Human Rights and Contemporary Indian Journalism:
Towards a “Journalism for People”
Gopalan RavindranIn 2018, India remains an incredible nation, in its positive and negative
planes of existence. In India, forces of modernity are struggling to maketheir presence felt in the face of the continued supremacy of the forcesof tradition. In contemporary India, forces of feudalism are working overtime to prevent the forces of progress and development to succeed. This
peculiar condition of a nation that prides itself as the largest democracy also
makes it a land of a million inequalities. Inequalities are the antithesis of thefundamental rights guaranteed in the Indian Constitution. How to grapple
with this situation where a modern nation is also unable to work against theforces which seek to make it either less modern or more feudal, at least, in
terms of ideas? How to facilitate media and society interfaces, particularly
the site of journalism, in this task? Is there a way ahead, at least from theperspective of a journalism teacher/professor? These are the questions thepresent article focuses on to provide an understanding of the state of affairs
concerning the domains of Indian journalism, journalism education/training and human rights.
Indian journalism, like the nation, remains a peculiar entity. One needs
to look at this institution critically. There is a dire need to look critically athuman rights, fundamental rights and how they are promoted or not promoted by the supposedly democratic pillars of a modern state. It is obviousthat if we want to change something like our society or nation, firstly, wemust come clean in our individual roles as family members, citizens andpublic servants.
In 2018, there is no single site of contestations against modernity andprogress; there are many hidden sites which make social, cultural, politicaland economic progress problematic. One of the sites, which collaborates
with the site of politics in rendering the meaning of progress and development of a modern state like India problematic and challenging, is Indianjournalism. Like the Indian society, Indian journalism is a feudalistic enterprise and anti-modern, despite its use of modern media technologies
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in print, television, radio, internet, mobile phone, and other mediums andits origins in the Western/colonial contexts. This may be read as a harshcomment, but if one gets to engage with contemporary Indian journalism’s
engagements or lack of it with the issues of social inequalities and humanrights violations, even without the help of scientific tools of research such as
content analysis, one would be shocked to realize the role of Indian journalism as a promoter of social inequalities and human rights violations.
We are a nation where hype scores and scores more even as truth becomes hidden, but does not get erased or buried for long. For instance, any
one who reads India’s English newspapers or watches its television programs
or films would get the impression that India is colorful, modern, progressingand “incredible,” as the nation’s tourism slogan proclaims. But this does nottell the entire story or truth. This does not tell the sufferings, agonies andsuppression of its rural and urban poor or its marginalized communities or
its women and children. Why? The answer is Indian media and journalism
are as casteist as any other social institution and as corporatized as any othermodern business enterprise. Indian media are owned by the upper castes
and do not have on their payroll journalists from lower castes such as Dalits
in any significant number. Moreover, Indian media/journalism is also a classenterprise, owned by the upper crust of the society and serviced for/by the
middle class, against the marginalized and excluded classes of society. The
feudal and class parameters of ownership of media promotes human rights
violations and social inequalities.
This is not to deny the role of individual journalists working for Indian
media or newspapers in promoting social equality, progress or humanrights. They may be right thinking and responsible individuals. But they exist more as the helpless worker portrayed brilliantly by Charlie Chaplin in
his 1936 film, Modern Times. They are caught in the crushing wheels of thesocial logic of Indian journalism (casteism), the political logic of supporting
the party in power and the business logic of corporatization of journalism.
Every age gets its journalistic dues as well as its dues of inequalities
and human rights. Every age also becomes instructive about what to do andwhat not to do in the sphere of journalism. What are the lessons for contemporary Indian journalism as regards human rights and the scope for its
promotion through journalism.
When Indian journalism was born in the efforts of James Augustus
Hicky, an Irishman, who was annoyed with the inequalities and violations

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of human rights among the British living in Calcutta of 18th century, he wasraring to go as a voice against Warren Hastings, the Governor General andhis “corrupt” wife, Marian Hastings, through the medium of newspaper. His
newspaper, Hicky’s Bengal Gazette or Calcutta General Advertiser, started
in January 1780, is normally cited as the first newspaper of India. Bengal
Gazette, must be seen as the first ever attempt in India that used the medium of print to rebel against social inequality and human rights violations,even though both Hicky and Warren Hastings were fighting against eachother, not as natives, but as British subjects of the East India Company’s version of colonialism in India.
When Hicky started his newspaper, he had no direct conflict with theforces of corruption, his problems started when he was asked to pay bribeto the Governor General’s wife for using the postal services to distribute his
paper, in the face of what Hicky felt as the partisan attitude of East India
Company officials to favor his rival newspaper, The India Gazette, which
was started later. Hicky protested, ran a campaign against the inequality hesuffered, worked against the violation of his right to free expression and thecorruption in the establishment. He was jailed, but he continued to publish
his paper from jail. His press was seized in 1782, forcing him to give up hisright to express his views through the medium of print. He became poverty
stricken after his release in 1784 and died en route to China in 1802.
What are the lessons here for contemporary Indian journalism and thesphere of human rights? Hicky’s kind of journalism may be read as an ideal
version where there was no source of inspiration other than his individual
wish to fight corruption, secure his right to express freely and fight against
inequality in the then East India Company social circles in Calcutta. There
was no institutional framework for the first journalist of India. He was theinstitution. He was the moral arbiter. He was the reporter. He was the editor.
He was the owner. He was the one-person army against public corruption
made possible by the greed of the beneficiaries of the globalization of theEast India Company’s colonialism.
We cannot have Hickys today for obvious reasons. Contemporary
Indian journalism is governed by its institutional framework where the likes
of Hickys have no place. Because much water has flown down the decades
and centuries since the fire of journalism was extinguished in steps and stages since the times of Hicky. The last time when Indian journalism was madeto fight against the powers that be before extinguishing itself was during the184

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periods of India’s national emergency (1975-1977) and the post-emergency
period of 1980s. The 1990s and 2000s brought about the signs of death ofjournalism, as we knew it earlier, and ushered in the phase of corporatizedand “journalism as a business only enterprise.”
If one goes through the pages of the Indian newspapers and magazines
published during 1970s and 1980s and compare them with that of contemporary pages of Indian journalism, one would realize the enormity of thecrisis ushered in by the institution of journalism in collaboration with theforces of corporatized politics, lawmaking and judiciary. This means that
all the four pillars of democracy are working against the spirit of the IndianConstitution which seeks to promote human rights as fundamental rights
and fundamental rights as human rights. This is not a brazen comment
again. One would agree with this comment, if one cares to examine the actsof these four pillars in the recent past.
Silence of Mainstream Media on Issues of the Marginalized
In the pages of contemporary Indian newspapers there is silence that smacksof silence in funeral processions on matters where religious fundamentalism in the name of right-wing politics has taken a toll on the lives of theminorities, marginalized and the oppressed sections of Indian society. The
conventional definition of who is a minority, marginalized and oppressed isthrown out in favor of a new liberal definition where the ruling block defines
its versions of minorities, marginalized and the oppressed. Here is the caseof an oppressor defining the site of its target, the oppressed. The oppressed
becomes a non-subject in the corporatized discourses of Indian journalism.
The oppressed are the people who are at the receiving end in the face of draconian and shortsighted policies of the current Indian government regarding demonetization (when on the night of 8 November 2016, the Indian government announced that 500 and 1,000 Indian Rupee notes were not valid
any longer) and the start of Aadhaar card system, originally meant as a toolof proving a citizen’s identity but progressed as a site of violation of privacy
rights of citizens and a state surveillance system. The growing attacks on thefood cultures of the majority as well as the minorities, by the cow vigilantes,
is also a cause for concern, not for Indian media or its journalists, but for theactivists and the families of the people who were/are killed in the name ofHuman Rights and Contemporary Indian Journalism: Towards a “Journalism for People”

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protection of cows as sacred animals by the workers of right-wing Bharatiya
Janata Party (bjp) and its affiliates.
The conventional Western logic measures the relationship between human rights violations and the right to free expression by media in termsof the number of journalists who get killed in a country or the number ofjournalists who get arrested in a country. This article argues that we need tosuspend this logic or avoid this logic in the Indian case, where the numberof ordinary people who got killed in the wake of the failures of the pillarsof the democracy are hundred/thousand times more than the number ofjournalists killed for the cause of protection of human rights, free speechand social inequality.
“Journalism for People” Project
Let us move on with the possibilities of rescuing Indian journalism fromits bed of death. One small step forward initiated in 2015 in University ofMadras’ Department of Journalism and Communication was the non-institutionalized project, “Journalism for People.” This project seeks to put theminorities, marginalized and the oppressed back on the agenda of journalism as a people-driven framework, even as it seeks to strengthen the linkages between freedom of expression and human rights as integral domainsof Indian journalism. This project seeks to cultivate an anti-thesis of Indianjournalism which has erased the people from its domain and brought inpolitical and corporate vested interests as the primary definers of news. This
project seeks to leverage people as the definer of news and journalism.
This project also seeks to address the failures of the corporatized
and alienated journalism. It is no secret that the mainstream media are
not including ordinary people and their struggles in their news agenda.
“Journalism for People” is conceptualized as an ideological and pragmaticcounter to the contemporary trajectories of Indian journalism’s multiple
avatars - “Journalism for Corporates,” “Journalism for the Middle Class”,“Journalism for the Government” and “Journalism for Politicians.”
At present, masters’ students of journalism at the University of Madras
are working with people and children of fifteen marginalized communities
in Tamil Nadu to drive home the need for a people-centric journalistic andhuman rights approach to resolve their issues and express themselves, without depending on mainstream newspapers and media.

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The “Journalism for People” project seeks to transform the childrenof marginalized people as future journalists. “Journalism for People” project hopes to help the children of marginalized people to become journalism students, journalists, film makers, poets, short story writers, novelists,
photographers, artists etc., “Journalism for People” project will be a change
agent for the future generations of the marginalized communities in Tamil
Nadu. This project is driven by the passion of the members of the theaterand folk arts group, Muttram (Courtyard), which seeks to leverage folk andtheater arts for the cause of human rights awareness and people-centric
journalistic practices. Muttram was established on 25 November 2009 as a“Class outside Class” to leverage the communication and journalistic skillsof students through folk and theater arts, outside the framework of a timetable- and mark-driven journalism classroom.
Photo shows Muttram members
performing on 10 January 2018 during
the harvest festival program with Parai,
a leather drum associated with Dalits,
which is being leveraged as a tool of empowerment against casteism by journalism students of the University of Madras
in the courtyard of the university, which
is normally used for parking cars.

Human Rights and Contemporary Indian Journalism: Towards a “Journalism for People”

187“Journalism for People” is driven by the passion and commitment of agroup of teachers and student volunteers of the Department of Journalism
and Communication, University of Madras, who want to bring alive thejournalistic and communication talents of the school children of marginalized communities in Tamil Nadu over a period of the next five years.
Workshops
Muttram’s first “Journalism for People” activity, the first field workshop, hadgood innings for three days during 15 – 17 September 2015 in the villages of
the tribal people of Yelagiri, a picturesque hilly region on the Eastern Ghats
in the south Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Yelagiri is 228 kilometers from
Chennai. There are fourteen villages in Yelagiri. We decided to embark on
the first “Journalism for People” journey to Yelagiri for the reason that tribal
people were the ones who figure high on the scale of marginalization as per
the 2011 census, assuming literacy as one parameter of development. The literacy level of tribals in Tamil Nadu was 41.5 percent compared to the overall
literacy level of 73.5 percent for Tamil Nadu. In a sense, as regards literacy,
tribals in Tamil Nadu are marginalized or lagging behind other communities
to the extent of 32.0 percent.1 Illiteracy must be read as a barrier to humanrights and people-centric journalism.
This figure supports our experience in the Department of Journalism
and Communication with regard to the question of who enters the Masters’
programs in journalism and communication at the University of Madras
and who does not enter these programs. The ratio of tribal and non-tribal
journalism students during the past five years defies computation as we have
had only two tribal students from Tamil Nadu’s thirty-six tribal communities (both from Eastern Ghats), one transgender and one student from
Pazhaverkadu fishing region in comparison with scores of Dalit students,
during the past five years. This is proof enough that marginalization has
taken a toll on these communities as far as the prospects of higher education
for the tribal children in Tamil Nadu is concerned.
This issue has not figured in any news story or editorial, to the bestof our knowledge in the pages or airtime of Tamil/English newspapers andtelevision channels in Tamil Nadu during the past five years. This is proof
enough that the sphere of journalism in Tamil Nadu has failed to take noticeof the backward state of the thirty-six tribal communities in Tamil Nadu

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as regards literacy. This is also proof enough that their marginalized socioeconomic realities are not seen as newsworthy by this sphere. Hence, thesewere reasons enough for the volunteers of the “Journalism for People” project to embark on the journey to transform the lives of the school childrenof Yelagiri villages as future journalists of their communities. They will be
the change agents working with the tools of digital communication to work
against the forces of marginalization in the years to come.
The members of Muttram employ street theater to create social awareness among adults and children in the communities where they have been
conducting the “Journalism for People” workshops. Their plays also aim tocultivate and promote media literacy skills among children. For the past few
years, the children of Karambai village (Tirunelveli district, Tamil Nadu)
have been given orientation through street plays on the appropriate modesof engagements children should cultivate with media, media celebrities andmobile phones. The children and adults, more importantly, the local leadersof fisherfolk villages of Pazhaverkadu were made to introspect on the livesof the fisherfolk, particularly the womenfolk and youth, with the help of astreet play titled, Karuvadu (Dry Fish). In Yelagiri, the village children weremade to perform a street play in the village square on the threats to theireducation and their parents’ lives by the policies of the central government.
In all these cases, the children showed themselves as keen observers andended up pleading with the members of Muttram not to leave them andwould normally walk a few kilometers to bid adieu. The adults, particularly
elders, would request the Muttram members to do more. In one instance,
the village leader of Karambai took a seven-hundred-kilometer journey to
the University of Madras to thank the professor and the Muttram members
for their work in the village.
The members of Muttram are likewise learning from the experience ofstaging theater plays in the communities. Ms Krithika Srinivasan, who acted
as Karuppi has this to say about the influence of Muttram in her life. She said
that “Only Muttram gave me social awareness. That’s where I could learn
about casteism, feminism and the plight of the marginalized”. She was not ajournalism student. She was a sociology major student, but was accepted asa member of Muttram, in tune with the principle behind Muttram. Muttramis the courtyard in traditional Tamil architecture, where there is no ceilingand all the elements of nature enter the house. The courtyard is surroundedby pathways, where members of the joint family used to pick conversations

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even as the sun light, air, rain water and smells of nature entered the house.
Unfortunately, traditional houses with Muttram are fast being replaced withmodern houses in Tamil Nadu.

Ms Krithika Srinivasan, who acted as Karuppi, with other students (from left to right: Ms
Yazhini (II MA), Ms Karthikga (II MA) and Mr Salai (II MA)

Magazines and Other Results
It was heartwarming to see thirty-five students of the Department of
Journalism and Communication, University of Madras, training the tribal
children of Yelagiri villages the basics of reporting and writing from the con-

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fines of their villages and schools. The number of journals made possible by
the enthusiastic filing of reports by the children of Yelagiri villages exceeded
our initial target of five issues of magazines. The workshop also provided
several interesting sessions for the masters students of journalism to practice their writing and reporting skills in the verdant settings of Yelagiri villages and introspect on human rights issues affecting the tribals. The school
children of these villages were inspired by our teachers and student volunteers to discover their native creative talents in the areas of poetry, theater,
photography and journalism. The visit also provided opportunities for ourbudding young scholars to map the communication/spatial practices of villagers in Yelagiri.
Street workshops use any available space in urban poor places near
Chennai, as in this case, a sitting bench in a small shop, as these poor neighborhoods do not have the same spatial advantages as rural villages.

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Sukumar (above) and Kavithran (below) are PhD students in marginalized neighborhood of
University of Madras, Lock Nagar. They are teaching journalistic skills. Kavithran was thefirst student to enter the one hundred sixty-year old University of Madras from Lock Nagar.

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Sukumar (above) and Kavithran (below) are PhD students in marginalized neighborhood of University of Madras, Lock Nagar in December 2017.
They are teaching journalistic skills. Kavithran was the first student to enter
the one hundred sixty-year old University of Madras from Lock Nagar.

Masters students of journalism with the children of Koraikuppam village, Pazhaverkadu,
Tamil Nadu, in a “Journalism for People” workshop in 2017.

Human Rights and Contemporary Indian Journalism: Towards a “Journalism for People”

193(Opposite page, below, and above). The “Journalism for People” Workshop at Yelagiri Tribal
Villages, Tamil Nadu in 2017.

The magazines brought out by the school children, with the support ofthe members of Muttram, are of two kinds: i) handwritten magazines; andii) printed magazines. The former are released at the end of the “Journalism
for People” workshops in the villages and the latter are the result of compilation, editing and printing of content that appeared in the handwrittenversions. The content of these magazines reflect the children’s views on issues regarding politics, elections, environment, family and, more importantly, their love for their villages. The drawings and photographs of thechildren are included in the magazines. In Idinthakarai, a fisherfolk village(Tirunelveli district, Tamil Nadu) that has been witnessing long running
people’s protests against a mega nuclear project at Kudankulam, which iswithin its neighborhood, the children’s expressions in the printed magazine
are mostly focused on the threats to their health and environment from thenuclear plant. In Karambai, a farmers’ village (Tirunelveli district, Tamil
Nadu), the children are more concerned about the drying up of village
ponds and wells and water scarcity. Some of them are also appealing to theirreaders seeking financial support to help them continue their studies. For
instance, the first page of the Karambai magazine has a note from A Suresh,

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Std. V, “My father died after he was hit by a falling fertilizer bag. My motheris working as a daily wage earner. We are four in the family. Please help us to

The covers of magazines brought out during the “Journalism for People” Workshop at
Yelagiri Tribal Villages, Tamil Nadu. The first cover is titled “I am longing to become a Bird.

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study. Please ...” In Yelagiri, children are evocative in relating to the beauty of
their hilly environment.
In Pazhaverkadu, children of the fisherfolk are more politically aware
and, like the children in other regions, are more concerned about their environment. The wall newspaper, Paper Boat, brought out by the children of
Kunamkuppam village, Pazhaverkadu, Tamil Nadu on 21 November 2016has hard hitting poetic content against electoral politics, particularly the
deceptive acts by politicians against the poor. It included a poem by Rahul:“Seeking votes is acting. We have our oars. We do not want anything from

The wall newspaper, Paper Boat (left), brought out by the children of Kunamkuppam village,
Pazhaverkadu, Tamil Nadu.The magazine, Koraikuppam Letters and Art (center and right),
brought out by the children of Koraikuppam village, Pazhaverkadu, Tamil Nadu. The namesof the children can be seen on the second cover.

you. Get Lost!” The children of Koraikuppam village, Pazhaverkadu, Tamil
Nadu brought out the magazine, Koraikuppam Letters and Art, in 2017.
Close on the heels of the successful “Journalism for People” field workin the villages of Yelagiri, members of Muttram decided to work with children of the fisherfolk communities in Pazhaverkadu/Pulicat region, sixty
kilometers north of Chennai. They have been working with the students ofKunamkuppam, Koraikuppam and Jameelabad villages, three of the morethan thirty fisherfolk villages in the historic town of Pazhaverkadu/Pulicat.
Pulicat figures in the work of Ptolemy as the ancient port and became famous when the Dutch set-up their trade post in this ancient port town in the
17th century. Pulicat checks/Madras checks became the prized textile exportby the Dutch from Pulicat during their heydays of trade.

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For nearly three months since 20 February 2016, every Saturday, members of Muttram were engaged in a workshop with a very meaningful format - teaching journalistic/communication skills to school children of
Kunamkuppam, Koraikuppam and Jameelabad and instilling in them theneed to continue their studies beyond school level. Muttram volunteers
continued their workshop routines and field visits until 8 April 2016. Nearly
fifty children were nurtured by the members of Muttram to discover theirnative talents (literary, visual, spoken, dramatic, etc.) through the mediaof poetry, photography, videography, short stories, storytelling, etc. The
members of Muttram added areas from the marginalized neighborhoods ofChennai during 2017 for their field work.
Concluding Statement
The “Journalism for People” project is not only teaching journalism skills tothe school children, but also creating human rights awareness with the hopethat the next generation of Indian journalists would be more caring andconcerned about the social inequalities and human rights violations in India
and the failures of corporatized Indian journalism in addressing the same.
This project believes that we cannot change the current crop of journalists
and journalism. This initiative believes that we can change the mindset ofthe future practitioners of journalism and promoters of human rights.
Endnote
1 The gap in literacy rate between general population and tribal population as
per 2011 census is available at the site of Ministry of Tribal Affairs, Government ofIndia at http://pib.nic.in/newsite/PrintRelease.aspx?relid=85918.