Indian App 'Har Har Mahadev' fights porn addiction with Hindu devotional songs, inspirational speeches

Mishra said he wants to widen the app's popularity as much as possible.

NEW DELHI: An Indian researcher has developed an App that plays Hindu devotional songs, chant “Allahu Akbar” and even recites speeches by political leaders like Nelson Mandela when an adult tries to access adult videos online, a media report said on Wednesday.

Neurology professor at Banaras Hindu University Vijay Nath Mishra has reportedly developed the app in “response to behaviour problems he was seeing in his patients” the Guardian reported.

Mishra said he wants to widen its popularity as much as possible.

“Within a month it will contain songs and prayers suited to the Muslim community so that it could be comfortably used by members of all religions,” the report quoted him as saying.

The App also plays inspirational speeches from leaders including Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, and the Bengali poet and Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore.

“Addiction to pornography cannot be treated but this is a humble attempt at changing one’s behaviour,” Mishra was quoted as saying.

The app has been named “Har Har Mahadev”, a Hindu chant exhorting Lord Shiva to destroy all evil.

According to 2014 data published by the Pornhub website, Indians make up its third largest user base behind Americans and Britons. And the users are most likely to be female than the global average, it said.

The Indian government had ban 857 porn websites in 2015 but was forced to back down after a massive backlash over its censorship rights.