Communicating Islam in Kashmir Intersection of Religion and Media

Abstract

The aim of this article is to translate religious practices of Muslims in Kashmir in the backdrop of changing contexts of communication. This article attempts to look at the ways in which religion and media intersect in the spaces of political, social and cultural practices in the Muslim society of Kashmir. The article derives its basis from the close assessment of historical and ethnographic methods employed while studying the relationship between media and religion in Kashmir. To explore whether the transition from one mode of communication to another contributes in refiguring a distinctive religious practice, this article looks at media forms such as orality, manuscript tradition, printing technology, radio, television, cassettes and new media technologies in Kashmir. The article argues that it is not possible to fully understand either media or Islamic traditions in the region without making reference to each other. Islam and media in Kashmir have never been two separate realms and therefore Islam in Kashmir cannot be defined outside the forms and practices of mediation that define it.