A social psychological investigation of Anti-nationalism in contemporary India A media analysis
Anchoring; antinomies; dissent; ethnic nationalism; patriotism; social representation
The paper aims to explore the consensual and dissident social representations of anti-national that has re-entered the media lexicon in India post an alleged anti-national student protest in Jawaharlal Nehru University in the capital city of Delhi, India on February 9, 2016. The Social Representation Theory (SRT) is used to analyze the selected media reports of six daily newspapers, three each in English and Hindi language for a period of one year subsequent to the event. Results of thematic anchoring and anchoring by antinomy, a methodology used by Birgitta Hjer, are reported. The results reveal how the intergroup tensions and ideological differences in the polity constitute the conflicting social thinking on the referent. The paper has global implication for opening the possibilities of negotiation and transformation of social meanings related to nationalism and anti-nationalism. The Author(s) 2025.
Ghosh R., CHRIST (Deemed to be University) - Dehli NCR Campus, Ghaziabad, India; Bansal P., Department of Psychology, Lady Shri Ram College for Women, New Delhi, India