Mainstream media reportage of temple attacks in India: Analysis

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Of late there has been a spate of news reports, articles, panel discussions and editorials on attacks on Churches in India. Most of these reports etc have been consistent in blaming Hindu groups for these attacks. Equally, in an age of social media and free access to information, doubts have been raised both about the attacks and the veracity of these reports. On the other side, there is almost no coverage, analysis, editorials, and TV shows on attacks on the places of worship of non- Abrahamic religions including Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism and Sikhism. Could it be the case that there were no attacks at all on these places of worship? IndiaFacts commissioned a study-cum-analysis of mainstream English media’s coverage of attacks on Hindu places of worship. The findings are quite revealing. To begin with, secularism is an article of faith for the Indian English mainstream media. With that in mind, and with coverage of temple attacks as the context, our analysis also examined three broad aspects: Does the Indian English mainstream media really practice the secularism it preaches? Is our mainstream English media being fair in its coverage? Is our mainstream English media making an attempt to narrow the focus to a particular set of incidents with the intention of creating a false narrative? Methodology The IndiaFacts team sourced news reports, articles, opeds, and TV shows mainly from the Internet, and print for good measure. These news sources were spread across the most popular and widely read newspapers, online news channels, and TV media. Data was collected based on coverage related to attacks, thefts, vandalism, hate crimes, corruption, mis-governance, and land grab with respect to temples (where temples are generically defined as stated earlier: places of worship of non- Abrahamic faiths). Data was collected for a period of six months: between 01 October 2014 and 31 March 2015, which is a decent sample size to be considered as representative to arrive at reasonably accurate conclusions. Preliminary Observations