Discussion on New Social Media at Kaboo Community Radio

A tourist visa to Pakistan costs Rs.15 (33 cents) and the distance between Amritsar and Lahore is 48 km (29.8 miles) but few Indians have ever visited Pakistan. The movement of Indian journalists in Pakistan is restricted to Islamabad, Lahore and Karachi. Interactions between India and Pakistan are largely confined to the realm of diplomacy, politics and military strategy. The celebrated civil society dialogue between Indians and Pakistanis is limited to social elites from the two sides.
Interactions between the common people of India and Pakistan are challenged by several obstacles. Lack of air connections, absence of road and rail links, endless harassing over visa issues, heightening of political tensions, censorship of movies and blackout of news channels are the commonly encountered hurdles. For young educated Indians and Pakistanis, communication across the Line of Control (LOC) has been more difficult than contact with counterparts in other continents. Media reports, memoirs and ancestral stories have been the only way for gathering information about life across the LOC.
The medium of electronic communication is allowing Indians and Pakistanis a rare opportunity to conduct genuine and open dialogue. Blessed to be born at a time when the web rules the world, a large segment of middle class Indians and Pakistanis can talk to each other. Exchange of e-mails, expression of views through blogs, participation in on-line discussion forums, and sharing of information through social networking sites provides myriad avenues for Indians and Pakistanis to communicate. They can instantaneously discuss about the Marriott attacks in Islamabad or the Mumbai terror siege; comment on U.S. strategy in Af-Pak or implications of the Kerry-Lugar Bill, send live updates of lawyer’s protest march in Karachi or voice concern over the ban on Jaswant Singh’s book praising Jinnah in India. Flow of information across the border is now direct, instant and constant. This new form of popular interaction, referred to as social media, between Indians and Pakistanis is re-defining the contours of inter-state civil society dialogue.
APA Compass on Kaboo Community Radio invited me to speak on how electronic communication, especially New Social Media, was impacting interactions between Indians and Pakistanis. The podcast to the program can be accessed here.