Srinagar, Mar 26: A recent survey by the Pew Research Centre has found that most Indians largely view Pakistan as a threat and believe the situation in Kashmir “warrants more military force”.
The Pew Research Center is a nonpartisan American fact tank based in Washington, DC. It provides information on social issues, public opinion, and demographic trends in the world.
Conducted by the Center from May 23 to July 23 last year, the survey also sheds light on how adults in India see their elected officials and their democracy ¬– as well as how they feel about the spread of misinformation via mobile technology.
“The recent escalation in tensions between India and Pakistan after the Pulwama attack has turned the long-running territorial dispute over Kashmir into a potent campaign issue for Modi,” says the research.
When asked specifically about Kashmir, a majority of Indians (55%), as per the survey, see the situation as a “very big problem”.
More than half (53%) say circumstances in Kashmir have gotten worse over the last five years, and a majority (58%) believes the Indian government should use more military force than it uses currently in dealing with the situation in the region.
The survey shows that 76% of Indians believe Pakistan is a “major threat” to their country, including 63% who said it is a “very serious threat”.
This view was shared by people in rural areas and urban centers, supporters of both the prime minister’s BJP and the Congress party, as well as Indians across age groups. Additionally, 65% said ‘terrorism’ is a very big problem in India.
Apart from its findings on people’s views about Kashmir, the survey shows that most Indian adults see politicians as corrupt and question whether elections are effective.
About two-thirds (64%) say most politicians are corrupt, including 43% who very intensely hold this view, according to a spring 2018 survey by the Center.
Notably, nearly seven-in-ten supporters of the two major parties contesting the election – Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the opposition Indian National Congress party – share the view that most elected leaders are corrupt (69% in each party say this). On a related question, only a third of Indians think elected officials care about the opinions of ordinary people in their country.
Meanwhile, 58% of adults in India say that no matter who wins an election, things do not change very much. This again includes a majority of both BJP and Congress supporters.
Despite these negative views, Indians think their country allows other democratic values to flourish. By more than two-to-one, for example, Indians say the rights of people to express their own views are protected and that most people have a good chance to improve their standard of living. A sizable share (47%) also believes the courts treat everyone fairly.
As many as 900 million people are expected to vote in Lok Sabha elections in April and May. The elections come amid a recent increase in tensions between India and Pakistan, as well as allegations that mobile applications including WhatsApp, Facebook and Twitter are fuelling the spread of fake news in the world’s “largest democracy”.
In the aftermath of the February 14 Pulwama attack, Indian social media platforms saw such an uptick in fictitious or purposely misleading stories related to the attack that the head of Facebook India’s Integrity Initiatives tweeted that he had “never seen anything like this before.”
Many Indians are using mobile phones to get news, but the public is divided over how these devices have influenced politics.
About eight-in-ten Indian adults say they own or share a mobile phone, and most of these users (81%) say their phone has helped them obtain information and news about important issues, according to a separate 2018 survey.
However, Indians have mixed attitudes about mobile phones’ overall impact on politics. About four-in-ten say the increasing use of mobile phones has had a good influence on politics. Indians feel similarly about the impact of the internet on politics: Again, about four-in-ten say it has had a good influence. However, only a minority of Indians (38%) currently go online.
Partisanship plays a role in public opinion of the impact of mobile technology. Adults who support Modi’s BJP are more likely to say mobile phones have had a good influence on politics (49%) than those who support the Congress party (33%). Last September, the president of the BJP encouraged the party’s supporters to spread pro-BJP messages on WhatsApp and other social media platforms – whether those messages are “true or fake.”
Majority of Indian adults are concerned about misinformation spreading via mobile phones.
Roughly three-in-four Indians (77%) say they are very or somewhat concerned about people being exposed to false or incorrect information when they use their mobile phones, including 45% who are very concerned.
Similar shares of both BJP and Congress supporters say they are very concerned. This finding comes amid recent violent attacks attributed to viral WhatsApp hoaxes and concerns about the app being used to spread fake news.
Of the seven social media and messaging apps included in the survey, WhatsApp and Facebook are the most widely used in India – although relatively modest shares of Indian adults (29% and 24%, respectively) report currently using them.
While this means a majority of Indians do not use these apps, the 1.35 billion-person country still has the largest number of WhatsApp and Facebook users in the world. In the lead-up to this spring’s election, some mobile apps are taking steps to curb the spread of misinformation.
WhatsApp, for example, says it is using artificial intelligence to help spot fabricated news; the company says these efforts have led it to suspend more than 6 million user accounts over the past three months.
A rey muerto, rey puesto.