Mediated Nationalisms and ‘Islamic Terror’: The Articulation of Religious and Postcolonial Secular Nationalisms in India

Abstract

Drawing on Mahmood Mamdani’s analysis of the ‘good Muslim-bad Muslim’ dichotomy within American political and cultural discourse, this article analyses Hindu nationalists’ violent campaigns against India’s Muslim minority through a discussion of the reportage of two significant instances of this violence in Indian English-language newspapers. To explain the contradictory responses of the Indian press to these instances, the article argues that the prevalent liberal consensus of Indian nationalism, of which the press is a part, is responsible for the ambiguity that characterises mainstream responses to majoritarian violence against Muslims.