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Reading India's mainstream English
language newspapers and magazines, and viewing the electronic
media one realizes that news reports and columns by Muslim
journalists are rare. If we go by our population, the authors of
about 10 percent or more of reports and columns should be Muslims.
But in reality only about 1 % of reports and columns are authored
by Muslims. At the national level there are just about half a
dozen English language Muslim journalists whose reports appear in
the national dailies.
In the whole of India, 65 years after independence there are only
two small English language biweekly newspaper (Milli Gazette,
Madhyam) and two or three online electronic websites (Two Circles
News, Indian Muslim Observer, Ummid.com) that are operated by the
Muslim community.
There are quite a few Urdu language newspapers that are operated
by the Muslim community. But their readership is limited entirely
to Muslims and generally they confine themselves to happenings in
the Muslim community. Thus whatever is published in Urdu
newspapers has hardly any chance of reaching mainstream India that
comprises of a large number of secular Hindus.
That brings us to the question as to why there are so few English
language Muslim journalists in India and why Muslim journalists
are not writing for mainstream Indian media (Times of India,
Indian Express, Hindustan Times, Hindu, India Today, Sunday etc).
A review of the few English language Muslim outlets that exist,
indicates that these outlets spend most of their space in writing
about Muslim community's complaints of injustice from the Indian
government authorities, complaints against injustice to Muslims
from Western governments, the rabid pronouncements of the
extremist Hindu groups and coverage of personalities in other
Muslim countries. Thus their readability for secular Hindus who
may want to feel the pulse of India's Muslims, is very small; and
there is very little material of national significance there that
non-Muslims want to read in a newspaper, whether print or
electronic.
The Urdu media aside from being in a language that Hindus can not
read is also full of the internal politics of Muslim groups and
individuals and the internecine conflicts of various Muslim
religious leaders and sects. All in all their utility in
communicating the community's issues to mainstream India is almost
non-existent.
The Indian mainstream media writes about the Muslim community only
when major events happen, eg the recent UP and west Bengal
elections where Muslim votes swung the election, or if a major
Hindu-Muslim congflagration takes place. That news too lasts just
a few days. The coverage of the Muslim community's recent
vociferous demands for implementation of the Sachar Committee
recommendations has received only infrequent coverage in the
mainstream media. The reports on the Batla House conflagration
lasted a few days and then disappeared.
A few Indian Muslim journalists write in some Arab newspapers like
Arab News, Khaleej Times etc. But those reports almost always
appear to be either about the pronouncements of rulers of those
countries or about the past glory of Muslim nations in the
centuries gone by, or writeups of global Muslim politics.
The question remains that if the Indian Muslim community has to
bring improvement in its very backward condition, it has to
influence the large number of secular Hindus and together with
them the major political parties and the government. Journalists
and media - print and electronic - are some of the major weapons
in today's public relations war to change the policies of the
Indian state. If Muslims remain cutoff from mainstream Indian
media, and remain preoccupied in our narrow world of complaints,
internal politics, mutual appreciation and personalities; and if
Muslim journalists' reports about the community are not being
published in adequate numbers in mainstream media, then we are
missing a golden opportunity. We simply can not be happy talking
about the past glory of Muslims, or the glory of oil-rich Muslim
countries or complaining that the world is against us. Because
communicating with and influencing India’s secular Hindus in a
democracy and a country where Hindus are 80% of the population, is
an essential need of our community’s national strategy. Indian
Muslim journalists can fill this essential need of the community.
Thus it is incumbent for Muslim journalists in India to redouble
their efforts to find a place in the mainstream English media.
Only a handful of successful mainstream Muslim journalists like MJ
Akbar, Saeed Naqvi, Seema Mustafa can not do the job. Of course
there is a big need for quality English language Indian Muslim
journalists who are in very short supply.
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