Very few papers ... take pains to write about minorities after thorough study and with positive and constructive attitude.
The English papers - though more careful - also often throw caution to the wind while reporting crucial events pertaining to minorities. The language papers are (with honourable exceptions) much worse. They never observe any caution and often display crude prejudice in reporting about minorities. And there is yet another category, mouthpieces of communal outfits like Samna, who deliberately and even maliciously, project distorted image of minorities and thrive on this. In the north, central and western India, the Hindi, Marathi and Gujarati papers ...are the worst culprit. They often display crude prejudices against minorities in their reporting or the stories which they publish. Samna, the Marathi mouthpiece of the Shiv Sena, uses highly provocative language against Muslims and Christians ... During the Bombay riots this paper openly called Muslims pro-Pakistani traitors and wrote several highly provocative editorials against Muslims. The campaign was so vicious that the ex-Chief Secretary of Maharashtra J.B. D'Souza filed a public interest writ petition in the Bombay High Court (against) its editor ... It should be borne in mind that the Samna is read by lakhs of Maharashtrians every day and their opinion is formed by it. Even the policemen read it regularly and form their perceptions about minorities from what appears in Samna. No wonder if they have very jaundiced views about them.
And what is sad is that the Samna is no exception though other language papers may not be as crude .. These papers ... stereotype every minority community ...
It is, for example, assumed by even well-meaning scholars, that all Muslims supported Partition in 1947. It is a highly questionable assumption ...
The other notorious example is of cricket. When Pakistan won and some Muslims rejoiced at its victory, the media projected as if all Muslims did so. Unfortunately the cricket match which is deified by the media and projected out of all proportions, became a holy war not only between two countries but also, according to a section of media, between Hindus and Muslims. And this despite the fact that an Indian Muslim Mohd. Azharuddin would lead the Indian team,
The minorities are often stereotyped as 'fanatical' and 'fundamentalists' and acts of few indiyiduals would be seen as of entire community. Even if a religious leader issued any appeal to the Muslims, it will be described by a loaded word like fatwa and as if fatwa is binding on all Muslims ...
The way the Shah Bano movement was projected in the media including the secular media gave an impression as if only Muslims mistreat their women and deny their basic rights. Article after article was carried to this effect.
Suddenly the national press became champion of Muslim women's rights !... That Islam treats women better than many other religious traditions or legal systems, was never brought out in any media analysis. The only thing projects in the media was that Islam metes out worse treatment to women.
The Babari Masjid-Ram Janambhoomi controversy is another example in this regard ... The language press particularly gave an impression that it is a settled fact that Babar had demolished a Ram temple in Ayodhya and now it is time the Hindus vindicated their honour by constructing a Ram temple by removing the mosque. The regional media, particularly the Hindi media gave a distinct impression that it is ironical that Hindus cannot construct a Ram temple in their own country. The leading Hindi newspapers from UP published highly exaggerated reports on incidents in Ayodhya in 1990 when Mulayam Singh, the then Chief Minister of UP tried to prevent kar sevaks from reaching Ayodhya ... Even the Press Council reprimanded these papers for publishing false accounts of what happened at Ayodhya. The press also does not adequately project the positive aspects of Indian Muslims which can create a different image of the community ..
Even committed secular papers who are sympathetic to the minorities do not have reporters and commentators who specialise in minority affairs and have intimate knowledge of minority communities. Even these secular commentators often homogenise these minority communities ... When Punjab was faced with Khalistani movement, many papers wrote as if all Sikhs were
supporting the militants and stood for Khalistan ...
Recently there have been attacks on Christian minority by the Sanghr Parivar. The main issue was conversion. The Christians were also similarly stereotyped and the media projection, particularly the language media in north and western India, wrote as if every Christian in this country was for conversion ... Today ... 'inter-faith dialogue' has been popularised by the Christian organisations in contemporary India ... Even an attempt was made by a section of language media to accuse Mother Teresa of inducing conversions forcibly. Also, this section of media projects as if all conversions are induced by 'coercion', fraud' and 'inducement'. Whatever communally inclined politicians say about minorities is carried by a section of print media as if it is an established truth ... The mainstream Gujarati media openly wrote anti-Christian articles and published hostile news items ... The communal riots in Ahmedabad, particularly in 1969 and 1985 spread like wild fire because some Gujarati papers carried rumours in headlines as if these wee true stories.
Next day these items were contradicted in a small corner on inside page and that too when all the damage was done. In every religious community there are all sorts of people - liberal, secular and fanatical and fundamentalists. Neither all can be liberal and secular nor all can be fundamentalists. Yet when it comes to minority communities and few vocal elements among them indulge in fanatical acts the entire community is held responsible, The voice of liberal secular Muslims or Christians or Sikhs is marginalised as some kind of exception. A vast majority among them which is voiceless for number of reasons, is thought to be fundamentalist or fanatical.
There is another aspect which also has to be seriously considered ... Positive contributions made or being made by the minorities in the process of nation-building ... hardly come through in our media. Even today there are many Muslims in various fields - political, academic, scientific as well as social wherein Muslims are making important contributions ... Academics ... who have taken liberal secular stand on many controversial issues and have made seminal contributions in their own respective fields (are) not adequately projected in media.
.. All communities in India are making contribution to the process of nation-building. It is certainly not the monopoly of any single community or caste. Also, the problem of minority should be seen in a dynamic framework, not in a static frame-work which media often does. The behaviour of the community changes according to the newly emerging contexts. The attitude of Muslims in north India towards Pakistan, for example, has undergone a sea change. The political developments in Pakistan in recent years have brought about a tremendous change in their attitude. Also, today there is much greater enthusiasm among Muslims about modern education and they have realised that education is a must for them ... If they are behind in the race, it is more because of poverty than their resistance to education. The ground realities are changing fast and these changes are being absorbed by all whether minorities or majority ...
... There are several papers which are sympathetic to the cause of minorities and they defend them courageously ... Many renowned papers like The Hindu,
The Times of India, The Statesman, The Telegraph and some other appears can be cited ... Even a small section of language media has also played a positive role ... It is these papers which have done journalism proud in India. (Source: The Nation and the World, 1 September, 1999)
