india

Updated: Sep 13, 2019 06:20 IST

The global interest in Kashmir in terms of Google searches peaked in August after the nullification of Article 370 of the Indian Constitution and the division of the Jammu & Kashmir region into two Union Territories, according to 15-year data from the Google Trends analysis tool.

The tool helps analyse the relative frequency of any search term over time on a scale of zero to 100, where 100 represents the highest level.

This August, internet users searched for “Kashmir” more than ever before. The interest in “Kashmir” had earlier spiked in February, when a suicide bomber killed 40 Indian paramilitary personnel in Kashmir’s Pulwama district. But in August, it was nearly twice the February level. The interest in the phrase “Jammu and Kashmir” also peaked in August, but “Kashmir” was 10 times more frequently searched for.

The data shows that people were searching for “Kashmir” in different parts of the globe. Interest in it was the highest in at least 10 years in six of eight countries that are part of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation, and in five of seven countries that are part of the G7 conglomerate of advanced economies.

In Pakistan, the search term Kashmir was queried about three times more in August than it was in February.

Google Trends also gives data on the most related queries that users search for. Users across the globe actively searched for news from Kashmir in August.

“Article 370”, the provision in Indian Constitution that temporarily guaranteed certain special privileges to Jammu and Kashmir, was among the related queries most searched for in August. Other search terms included “Kashmir flag”, “Kashmir map” and “Kashmir issue”.