ISLAMABAD (Kashmir English): India repeatedly projects the message that Pakistan is insignificant and that it has little interest in its neighbouring country.
However, figures from Indian media coverage and online discussions paint a very different picture.
Pakistan reportedly accounted for 30.8% of international news coverage analysed on Indian television, far ahead of the United States and China.
The figures suggest that Pakistan receives an unusually large share of attention in Indian media despite claims that the country is not a major concern.
The same pattern has appeared on social media. During heightened India-Pakistan tensions in February 2019, around 13.74 million India-originating Twitter conversations were recorded over just two days, with Pakistan featuring prominently in the discussions.
The fixation also extends to Bollywood, where Pakistan and India-Pakistan tensions have repeatedly been used as themes in major films, including Bajrangi Bhaijaan, Gadar, Gadar 2 and the Tiger franchise.
The contrast is striking: while Indian rhetoric often attempts to portray Pakistan as irrelevant, the country’s media, social-media conversations and entertainment industry continue to devote substantial attention to it.
The numbers therefore raise a simple question: if Pakistan truly does not matter to India, why does it continue to command so much attention across Indian media and popular culture?
