Understanding the relationship between media and communication as increasingly conflictive under conditions of de-democratization in India, this essay proposes a focus on violence-induced conditionalities of political communication among the affected. I introduce the term ‘media/violence’ as I look at two spaces in North Indian cities that have been turned into ‘Muslim ghettos’ over the past two decades: Jamia Nagar in New Delhi and Juhapura in Ahmedabad (Gujarat). Based on intermittent fieldwork between 2015 and 2020 (partly online), I argue that differences both in the quality of the violence as well as in the interaction between mediated and physical violence executed on the two spaces conditioned long-term options of collective communication (and their absence). The analysis helps us understand how massive political and legal protests could eventually erupt in Jamia Nagar (Shaheen Bagh) in late 2019, while the very reason for protest appears to have eluded residents of Juhapura.

理解印度民主化条件下媒体与传播之间的矛盾日益加剧，因此本文着重探讨了暴力引发的受影响人群之间政治交流的条件。我介绍“媒体/暴力”一词的原因是，我考察了在过去二十年中北印度城市中已变成“穆斯林贫民窟”的两个空间：新德里的Jamia Nagar和艾哈迈达巴德（古吉拉特邦）的Juhapura。根据2015年至2020年之间的间歇性实地调查（部分在线），我认为，在这两个空间执行的暴力质量以及媒介暴力和身体暴力之间的互动差异，决定了集体交流的长期选择（和他们的缺席）。