#Kashmir 2016: Notes toward a media ecology of an occupied zone

ABSTRACT

This paper explores the necessity of understanding contemporary Kashmiri contestations of hegemonic Indian state, media and social media discourses through a media ecology framework. In recent years, there has been a proliferation of Kashmiri usage of social media. Analysis of this usage offers an insight into the ways in which Kashmiris and their allies have been able to offer counter-narratives to Indian state and media narratives which have historically underreported, even silenced, dissenting Kashmiri perspectives. A media ecology framework also conveys a sense of the affective publics as Papacharissi notes, involved in deeply polarized debates regarding the relationship between the Indian nation-state and the region of Kashmir (5). Building on an earlier cultural representation framework, this paper argues for a media ecology framework as a way of understanding evolving polarized discourses in the context of Kashmir as an occupied zone.

KEYWORDS:

• Social Media
• affective publics
• media ecology
• Kashmir
• self-determination
• India

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. I use the phrase Indian-occupied Kashmir as opposed to Indian-administered Kashmir. I also use the term Kashmir as a shorthand for the Kashmir Valley region. For arguments regarding the manner in which Kashmir may be termed occupied, see Duschinski et. al. and Osuri.

2. See Hafsa Kanjwal.

3. See, for example, Annie Gowen, Nazir Ahmed, Rifat Fareed, and The New York Times. Al Jazeera appears to have more coverage than other international news outlets.

4. Kashmiri digital and print newspapers and magazines include Rising Kashmir, Greater Kashmir, Kashmir Reader, Kashmir Life, Kashmir Dispatch, to name a few. But they too struggle with internet bans. Kashmir Reader was banned from operating for nearly three months between October and December 2016 by the Jammu & Kashmir State Government. The government stated that the magazine was a threat to ‘public tranquility’ (Masood).

5. See also Idrees Kanth’s review of Snedden book which disputes some of elements of this thesis.

6. See Muzamil Jaleel.

7. The Software Freedom Law Centre states that the longest continuous Indian internet ban for postpaid numbers has been in the state of Jammu and Kashmir, between 8 July and 19 November 2016. The ban on prepaid services was even longer. For current statistics on internet bans in Kashmir, see: <https://internetshutdowns.in>.

8. See also historians Mridu Rai (287) and Chitralekha Zutshi on this collaborative Orientalist textual and cultural production of Kashmir.

9. See Sorav Jain’s Social and Digital Marketing Blog for a sense of statistics regarding facebook and twitter <http://www.soravjain.com/social-media-facts-and-stats-india-2016>. Facebook had a worldwide launch in 2004 and twitter created its microblogging platform in 2006. The 2016 statistics on Sorav Jain’s webpages show that India has over a 195 million facebook users. India is facebook’s largest market, exceeding that of the US. One hundred and fifty-five million are MAUs or monthly active users. Twitter has 23.2 million active monthly users. Pininterest and Instagram follow facebook and twitter in terms of number of subscribers. According to Michael Safi, leaked police intelligence reports reveal that 70% of Kashmiris have access to social media.

10. See Shahla Hussein for a historicized account of the meanings of azaadi or freedom in the context of politics in the Kashmir Valley. See also, a 2010 Chatham House polling study conducted by Robert Bradnock across Pakistan-administered as well as Indian-administered Kashmir, Kashmir: Paths to Peace. The study found that between 75% and 95% of the Kashmir Valley division would vote for the whole of Kashmir to be independent (Bradnock 15).

11. In the Australian context, Indigenous scholar Aileen Moreton-Robinson has used the term ‘postcolonising’ to describe the relationship between postcolonial theory and Indigenous scholarship.

12. KashmirWatch is a twitter handle for a Brussels-based news portal for the Kashmir Foundation.

13. See Hilal Mir.

14. Barkha Dutt’s report on Burhan Wani for NDTV named him as a terrorist, and attempted to explore why young Kashmiris were becoming militants. This liberal narrative attributes Kashmiri youth turn to militancy to a number of factors including alienation from the Indian state and the Indian army’s excesses. This liberal discourse, however, has also been islamophobic, suggesting that the fight for Kashmiri nationalism through the idioms of Islam can only be detrimental for ‘Kashmiriyat’, and appears to hope for a ‘solution’ to the Kashmir problem through Indian nationalism. On twitter, right-wing Indians trolled Barkha Dutt for giving a causal explanation for Burhan Wani’s turn to militancy, thus attempting to destroy any kind of liberal discourse in relation to Kashmir.

15. See, for example, a joint press release on 11 May 2017 by United Nations Special Rapporteurs David Kaye (Freedom of Opinion and Expression) and Michael Forst (Situation of Human Rights Defenders). The Special Rapporteurs urged the Indian state to restore Internet and social media services in Kashmir on the basis of their mandates: <https://news.un.org/en/story/2017/05/557022-un-experts-urge-india-restore-internet-and-social-media-services-jammu-and>.

16. The photojournalist Kamran Yusuf had been charged with stone-pelting and ‘waging war against India’ on 5 September 2017 (Fareed). He was released on bail from Tihar Jail on 12 March 2018 (Suresh). Tauseef Ahmad Bhat was charged with sedition for a facebook post which was ‘allegedly anti-Indian’ (Kashmir Reader).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Goldie Osuri

Goldie Osuri is Associate Professor in Sociology at the University of Warwick, UK. She is author of Religious Freedom in India: Sovereignty and (Anti) Conversion, Routledge, 2013. She is working on a second monograph on sovereignty in relation to the Kashmir context, contracted by Cambridge University Press.