News outlets in Nepal often welcome Dashain with their mastheads adorned with images of tika and jamara. This is a familiar practice, and it reflects the festival’s cultural significance in Nepali society. But it also raises an important question: do these media outlets extend the same visual recognition to festivals celebrated by other religious and cultural communities?
The relationship between media and religion extends beyond the publication of religious news. Media studies have long examined how religion is represented in the press, entertainment and digital communication, and how religious identities become visible in public life.
A 2002 academic review titled Media and Religion by communication researcher Paul A Soukup surveys scholarship on the representation of religion across journalism, entertainment and digital media. These questions of representation are equally relevant when examining how the media cover and visually acknowledge festivals.
Media outlets do not serve just one religion or community. Their readers, viewers and sources come from different religious, cultural and social backgrounds. When a media organisation incorporates a particular festival into its visual identity, it is worth asking how it represents the cultural celebrations of other communities.
Undoubtedly, Dashain deserves recognition. It is an important cultural festival in Nepal, carrying social, familial and cultural significance. Incorporating its symbols into a publication’s design is neither unusual nor inherently problematic. So, the concern really is whether the media’s visual practices adequately reflect Nepal’s religious and cultural diversity.
According to Nepal’s 2021 National Population and Housing Census, Hindus constitute 81.19 percent of the population. Buddhists account for 8.21 percent, Muslims 5.09 percent, Kirat followers 3.17 percent and Christians 1.76 percent. Nature worshippers make up 0.35 percent and Bon followers 0.23 percent. The census also records citizens who follow Jainism, Sikhism and the Bahá’í faith.
These figures establish that Nepal is religiously diverse, even though Hindus form the overwhelming majority. The country has around 1.5 million Muslims, more than 500,000 Christians and over 2.3 million Buddhists.
However, population share and the space a community deserves in the media are not the same thing. A community’s festivals should not be excluded from public life simply because fewer people celebrate them. The social and cultural significance of a festival cannot be determined solely by the number of its adherents.
Article 4(1) of Nepal’s Constitution defines the country as a secular and inclusive state. In such a society, the media’s role extends beyond disseminating information. Media organisations help shape public discourse and influence how the cultural presence of different communities is acknowledged.
The logo or masthead of an online news portal is part of this public representation. It is among the first things readers see before engaging with a publication’s reporting. Incorporating a festival’s symbols into this visual identity gives the celebration institutional visibility. Such design choices, therefore, cannot be dismissed as mere decoration.
Do the outlets that display tika and jamara during Dashain also incorporate relevant cultural symbols or imagery during Buddha Jayanti, Eid al-Fitr, Eid al-Adha, Christmas, Lhosar and Chhath? What does their visual identity look like during Udhauli and Ubhauli, festivals celebrated by Kirat communities?
This does not mean that every media outlet must change its logo for every festival. Organisations have different editorial policies and approaches to visual identity. Some may have a policy of keeping their logos unchanged throughout the year. That decision, by itself, is not evidence of exclusion.
Similarly, a media outlet cannot be labelled religiously partisan merely because it decorates its logo for Dashain. Yet when an organisation gives one community’s festival a place in its institutional identity, it is reasonable to ask how it acknowledges the festivals of others.
Equality does not necessarily mean producing identical designs for every celebration. It means giving different communities and their cultural traditions appropriate space in news coverage, visual content and public conversation. So the larger question is not whether every festival receives exactly the same treatment, but whether media organisations make a conscious effort to represent the society they serve.
Given Dashain’s widespread presence in Nepali society, its visual prominence in the media is understandable. But the fact that a festival is widely celebrated by the majority does not automatically make it the sole representative of a shared national culture.
Buddha Jayanti, Eid, Lhosar, Chhath, Udhauli and Ubhauli, and Christmas are also important parts of the cultural lives of different communities across Nepal. Each carries its own social and cultural significance. Recognising these celebrations acknowledges that Nepal’s cultural identity is shaped by multiple traditions.
Ultimately, the question is not whether displaying tika and jamara during Dashain is wrong. It is whether the sense of cultural belonging reflected in these designs extends to the festivals of other communities. And what kinds of social and psychological attitudes shape these practices?
Isn’t that, too, a question worth debating?