Discord and Religious Identity: News Framing of Muslims in the Kashmir Conflict.

For the past five decades (and more) the state of Jammu and Kashmir has been a territory of contention between India and Pakistan. The history of the conflict dates back to the period of British rule in the sub-continent and the consequent creation of India and Pakistan as separate national entities. News media in India and Pakistan frame the conflict as a territorial dispute, and in terms of differential religious and political ideologies in India and Pakistan; media in both countries tend to reflect the hegemonic ideals of their ruling classes. The focus of the conflict has changed over the years in each of the above dimensions: the religious angle in particular is interesting given that both countries now have right wing governments whose ideologies are sometimes classified as fundamentalist. This paper examines the conflict in Kashmir from a religious perspective. Given the growing popularity of a Hindutva ideology and increasing communal tensions within the country, the study asks how Muslims in Kashmir, Pakistan, and India are framed with regard to the conflict. Content analysis has been used to identify news framing patterns of Muslims. Results indicate that Indian newspapers do indeed focus more on Muslims than Hindus and that news frames of Muslims tend to be a lot more negative than positive. Implications of such framing patterns are discussed with regard to the nature of communal relations (between Hindus and Muslims) in India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]