Media against communication: media/violence and conditionalities of Muslim silencing in Northern India
Publisher DOI
Abstract
Understanding the relationship between media and communication as increasingly conflictive under conditions of de-democratization in India, this essay proposes a focus on violence-induced conditionalities of political communication among the affected. I introduce the term ‘media/violence’ as I look at two spaces in North Indian cities that have been turned into ‘Muslim ghettos’ over the past two decades: Jamia Nagar in New Delhi and Juhapura in Ahmedabad (Gujarat). Based on intermittent fieldwork between 2015 and 2020 (partly online), I argue that differences both in the quality of the violence as well as in the interaction between mediated and physical violence executed on the two spaces conditioned long-term options of collective communication (and their absence). The analysis helps us understand how massive political and legal protests could eventually erupt in Jamia Nagar (Shaheen Bagh) in late 2019, while the very reason for protest appears to have eluded residents of Juhapura.
Date Issued
2021
Publication Type
Article
Language(s)
en
Additional Credits
Journal
Media, Culture & Society
Publisher
SAGE
ISSN
1460-3675
Access(Rights)
Unknown