DISCOURSE, IDENTITY, AND CROWD REPRESENTATION: A LINGUISTIC ANALYSIS OF THE LAHORE BLASPHEMY INCIDENT

Abstract

This study aims to explore how cultural, religious and social factors contribute to crowd violence, particularly during the Lahore blasphemy event that occurred on February 23^rd, 2024 using a Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) to analyze the language, narratives, and pattern of public representation of the incident. The study also unveils how media coverage and the FIR, as well as witnesses’ views, construct discursive processes in which the crowd behavior is narratively justified. Crowd Psychology by Gustave Le Bon and the Social Identity Theory by Tajfel are applied as the interpretive models to provide the discursive construction of anonymity, contagion, suggestibility and social identity in the context of media narratives and eyewitness interviews. This work contributes to the academic discussion on literary works as it shows how the concept of crowd violence can be mediated by discourses and manifest itself as a result of interpretive systems, symbolic associations, and narrative conventions that define cultural perception.