Tag Archives: Indian media and Kashmir

Empire/ Imperialism, Frontiers, Identities, Media politics, Violence/Conflict

Why Kashmiris should speak to Indians, not India

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On 28 May this year, the Economic Times, India’s leading business daily, carried a story titled, ‘Kashmir survey finds no majority for independence’. That is a curious headline. What is ‘no majority’? Either there is majority or there is not. Robert Bradnock conducted this survey for Chatham House, a leading British think-tank, Kashmir on both sides of the Line of Control. The survey was conducted in the autumn of 2009, and the copy mentioned that 44 percent in Azad Kashmir and 43 percent in Jammu & Kashmir favoured an independent Kashmiri nation state.

Similar was the reporting of the survey in other Indian papers. They omitted some details, though. They did not mention that the survey was conducted not just in Kashmir but also the Jammu and Ladakh regions. They did not mention that even after factoring in Jammu and Ladakh, the total support for India was 21 percent and for Pakistan 15 percent. So if there was a three-way poll, the whole region’s average figure of those supporting independence (43 percent) would win hands down. Most of the rest (14 percent) favoured making the LoC a permanent border, which means sealing the status quo, something India and Pakistan came very close to doing in 2007. This 14 percent comes only from Poonch (94 percent), Rajouri (100 percent) and Jammu (39 percent).

Further, they did not mention that in the district-wise results the greatest support for independence was in the Indian side of the Valley – an astounding 95 percent in Baramulla, 75 percent in Srinagar, 82 percent in Badgam, and 74 percent in Anantnag. Pulwama and Kupwara were not surveyed. The highest support for India was 80 percent in Kargil and 67 percent in Leh, 73 percent in Udhampur and 63 percent in Kathua. In Jammu district, it was 47 percent – ‘no majority’. In Azad Kashmir, 50 percent wanted to be with Pakistan.

Now read the ET headline again. ‘Kashmir survey finds no majority for independence’. The story does not tell us what they found a majority supporting. If we have to be polite, we can say that such manipulative reporting of a detailed survey amounts to the Indian media being in denial of the fact that Kashmiris don’t want to be with India. If we have to call a spade a spade, we can say that this amounts to telling us a lie. Read More

Media politics, Violence/Conflict

The nationalist Delhi media and elections in Kashmir

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How free can an election under the gun be?
How free can an election under the gun be?

There are times when nationalism supercedes journalistic objectivity. Such interesting times are often witnessed in the Delhi media’s relationship with that ‘integral’ part of India called the Kashmir valley, as we have seen before.

And this time:

If the participation of the people in the J&K assembly elections was a vote for India why is the non-participation this time being attributed to broken promises… [Naser A. Ganai]

On April 30 the turnout in the Anantnag constituency as in many other parts of the country was low, but the contrast in how the story was reported (and framed) in the national press, and in the local English press in Srinagar is significant. [Sevanti Ninan]