The following is an analysis of India’s ongoing practices of information politics and an interrogation of how they may have fared when deployed during a geopolitical conflict from a domestic lens. It is not a commentary on its military strategy, and does not analyse the actions of external actors.
In early May, India and Pakistan were embroiled in a ‘four-day conflict‘ in the aftermath of a terrorist attack in Kashmir’s Pahalgam that took place on April 26. During this conflict, those closely observing India’s actions in the public sphere in a domestic context noticed familiar attempts at information suppression and narrative projection being reused in a geopolitical context. Such practices, as has sometimes been the case earlier, were accompanied with the justification that exceptional circumstances warranted such responses.
In earlier pieces for Tech Policy Press, I described the problematic regulatory landscape, and illustrated with recent examples the ways in which India’s executive branch applies rules and laws selectively alongside extra-legal and informal methods to the detriment of free expression. In very broad terms, India’s information politics can be placed into two categories: information suppression and narrative projection. Note that there isn’t a formally articulated doctrine to this effect and the categories are not necessarily mutually exclusive, as the same set of actions can have the effect of doing both.