Violence against Christians in India. A discursive study of two Indian English newspapers

Abstract

Persecution of Christians in India has increased drastically during the last fifteen years, hundreds have been murdered, thousands injured and numerous driven from their homes. In this situation news media has an important role: they have the means to either reproduce an agenda that leads to persecution or resist such an agenda. This study explores in what way violence and harassment against Christians is constructed in two of the largest Indian English newspapers. By subjecting twenty articles, published during a period of one and a half month, to a critical discourse analysis following findings were made. The construction of the persecution of Christians is mainly characterized by two discourses. The first is influenced by Indian secularism, and expressed primarily by Christians and Christian organizations. In this discourse Christians are recognized as an Indian minority which the state is legally bound to protect. However, the state is charged to be ignoring the situation as well as being actively part of the persecution. The second discourse foremost deals with the motive for the attacks: conversion. Christians are accused for forcing or alluring people to convert to Christianity and are as a result attacked. This discourse is clearly influence by a Hindu nationalism ideology. This means that the news coverage of violence and harassments against Christians, construct a scenario which reproduces an agenda that could worsen the situation for Christians, but simultaneously enables Christians to express their critique and concerns in public media.