Maya Mirchandani bags the prestigious New India Foundation Book Fellowship

Open to Indian nationals, including those currently living abroad, each Fellowship carries a grant of INR 18,00,000 (eighteen lakhs), payable as a monthly stipend of INR 100,000 (one lakh) for a period of twelve months, and the balance of INR 600,000 (six lakhs) payable on the submission of the final manuscript. Fellowship holders are expected to write original books. Their proposals should be oriented towards final publication, and outline a road map towards that destination. The Foundation is ecumenical as regards genre, theme, and ideology: the only requirement is that the proposed works contribute to a fuller understanding of contemporary India.

This year, Maya Mirchandani, Associate Professor of Practice, Media Studies, 51��� has received the fellowship for her book, Fathers, Sons, and a Troubled Paradise: The History of the Abdullahs. Here is a brief abstract for her soon-to-be-published book:

Jammu and Kashmir’s tumultuous history has been viewed through several lenses, each one lending its own colour to available literature and understanding of the subcontinent’s most politically and militarily volatile region. History, geography, and politics have all played their role in the making and unmaking of a state, and the relationship between the people of Kashmir and India. Fathers, Sons, and a Troubled Paradise: The History of the Abdullahs intends to look at the story of Kashmir through the life and times of its most defining political actors – Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah and his family, and their impact on Kashmir’s polity and identity.

As polarizing as they may be today, the Abdullahs have often claimed the space of Jammu and Kashmir’s First Family. Sheikh Abdullah is considered by many to be the architect of what was modern Kashmir, until August 2019 when the Union government nullified Article 370, and converted the erstwhile state into Union Territories to be governed by the Centre. Sher-i-Kashmir, as he came to be known, Sheikh Abdullah was born weeks after his father’s death, and educated by his young, widowed mother. Ending up at the thriving universities of the era at Lahore and Aligarh, he freed himself from a family business in shawl trading to blaze his way through the years of India’s freedom movement. His primary challenge was against feudalism and driven by his personal friendship with Jawaharlal Nehru he adapted to secularize the Kashmir movement, and aligned with the Congress, ultimately influencing Kashmir’s accession to India under Article 370, as the only Muslim-majority state in 1947. The Instrument of Accession was to be made permanent after a plebiscite which never took place. The rest is, as they say, history.

The mantle of the National Conference’s political leadership has passed since Sheikh Abdullah’s death, first to his son Farooq who became Chief Minister - a move that led to internecine wars within the family when his older sister Khalida Shah’s husband G.M. Shah staged a coup against the heir. In fact, the women of the Abdullah family are of particular interest. Highly political, influential, and strong-willed, his wife Begum Akbar Jahan Abdullah defined and kept alive Sheikh Abdullah’s name and cause in the public imagination while he was alive and in prison after 1953. His daughter Khalida Shah whose husband split the national conference still leads the breakaway Awami National Conference.

Farooq Abdullah came in and out of office, taking support from the religious Awami Action Committee and the Congress, alternately. It was Farooq who was in power when Kashmir's demands for independence took a turbulent and violent turn in the 1980s; ultimately leaving Kashmir at the height of the violence, only to return as Delhi’s “puppet” chief minister after five years of President’s rule in October 1996. In 2002, Sheikh Abdullah’s grandson, and Farooq’s son, Omar Abdullah was the first Abdullah scion to become a union minister in the Vajpayee cabinet, a partnership he later, and famously, regretted because of the allegiance the BJP-led government expected at the time, after the Gujarat riots. Later Kashmir’s Chief Minister, Omar was constantly confronted by political disapproval, inner party conflicts and personal struggles at home while working in a continuously challenging, insurgent political environment until 2014.

Unlike Sheikh Abdullah who spent long years incarcerated for his politics, often at odds with New Delhi, both Farooq and Omar have ensured their place at the Capital’s political high table by presenting the National Conference as Kashmir’s only truly “mainstream” political party, entering national politics as members of Parliament, and ministers, forming alliances that have tested their loyalty to Kashmir, and their spine as politicians. In the aftermath of the Centre’s decision to de-operationalise Article 370, the Abdullahs now find themselves trying to reclaim their political legitimacy and stay relevant interlocutors.

Like any other dynasty- political or otherwise- The Abdullahs’ story is peppered with the crests and troughs of human frailty. Son and grandson have managed complex, interfaith personal relationships in a culturally volatile geography, and made political compromises in the interest of retaining such relevance both in Kashmir and in Delhi, and both face strong and ever-growing criticism by young Kashmiris for arrogance, affluence and unkept promises. In the face of individual egos, electoral defeats, and the rise of competing political dynasties in the Valley, this book hopes to examine the strength or weakness of their political force in the current context.

Through interviews with several members of the Abdullah family, Kashmir’s other key political figures, historians, former bureaucrats, and journalists, as well as through archival material, this multi-generational biographical book that spans generations aims to reflect on the outsized role played by one family on the contemporary history of Kashmir.

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A frank assessment of the media industry

Journalists from different media formats -- print, broadcast and digital -- came together at the day-long event to give the students of 51��� an insight into what a career in media industry looks like. The first session, moderated by Amaan Asim of the UG ’22 batch, was on freelancing, fellowships, and the future of journalism. 

The panel had Anubha Bhonsle, an ICJ Knight Fellow, author and founder of Newsworthy; investigative journalists Nitin Sethi who founded the Reporters Collective; Pooja Prasanna,  who is the head of reporting at the prominent Bangalore based digital news platform NewsMinute; and Ashoka Alumni Kartik Sundar who set up a culture magazine venture with friends. 

During the session, the panelists talked about the advantages of fellowships, their worth and how to access them. A career in freelance journalism was also discussed, but most panelists converged on the value of working in a big newsroom at the beginning of one’s career – both to learn, and to understand good media practice. Hearing about all these different experiences was very fruitful for students who are thinking about a career in the media industry.

The second panel looked at existing opportunities and how to draft the right resume. Arunava Sinha from the Department of Creative Writing and an award-winning translator, visiting faculty Purnima Mehrotra who has vast experience in advocacy and campaign design, Keshav Suryanarayanan from Ashoka’s Centre for Climate Change and Sustainability (3CS), and Ashoka alumni Karantaj Singh, currently working at KPMG lent insights into the use of media studies courses in possible careers in writing for television/ OTT platforms, publishing, and marketing and advocacy. 

Keshav Suryanarayanan offered 51���’s media studies students a chance to apply for internships at 3CS to use and manage social media for the Centre. 

The session concluded with visiting faculty and data designer and illustrator Nithya Subramanian displaying student projects in the Environment Communications course that have been selected by the prominent website Mongabay, and telling students about the importance of internships and grabbing opportunities in the media. This session was moderated by Ashoka Scholars Programme (ASP) 22 student, Ariba. 

While the morning focused on careers, challenges, and opportunities for students to be prepared for, the afternoon took a deep dive into the state of news media today. 

The third session “Who gives us the news, really?” was a conversation between NDTV Senior Editor and Anchor Ankita Mukherji, and Newslaundry’s host and writer Meghnad. Moderated by UG ’22 student Abhiir Bhalla, this post-lunch session was a favorite amongst students as the two panelists debated the merits and demerits of old-style television news vs. on-demand digital news platforms and news videos on YouTube by individuals who do not consider themselves journalists. 

They elaborated on the nature of the formats of communication, the challenges for viewers about how to judge credibility, and how the consumers influence the news we watch and how it is delivered.

The last session -- a much-awaited Young Reporters Roundtable -- was moderated by UG ’22 student Akanksha Mishra. This was another treat for 51���’s media studies students. Arunabh Saikia of Scroll.in, Jyoti Yadav from The Print and Adrija Bose, senior editor at the fact-checking platform Boomlive, spoke eloquently about the realities of fieldwork for young journalists today.  

Jyoti Yadav and Adrija Bose, in particular, offered relevant insights into the problems women journalists in India face while reporting. Jyoti Yadav also detailed some of the particularly difficult experiences of reporting during the second wave of Covid 19 pandemic last year. 

This was the first time 51���’s Media Studies department has hosted such an event for students and by students. For us, it was fun, engaging, and enriching to come out of two years of Covid 19 induced online classes. The day-long fest enabled us to learn about the scope of both work and research opportunities in the media industry at this juncture. 

We ended the day with a treasure trove of stories and ideas to sharpen and develop, a frank assessment of the state of journalism, and information on how to approach careers in the media. 

Mannat Chhabra is a first-year student of political science with a minor in media studies. Her other interests include reading books and writing. 

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Democracy Survives on Press Freedom

In 2019, the government filed a criminal case against Pawan Jaiswal, a journalist from Mirzapur, one of India’s 250 most backward districts, where malnutrition remains the leading cause of death for children. He reported how children are fed salt and roti as mid-day meals in government schools instead of nutritious food. He has been battling the case for over two years.

This October, the Noble Peace Prize was awarded to Maria Ressa, a Filipino-American journalist and Dmitry Muratov, a Russian journalist, for ‘their efforts to safeguard freedom of expression, which is a precondition for democracy and lasting peace.’

Maria spent decades, exposing the top leadership in Philipines, Dmitry ran a newspaper for decades, losing six colleagues, reporting on governmental corruption and human rights violations.

According to a study by the Free Speech Collective, in 2020, 67 journalists were arrested and nearly 200 physically attacked in India. This includes Siddique Kappan, a Kerala journalist covering the Hathras rape case in Uttar Pradesh, Kishorchandra Wangkhem, a Manipur journalist, who has been arrested several times over, Pushpa Rokde from Chattisgarh facing police torture for her powerful reportage.

Each time Aasif Sultan, a reporter from Kashmir, appears in a court hearing, he is handcuffed-for writing an article. He has been in jail for over three years.

Yet, there are many journalists, who go to the ground, take the risk, walk-in unknown alleys, report the things that no one cares about, put focus on people pushed to the margins, on issues that are too bleeding heart for the corporatized mainstream media, on matters that are too useless for keyword-driven social media discourses. 

The ability of journalists to report freely on matters of public interest is a crucial indicator of democracy. Holding the mirror to the establishment is an important journalistic tenement. A mirror that informs what needs fixing, what can be done better and what more is needed by bringing a diversity of voices, perspectives to the foreground.

They are the unacknowledged democracy warriors-making sure that no one is left behind in a democracy. Democracies only survive if the people are heard, journalists ensure everyone gets that chance.

The author is an award-winning independent journalist and a Visiting Professor at the Department of Media Studies, 51���. The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect that of 51���. 

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Media Action Against Rape (MAAR)

Everyday a huge number of undocumented and unsettling incidents of rape and sexual violence occur in India. A recent piece of  says that in every 15 minutes, an incident of rape takes place in India, however, only a handful of those stories get reported. How do we decide which story to report and which to let go? When the news media outlets, print, TV or online report it, victim blame and shame becomes a part of it, deliberately or not. Has sensationalising such issues become an integral part of news reporting? Some rape cases get a huge amount of attention while others fail to even make it on the first page of the newspaper or TV headline. Why does this happen and to what extent? Quite frequently, reported cases have inconsistent or no follow-ups and often get lost in the myriad other stories. The incidents which get the much-required coverage, how does it impact the Indian public’s understanding of rape and sexual violence in society?  

To address many or all these concerns, Bournemouth University and UNESCO joined hands for a research and capacity building project called  in New Delhi. Funded by the Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF), MAAR is an ongoing two-year long study of how rape and sexual violence is reported in India. It maps the journalistic challenges of reporting rape and sexual violence across India. 

 About MAAR The project began in June 2018, with the purpose of understanding two aspects: 

1. How is rape and sexual violence re-presented/depicted in the Indian news media? 
2. What goes behind that depiction — what are the challenges and issues that journalists face when reporting sexual violence. 

Apart from content analysis, on-ground events (like the  aligning with the United Nations 16 days of activism) leading up to the upcoming report which will include guidelines for rape reportage, the project also runs , a Medium-based publication, to write about the representation of rape and sexual violence in the Indian news media. The NewsTracker believes that journalists have a crucial role to play in combatting sexual violence. They can question stereotypes; influence attitudes, beliefs; as well as help us rethink the way we read, write, think about rape and the solutions. It is co-published by Bournemouth University and 51��� in collaboration with UNESCO. 

Prominent faculty, staff members and students of 51��� played a crucial role in the MAAR project. The Media Studies department was particularly central. Both undergraduate students and the Young India Fellows worked as reporters. There were around 33 young reporters involved in the project from Ashoka, Amity School of Communication (Noida); Docfort Meducation (Benguluru); Symbiosis School for Liberal Arts (Pune); the Department of Journalism and Communication, University of Madras (Chennai); Manipal Institute of Communication, Manipal University (Manipal); and the Department of Communication, St Joseph’s College (Bengaluru).

, Principal Academic in Journalism and Communication at Bournemouth University, who co-led the project said, “Some of the journalism produced by the students was truly outstanding, exploring some unusual linkages—for instance, economics and sexual violence, and literature and gender. The co-creation of content between Bournemouth and institutions in India bring to light some complex issues rarely discussed in conventional media spaces.” You can read more about the project .  

 Vaiju Naravane, Head of the Media Studies Department, 51��� said, "For both faculty and students at Ashoka this has been an enormously useful and enriching pedagogical experience, one that has forced students out of their theoretical and academic comfort zones to confront reality. This experience has allowed some very sheltered students to explore an issue that is controversial, frightening and emotionally charged, exposing them to different facets of the very complex societal and psychological factors that lead to sexual harassment, assault or rape."  Anunaya Rajhans, Critical Writing Teacher at 51��� has been involved with the project as a Project Supervisor as well as the National News Coordinator since summer 2018. He said, “I worked with the reporters and team leads to commission all the stories, approve pitches and ensure things run as per the schedule in a real-time news bureau. We received a huge support from UNESCO in this endeavour”, said Anunaya. 

Identifying the problem 

However, rape reportage has got a lot to do with the way we have been brought up to think, asserted Madhavi Menon, Professor of English and Director of the Centre for Studies in Gender and Sexuality, 51���. She felt that we have not progressed, instead have regressed the way we think about sexuality and violence against women in India. She said, “The idea of men being granted impunity over women has become worse over time. To say that the more we punish people, the less crimes there will be is a naive and stupid idea that does not provide any justice but only serves to satisfy our own bloodthirstiness”. You can read her full interview .����

 When asked about the expectations from the journalists and the training they need, Urvashi Butalia, Writer and Visitng Faculty, 51��� felt that a lot of learning and unlearning are in order for the journalists. She said, “We expect too much from the journalists. A journalist can only do so much as the training they are given. And, it is very important for the journalists to unlearn a lot of what they have learned starting with the very first thing – language”. According to Urvashi, the ethics and ethos of journalism should be held highly. The full interview can be read .  

The language is a major concern and the reporting through euphemistic language often drives towards a fearsome portrayal of the survivor in a way that accords blame for the crime. Surely, a lot needs to be changed the way rape reportage takes place in Indian media. The very first issue is with the passive framing of headlines and the juxtaposition of associating rape with a ‘victim’ than a perpetrator. Pointing this out, Anunaya said, “Even scratching the surface throws up a gamut of issues. The tendency to sensationalise, lack of follow-ups, trial by media and differential coverage based on the survivor’s and perpetrator’s profile in terms of socio-economic background. Media has to take greater responsibility by realising that its job is not merely reportage in terms of conveying facts of the matter but an active duty to represent sexual violence in a way that aims to dismantle what we commonly understand as rape culture”. And, here essentially the need of a proper guideline comes into place.  

Topics covered in the research

Topics covered included issues of the visual representation of rape, gender-sensitive budgeting, survivors and silence. , Professor of Journalism and Communication at Bournemouth University, also co-led the project, and said, “This project shed light on several issues that journalists face when reporting sexual violence. The reportage also allows reporters and editors to understand how their audiences feel about the way gender and related issues are being currently covered.”  

Research methodology, process and the outcome

MAAR aims to analyse the processes of rape reportage across three phases – reviewing the existing scholarly literature and reporting guidelines, through comparative content analysis of news reporting and through in-depth interviews with journalists to investigate the personal challenges for them who may have disturbing past experiences when covering such cases.  So far, 255 interviews have been carried out, in 14 languages, creating a database of 1.2 million words. This is perhaps the largest study of this nature on how the news reporting of rape and sexual violence takes place in India. Based on this research, MAAR will produce a set of country-specific journalism guidelines which will be included in a report published by UNESCO, alongside research findings. This will provide an evidence base for capacity building workshops with journalists and development of targeted journalism curricula. 

A still from the MAAR project The NewsTracker publishes original journalism through interviews of various stakeholders and experts. In all, over 40,000 words of original journalism across 41 stories have been published, alone in 2019. This includes some outstanding in-depth , , and the unique  interviews which is the first-of-its-kind attempt to capture the vox populi around the media coverage of rape. In addition to this, Ashoka has also published 8 video stories on the NewsTracker .  

Take a look at some of the outstanding stories!

Saumava Mitra’s two-part essay on  is of particular pertinence to journalists and journalism educators, not just in India but elsewhere as well. Zinnia Sengupta’s interview with Madhavi Menon on , and Ananya Gouthi’s conversation with economist Lekha Chakraborty on  explore some unusual linkages between the news media and gender.  You can also check Aarati Ganeshan’s analysis on , or Pranati Viswesaran’s , and Tejaswini Srihari’s argument for a , and Urvashi Butalia’s thoughts on  provide more food for thought on reporting sexual violence. And the interview with Sandhya Menon by Sanjana Thandaveswaran and Sharin DSouza made for a very interesting read; it is fascinating to hear the lessons of #MeTooIndia through the personal  who has been on its forefront from the start.  Dr. Thorsen concluded, “The challenges which journalists face in India are different from the challenges elsewhere. In fact, even within India, it is likely there will be regional variations, given the diversity of the country. In consultation with Indian stakeholders, we aim to provide better insights into the priorities for the news media in these contexts.” MAAR will build capacity to engender sustainable impact – specifically, for rape reportage, journalism education, and resilience against gendered violence towards women. 

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Value Versus Volume: Reflections on the Future of Quality Journalism

Lionel Barber, Editor of the Financial Times, visited 51��� on Monday, April 15. He spoke on Value Versus Volume: Reflections on the Future of Quality Journalism, on April 15. During the session, he also discussed Brexit and its implications on World trade. The session was chaired by Prof. Pratap Bhanu Mehta. 

Since his appointment in 2005,  Lionel Barber has helped to transform the FT from a newspaper publisher into a multi-channel global news organization. As the editor, he has interviewed many of the world’s leaders in business and politics, including US President Barack Obama, Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany and President of Iran Hassan Rouhani

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Improvising education through media and activism

December, 2017: Uttar Pradesh, one of the most demographically complex states in India, was swept away by what was termed as the worst episode of violence in the state’s recent history in August 2013; the Muzaffarnagar riots resulted in at least 62 deaths, a score injured, and tens of thousands displaced. Nearly two years later, Nakul Sawhney’s Muzaffarnagar Baaqi Hai was released in August 2015 and welcomed with bans or cancellation of the screenings across the country because the documentary film was allegedly hurtful to the religious sentiments of Hindus. But this is nothing new; there are several other films, released this year itself that stirred the nation, including India’s Daughter, the BBC documentary on the 2012 Delhi gang rape case, and Unfreedom. Going back further in Bollywood’s history there have been films like Fire, Sins, Firaaq and Water, among several others.

Cinema, both commercial and parallel, has always served as a means to political action. At the same time, it has also been a subject of political agitation in its power to mobilise crowds and influence public opinion, making it an important pedagogical tool in education. Schools and universities across the country, thus, have also been organising film screenings to educate students on some of the most burning issues in society. And so it follows that film analysis and critique, as well as media studies, have also been a unique focus of academics at 51��� this year.

This year, Ashoka introduced a Minor programme in Media Studies and an Inter-disciplinary Major in English and Media Studies for its undergraduate students. Professor Vaiju Naravane, who offered two courses in Media Studies titled, ‘News Reporting and Writing: Principles of Journalism’, and ‘Understanding the Media Landscape’, believes that films and other media forms have been revolutionising the space occupied by social activism and education.

“There are several classic case studies to look at from around the world. For instance, the media debate on HIV forced the pharmaceutical giants in the West to provide the medicines at correct rates. On the other hand, we have a lot to learn from the mistreatment by media of the Indrani Mukherjee case,” said Naravane. As a part of her course, students were asked to work on a short film for which they went around campus looking for stories, whether it was interviewing construction workers and other staff on their lives, or demanding answers to problems from the administration. Apart from these two courses, students were offered a co-curricular course on ‘Constructing Cinema’ by Professor Anupama Srinivasan and Anupama Chandra. There was another course on Critical Thinking offered by Damien Carriere, where students were made to watch films from the 1950s to the most recent ones, from various countries across the globe. These films followed themes such as social and cultural conflict in cities, political and economic processes, gender and sexuality, empire and post-colonial state expression. It is believed that our understanding of the world is mediated, in part, through cinematic representations. In the class, students analysed how films make us think, and how through representations in film, we can also understand how gender, sexuality, class, caste and race are represented in our societies. As Naravane puts it, “Media courses are a part of the here and now, at times capturing spaces that may not become history but are important to our understanding of the immediate world around us.”

For many years, the Public Service Broadcasting Trust (PSBT), has been supporting young filmmakers that have attempted to break out of the mundane TRP-driven cinema. Earlier this year, Doordarshan even broadcasted on national television a film produced by PSBT, In the Mood for Love, which focuses on Queer love in India, a subject which otherwise remains highly stigmatised in our society. Publicly organised film festivals, showcasing socially impactful films like this, have become momentous to social activism, some of them becoming sustained movements like ‘Cinema of Resistance’. As a part of its activities at 51���, the Centre for Studies in Gender and Sexuality also hosted a four days long queer film festival called Q-Screen: Queer Sketches in Cinema. The film festival, held from November 2nd to November 6th, focussed on films that explore gender, sexuality, desire, body image, love, and romantic relationships, in a queer fashion. The festival screened over 10 films in the span of four days, and it also included film screenings by KASHISH Forward, India’s first traveling campus LGBTQ film festival. The screenings were complemented by panel discussions on various themes explored in the films and conversations with some of the filmmakers.

It is high time that educational institutions, not only the ones that exclusively cater to programmes in Media and Communication studies, start placing emphasis on the value and power of media. Naravane suggests that there are useful, interesting ways in which media can aid our learning, education and research, some of which remain relatively unexplored, such as voice archives and radio commentaries. Students should be encouraged to use media to think of problems creatively and initiate action. As Media Studies and a culture of appreciation of cinema grows at 51���, it will uniquely contribute to the multi-disciplinary spirit of Liberal Arts at the university, thus allowing students to evolve their perspectives as well as approach towards education.

(The author is the Manager at the Centre for Studies in Gender and Sexuality at 51���.)

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Siddharth Varadarajan, Founding Editor of The Wire inaugurated Ashoka’s Media Lab

Siddharth Varadarajan, who is the Founding Editor of The Wire, paid a visit to 51��� on Tuesday, November 29th. Mr. Varadarajan formally inaugurated the Media Lab at Ashoka, after which he was interviewed by Prof. Vaiju Naravane and her journalism students in the Media Lab.

Mr. Varadarajan’s talk centred around media and censorship in India and the 21st century world.

He is the former Editor-in-Chief of The Hindu, and has worked at the Times of India. He is the recipient of several awards including the Ramnath Goenka Award for Journalist of the Year (2010) and the Bernardo O’Higgins Order by the President of Chile (2006).

A graduate from LSE and Columbia University, Mr. Varadarajan has taught Economics at New York University and Journalism at the University of California, Berkeley, and the Centre for Public Affairs and Critical Theory, Shiv Nadar University. Furthermore, he has edited the book The Making of a Tragedy, that contains accounts of violence against Muslims in Gujarat.

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