Discursive Construction of Indian Nation: Examining Indian Newspaper Editorials on Abrogation of Article 370

Abstract

ABSTRACT This paper explores how the Indian nation was constructed in the Indian media following the abrogation of Article 370 of the Indian Constitution which provided special status to the erstwhile Muslim-majority state of Jammu & Kashmir. It analyses news editorials published in the largest Indian English Times of India between 5 August 2019 and 30 September 2019. Situated in the discursive turn in the media and nationalism studies, this article considers nationalism as a form of discourse. The Critical Discourse Analysis of the editorials reveals that the newspaper, like political actors, pursued a nationalistic agenda through selective remembering and forgetting of Kashmir’s history and inclusion and exclusion of certain aspects of the Kashmir conflict to discursively construct the Indian nation. It presented Pakistan as the national “other” and otherised Kashmiris, especially “radicalised” youth of the Kashmir valley. It tried to construct a unified and homogenised Indian nation in which Kashmiris are included but as “domesticated” others. The editorials performed interpretative and persuasive roles to shape debates in public sphere over Article 370 and justified the Indian claim over territory of Kashmir. It authoritatively suggested the Indian government to differentiate “domesticated” Kashmiris from “undomesticated” others like militants and separatists.