A
Muslim lady from Aurangabad somehow managed to get my e-mail ID from a
well-known Urdu daily and mailed me that she wrote to a premier
English daily regarding a religious issue with a request to the editor to
carry it so that others (belonging to her community) should come forward
and make the issue stronger. The newspaper didn't publish her grievance. Nor
did she get a reply from the daily that her sensitive religious problem
couldn't be addressed through a newspaper. This puzzled her. She asked me,
" Isn't the freedom of press a misnomer?" It is and it's always been
a misnomer in India. If you're brutally frank and writing about a
religion, even criticising your own faith, you're unlikely to find a
medium.
Things
have changed quite drastically as well as dramatically in the last decade.
Despite a number of upright editors at the helm, there're so many
inhibiting factors that don't let them work freely. At the same time, this
must also be taken into account that there're not very many intrepid journalists
and editors in the mainstream media. I remember, I sent a piece to MJ Akbar
when he was the editor of Calcutta-based 'The Telegraph'. The piece was
about the ' Conversion of the sub-continental Muslims.' My tone was
quite scathing. Moreover, the editor himself was a Muslim!!! I thought
that my piece would never be carried and if at all the editor carried it,
he'd blue-pencil a number of passages.
I was wrong. MJ Akbar not just carried the
whole article, he appreciated my research and candour. No other newspaper (in
India) ever carried that piece. The London-based Arabic daily Al-Hayat also carried my write-up but
using my nom de guerre. A newspaper ought not to have any leanings, ideological
allegiance and preferences (organizational as well as personal). It
must express its fearless views as well as of its readers and contributors
without flinching and genuflecting. An editor may not agree with the views
of the readers and the contributors, but s/he must see to it that their
viewpoints, however controversial even objectionable they may be, should
be made public. When a year back, I sent my article "
Incest in ancient India " to the editor of Debonair, he carried it without
a change. There're very few like him. I'll be eternally thankful to the
editor of Debonair. The same piece was not carried in any daily in
India. The classic Latin term, Mutatis Mutandis (as it is,
without a change) has gone.
The courage of conviction is also waning.
No one (read editors) is ready to face the ire of lumpen elements and
bigots. Those who think that through the print media, they'd be able to get
across their radical views, are expecting too much. We're all
frightened and working under duress. To quote Alasdair MacIntyre (1929-),
" What's a newspaper? Isn't it the reflection of the society?
When the society's so scared. Will not the newspapers be equally
scared?" Point to be noted.
-----Sumit Paul
