Scholar Spotlight on Raoof Mir: Media and Religion in Kashmir

Media and religion increasingly intersect in social, cultural, religious and political avenues. The ever changing contexts of communication play a large role, specifically in the Muslim faith.

Raoof Mir, Assistant Professor in Journalism at the Cluster Innovation Centre at the University of Delhi, discussed the relationship between religion and media in Kashmir, India in the research article, “Communicating Islam in Kashmir Intersection of Religion and Media.” The intent of this article is to ask the inhabits of Srinagar and Anantnag, two districts in Kashmir, about their relationship with media, in relation to religion. Both of these areas are very different, creating a great avenue for comparison. These studies are often characterized by in-depth interviews with the participants. According to Mir, “in these interviews people recount the pleasures, irritations, satisfactions, boredom, revulsions while describing media.”

This is the first study of its kind to be conducted on the theme of religion and media in Kashmir. This article examines different media types, such as orality, manuscript tradition, printing technology, radio, television, cassettes and more. Mir noted that one of the crucial findings of the study was the fact that there has always been a “unique relationship between various religious practices and the media that have mediated these practices.”

Through the study, Mir discovered that it is not feasible to fully comprehend the media and Islamic traditions in the regions without connecting 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.”

In conclusion, the integration of approaches and theoretical frameworks, gave Mir’s study a feeling of uniqueness. This study pulled from history, philosophy, media studies, anthropology and political science. It can contribute to current research in religious studies by extending evaluations of individuals and organizations in religious studies in a holistic sense. Mir believes that this study, “criticizes the neglect of religion and media intersection so far in the South Asian contexts.”