
The post From tragedy to trolling: Himanshi Narwal, widow of naval officer killed in Pahalgam, faces social media trial appeared first on Alt News.
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