2012-01-19

A Matter Of Prestige....

CR Irani Foundation and Konrad Adenauer Stiftung organised a one~day seminar on “Reasonable Restraint` in Delhi on 9~10 December 2011. A dinner was hosted in honour of the speakers and other eminent guests on the lawns of German House on 9 December. Dr Beatrice Gorawantschy, Resident Representative, KAS in India, and Mr Ravindra Kumar, Editor, The Statesman, and Trustee, CR Irani Foundation, welcomed the guests.
The seminar, held in the conference hall of KAS at German House, generated a lively debate on the law of defamation in the context of the action ordered by the court against a television news channel. The seminar, held in two sessions, was inaugurated by Dr. Beatrice Gorawantschy, Resident Representative of KAS, while Mr. Ravindra Kumar, Editor, The Statesman, and Trustee, CR Irani Foundation, welcomed the speakers and guests.
The first session dealt with criminal liability and civil damages and the manner in which defamation laws had affected the functioning of the media. The speakers in the first session included senior journalists and lawyers. Mr. NK Singh, secretary, Broadcast Editors Association, said defamation suits were often filed on the prestige factor rather than the merit of the case. Ms. Sevanti Ninan, editor, Business Today, said that some newspapers and television channels belong to big media houses and take too long to rectify their mistakes. Mr. Chaitanya Kalbag said that journalists should be aware of media laws and should not go out on assignments unprepared. Mr. Samar Bansal, lawyer, also talked about the need for substantial legal knowledge among journalists. Mr. Swapan Mullick, Director, Statesman Print Journalism School, said that if the objective of the newspaper is to inform relying on clear evidence, there is no need to be deterred by the defamation law even if it is sought to used by those who have influence. The session was moderated by Ms. Usha Mahadevan, Resident Editor, The Statesman, New Delhi.
The topics discussed in the second session were: contempt of court, breach of legislative privilege and other reasonable restrictions. Mrs. Maneka Gandhi, member of Parliament and former minister, recounted her experiences in the House and made specific references to the manner in which matters of privilege had been handled. Mr. Ajay Singh, former MP and minister, wanted journalists to be better informed about the law. Mr. Pravin H Parekh, senior advocate and chairman of the Supreme Court Bar Association and president of the Confederation of Indian Bar, referred to different aspects of the law which media people should take note of. Mr. Ravindra Kumar referred to specific cases in which The Statesman was charged with breach of privilege. He made out a case for MP`s privileges being codified. The session was moderated by Ms. Simran Sodhi, Foreign Editor, The Statesman.


(Writen by Arpita Banerji, Chandan Prasad, Christopher Gonsalves, Nikhil Sen)

2012-01-19

14 Jan Book launch of The Convert: A Tale of Exile and Extremism by Deborah Baker

On the morning of January 14, the third day of the Apeejay Kolkata Literary Festival 2012, Pulitzer Prize finalist biographer, Deborah Baker`s `The Convert: A Tale of Exile and Extremism` was formally launched at the Park Hotel, Kolkata. The book launch was followed by an interactive session between Ms Baker and fellow author and essayist, Mukul Kesavan. Also present on the occasion were director of the American center, Jeffrey Reneau, who was also the chief guest; renowned author, Amitav Ghosh, and, director of Oxford Bookstores, Maina Bhagat, among others.

`The Convert` showcases the life of a young American Jew, Margaret Marcus, raised in post~war New York City suburb who converted to Islam and became Maryam Jameelah. She sought out the guidance of Maulana Abul Ala Maududi, Pakistani theologian and political philosopher, a controversial Islamic thinker and founder of the Islamic revivalist party, Jamaat~e~Islami. Upon his invitation, she emigrated to Pakistan where she lives today. Maududi`s mentorship fired the already~inspired mind and she has authored over thirty books on Islamic culture and history, as well as Islam`s arguments against the materialism of the West, consequently becoming a prominent Muslim defender of conservative Islam.

In an invigorating literary talk with Mukul Kesavan, right after the book launch, Deborah Baker first read aloud a letter that Jameelah wrote right after reaching Lahore, in 1962, to her parents. She then narrated the incident of her stumbling upon Jameelah`s letters, pictures and other writings at the Archives and Rare Books section of the New York Public Library. Ms Baker also elaborated on her protagonist`s religious as well as spiritual conversion that, as Mr Kesavan put it, ``...has the capacity to shock.`` The intriguing discussion shed light on various nuances of Jameelah`s life ~ the early years of searching for a path towards spirituality, her dissatisfaction with the answers on life and death her secular Jewish parents provided, her subsequent abandonment of Judaism and converting to Islam, her disturbed mind and visits to mental asylums, both in America and Pakistan, and her life, both as a thinker, as well as a Muslim wife and mother. An interesting observation by the biographer was the gradual development of Maryam Jameelah`s identity ~ the awkward ``difficult`` girl who lacked a sense of belonging, to the woman ``posing`` in a black burqa ~ confident, outspoken and certain of herself. Recalling her face~to~face interaction with Jameelah in December 2007, Ms Baker talked about her own disillusionment ~ ``I realized that the woman I had conjured from the letters bore little resemblance to the woman in front of me.``Two questions lingered on in the author`s mind as well as her readers/audience ~ first, what was the reaction of Maryam Jameelah, the life~long defender of Islam and denouncer of the West who has preached near~fanatic sentiments of Jihaad, post~9/11? And, second, is Maryam Jameelah actually, simply, a schizophrenic who happened to be at the right time at the right place, to become what she had become, for the benefit of Islamic revivalists like Maududi? (a comment, later, by Ms Salima Hashmi, Pakistani author, activist, and daughter of famous poet Faiz Ahmed Faiz, confirmed that Jameelah was in fact used as a tool for propaganda by Maududi in Pakistan).

The discussion ended with a book~signing session by the author.

2012-01-19

Tender thoughts from the past

It was part of the literary festival being held in Kolkata and the small audience that attended the screening of the film based on Manik Bandopadhyay`s Padma Nadir Majhi had reason to be delighted. Not only did it witness what, by all accounts, was the Indian premiere of Pakistan`s first internationally recognised feature film. In many ways, it revealed the creative inspiration that had resulted in Pather Panchali in 1955. Jago Hua Savera, directed by A Kardar, was made a few years after Satyajit Ray`s landmark film had been released but there was no reason to believe that the wave generated in Kolkata had travelled across the border. In the circumstances, it seemed quite extraordinary that script writer and lyricist Faiz Ahmed Faiz, living in Lahore, would travel to a village on the banks of the Meghna in what was then East Pakistan to produce a soul~stirring document on the lives of fishermen.
Very few in India are perhaps aware that the film exists. It was shot in 1958 under conditions that sound similar to the making of Pather Panchali.The director was from adifferent background and had no experience of film~making. Obviously, he had summoned up great courage to make a film over a period of 48 days in a location that was hardly conducive to the expression of creative ideas. Sheer determination drove the team to make the film with a cast consisting wholly of newcomers . Those who watched the film at the ICCR couldn`t have missed the tenderness and conviction with which the environment was depicted while the actors came through as real fishermen fighting poverty and sustaining the will to survive. The inspiration drawn from Manik Bandopadhyay hasn`t been acknowledged either in the credits or in the booklet that came with the screening. But Faiz Ahmed Faiz`s daughter, Salima Hashmi, who was present, revealed that the Kolkata connection went well beyond the literary source.
Faiz and Kardar couldn`t have received much help from the ruling dispensation in capturing the lives of people battered by history and bruised by evil forces haunting the village but who refuse to be vanquished with the kind of honesty that comes through in every frame. In doing this, they don`t turn simple people into improbable heroes. They remain simple and credible. The film (titled Day Shall Dawn when it was premiered in London) sustains a soft and poetic tone that is true to the soil. Marie Seaton, biographer of Eisenstein and Ray, wrote: "From East Pakistan has come a history making film....a most moving human document``. Francis Flaherty, chairman of the Robert Flaherty Film Foundation, USA, said: "Of all the films specially screened for me abroad, this is the one I would most like to show...``. There are no records to confirm whether the film was screened in Kolkata or anywhere else in India. Yet the Kolkata connections are pronounced.
Kardar had flown down to persuade Tripti Mitra to play a major role. She was then involved in her theatre group Bohurupee and had appeared in a few films like Dharti Ke Lal (1946). She may not have had any compelling reason to work in a film across the border apart from the curiosity about a new place being discovered in the company of some talented people. The character didn`t really stand out from the rest. Faiz and Kardar may have been more concerned about placing people in the social context to make the whole experience very real. The other major contribution from Kolkata was the music by Timir Baran and the soft strains of the sitar produced almost the same effect as Ravi Shankar`s music in Pather Panchali. What really stood out was the extraordinary camerawork by Walter Lassally who was later drawn into the free cinema film movement and the British New Wave in the early sixties. He was assisted by Sadhan Roy in capturing life with all its absorbing detail while Santi Kumar Chatterjee assisted the director. An interesting name figuring in the credits was that of Zahir Raihan.He had become part of the protest movements in East Pakistan and had been moving in and out of jail. It was during the brief period that he was out of jail that he assisted Kardar. It was the training ground for the young film~maker who, after Bangladesh became free, directed the film that took the country by storm – Stop Genocide.
The film does have its rough edges resulting predictably from the tough conditions under which it had been made. There are only a few words spoken in Bengali and the government must have made sure that the film never got the exposure it deserved. Fortunately, it has resurfaced after more than 50 years. Although the negative is said to be lost, a print has survived in London and hence there are still hopes of the film being restored and preserved. The cinema has moved on and, after all these years, it may not create the same impact that Pather Panchali did. It remains a landmark all the same and confirms that the avant~garde had reached Pakistan as well.

2011-11-26

Reporting Workshop with Sam Rajappa: 9 ~ 12 November 2011

A workshop on newspaper reporting was held at the Statesman Print Journalism School from 9 November to 12 November 2011. It was conducted by veteran journalist and founder-director of SPJS, Mr Sam Rajappa. Mr Rajappa began his career as a sub-editor with the Free Press Journal in Bombay, in 1960. He joined The Statesman two years later, and other than two brief breaks~ in 1980, to set up the South Indian network of India Today, and in 1996, to launch The Andhra Pradesh Times, an English daily published from Hyderabad~ has been associated with The Statesman ever since. He was also BBC’s South India correspondent for fifteen years.

The workshop was intended to help the students of SPJS hone their skills at the finer aspects of writing a good newspaper report. For three whole days (9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.), Mr Rajappa explained the basic topics of news reporting with special emphasis on identifying the tone of a report, what makes a report news-worthy, and how to search for real news amid trivial details. Alluding to a short poem by Rudyard Kipling, he pointed out the significance of the five Ws and one H in writing a good report. The issues of writing “crisp” headlines, relevant as well as attractive leads, and “catchy” caption writing were also discussed in details, as these are vital tools to attract the readers. In between the lectures each day, students were given interesting assignments on the topics discussed, giving them an opportunity to practice report-writing. The extensive sessions of learning were rewarded with thrilling stories and shocking revelations about the Bofors deal and Rajiv Gandhi`s assassination, the more recent 2G scam and the Koodankulam nuclear power plant project among others.

There was also a day dedicated to on-the-field reporting. Students were taken to Budge Budge, a town in the South 24 Paraganas district of West Bengal, a place of historical significance. The students learnt about the Komagata Maru incident leading to the Budge Budge Riot and its importance (though strangely neglected and mostly forgotten) in the nation`s history of the struggle for freedom. They were asked to pair up and conduct interviews of the locals, and then write a report.

Mr Rajappa`s workshop not only taught the students to write proper reports, but also identify mistakes themselves and improve upon it. It helped them develop an understanding of how the current media, especially print, functions and what is expected from young, aspiring journalists today. The four-day workshop was enriching and encouraging and left the students groping for more.


(written by Arpita Banerji, Chritopher Gonsalves, Nikhil Sen, Romita Chatterjee and Trina Chaudhuri)

2011-10-31

Study tour of Santiniketan

Students of the Statesman Print Journalism School along with the Director and Administrative Officer went on a three day study tour of Santiniketan from 23 to 25 September, 2011. Santiniketan is proposed to be declared a International Heritage Zone considering the long history of sustaining a unique culture that covers both education and social development. This was started by Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore during the early years of the 20th century and the ideas and rituals that started with him have survived to this day when India is celebrating his 150th birth anniversary with a wide range of programmes.

The basic idea of taking the students on the study of Santiniketan was to give them a first hand experience of the unique environment not only in Visva Bharati, the university that Tagore set up in1921, but the town itself along with the contiguous village of Sriniketan which was developed as a centre for the promotion of local crafts. On the one hand, the students were witness to the idea of imparting education in the lap of nature. Classes were held in the open conforming to the idea that the natural environment left a positive impression on the mind. The SPJS students, for example, visited the Art Department called Kala Bhavan and found students from Thailand engaged in sculpture drawing inspiration from the striking work left behind on the campus behind the legendary sculptor Ramkinkar Baij.

It was an educative four hour drive from Kolkata along the Durgapur Expressway that provided glimpses of the industrial growth in the districts of Hooghly and Burdwan. The students witnessed a number of industrial units along the highway, pointing to the social changes that have occurred over the last few years. But the focus was on discovering the land and the culture associated with the Nobel Laureate. Soon after arriving at Santiniketan on 23 September, the students were taken on an educational tour of the Visva Bharati campus by Professor Bimal Mukherjee, head of the department of philosophy at the university. He has been teaching at Visva Bharati for a long time and is now a resident of the town. He answered all the queries of the students on the different departments of the university, their history and how education was imparted in the environment that is a major attraction for visitors.

Professor Mukherjee showed the SPJS students establishments like China Bhavan which Tagore had set up for the promotion of Chinese studies. Walking all the pathways towards the old houses that had the different departments in the refreshing greenery was an experience hard to forget for the students after their experiences of education in big cities. Fed with all the information that Professor Mukherjee offered, the curiosity of the students was so aroused that they returned to the campus again the next morning. On 24 September, they visited all the houses in which Tagore had lived during his years in Santiniketan which have now been converted into museums. Here they found the personal belongings that Tagore had used which have been preserved meticulously by the Visva Bharati authorities. The houses covered different phases of the life of Tagore presented through a wealth of archival material like photographs and paintings and drawings done by Tagore himself. The main Rabindra Bhavan museum which also has the replica of the Nobel medal is closed for repairs under the aegis of the Archaeological Survey of India.

In the afternoon, the SPJS students were given an opportunity to explore the villages surrounding Santiniketan. They visited a village market called a `haat` where the villagers came with goods and items they had themselves produced. They also visited Banalakshmi at Sriniketan, which is a centre for local crafts and cottage industries, and had a meal in the style that was appropriate in the rural environment.

On the final day, the SPJS students were invited to a workshop organised by the Mass Communication Department of Visva Bharati. They got an opportunity to get basic information on some films made by the students on the literacy campaign in the area with specific reference to the gender divide. Some portions of the films were seen but after discussions between the SPJS Director and the head of the Mass Communication Department of Visva Bharati, it was proposed that there should be a further interaction between the students of the two institutions either in Kolkata or in Santiniketan. In the afternoon, SPJS students drove back to Kolkata enriched by the cultural experience and by the exposure to an important chapter of Bengal`s social history.

2011-10-27

SPJS STUDENTS VISIT THE INDIAN MUSEUM

Students of the Statesman Print Journalism School were taken on a day-long tour of the Indian Museum in Kolkata on August 20, 2011. It was a study tour of the oldest museum in the Asia Pacific region, the ninth oldest museum in the world and one of Kolkata`s most celebrated landmarks. It houses the largest collection of its kind in India and is rich in its documentation of ancient history. The museum was established at the Asiatic Society, Calcutta, by the Danish botanist, Dr Nathaniel Wallich, on February 2, 1814. In 1878, it was transferred to the present building on Chowringhee Road. The museum is now an autonomous institution under the Department of Culture, Govt. of India. There are over sixty galleries of Art, Archaeology, Anthropology, Palaeontology, Geology Zoology and Botany. The Publication Department is a great resource for various books, journals and periodicals.

The SPJS students, many of whom were visiting the museum for the first time, with the intention of writing a report, marvelled at the Zoology section which houses a vast collection of fossil remains of birds, animals, fishes, mammals from different ages- from 10ft long tusks of Stegodon ganesha (that lived more than two million years ago) to the gigantic shell of the extinct tortoise. Minerals and rocks from different parts of India comprise the Geology section. Terracotta and pottery items from pre-Mauryan, Mauryan and various dynastic eras around 9 and 10 century A.D. adorn the Minor Art gallery. Paintings from Bengal featuring works of Jamini Roy, Nandalal Bose, Abanindranath Tagore and others from the Bengal school, as well as paintings from the Mughal and Persian times comprise the rest of the Art gallery. A specially popular section is the Egyptian gallery that displays a mummified body and other relics from Egypt.

The vast corridors of the beautiful building are adorned by sculptures of characters from Indian mythology the ten avatars of Vishnu, Buddha`s footprints from Myanmar and Bihar, India , metal sculptures of Ganesha and Nataraja and other interesting items like the 250 million years old fossil tree, Dadoxylon SP, and the skull of the Indian carnivorous dinosaur Rajasaurus Narmadaenis. A reproduction of the Ashoka pillar of Sarnath (the symbol became the official emblem of the Republic of India) in black stone, stands on the landing of the wide, white marble staircase. A 1877 statue of Victoria by Mahatab Chand Bahadur sits on first floor landing. An enlightening sense of history is provoked as we watch the delicate Moghul reproduction of Madonna and the Child from 1615 A.D. Just as appallingly, we notice a slice of evolution unfold as we walk through the galleries displaying the many species of monkeys and apes.

Certain parts of the Indian Museum were closed due to the ongoing, extensive renovation work. Yet, the exercise in writing a report on the museum treasures was as fruitful as the visit itself.

2012-01-27

Where it all began

The editorial page of the Statesman, just below the masthead, carries these following words everyday (barring Sundays)~incorporating and directly descended from the FRIEND OF INDIA~founded 1818. These words give a certain gravitas to the words cramming the rest of the page and make them feel part of a printing tradition that has been around for almost two centuries.

The students of the Statesman Print Journalism School got a rare opportunity of visiting that place where FRIEND OF INDIA was born, the predecessor of THE STATESMAN. Serampore is a pre~colonial town on the right bank of the Hooghly River. It was part of Danish India under the name Frederiksnagore from 1755 to 1845. The professor for environmental studies, Dr Ashish Ghosh, accompanied us and acted as guide, having a first hand knowledge about the place and its history.

The Friends of India was a quarterly started in 1818 by the trio, William Carey, Joshua Marshman and William Ward, the stalwarts who made Serampore a household name. It was brought out by the Serampore Mission Press. The printing press had arrived in India by the 16th century and the first newspaper came out in Bengal in 1780. The newspaper was started by the friends of India group to proselytise. Some of the editions of these publications are preserved in three neatly bounded volumes in the Carey museum in Serampore college. The museum also documents the times and the personalities that brought about the creation of one of the oldest educational institutes in the country. The prime among which was William Carey. Carey was born in England amidst poverty and came to India in 1793 as part of his missionary work with the Baptist missionary society. Because of the hostilities of the east India Company the missionaries settled in the Danish colony in Serampore. With the help of William Ward and a second hand printing, Rev Carey oversaw the translations of the Bible in Bengali, Sanskrit, and other major languages and dialects. Many of these languages had never been printed before.
Carey also translated literature and sacred writings from the original Sanskrit into English to make them accessible to the British.
In 1818, the mission founded Serampore College to train indigenous ministers for the growing church and to provide education in the arts and sciences to anyone regardless of caste or country. The King of Denmark granted a royal charter in 1827 that made the college a degree~granting institution, the first in Asia.
Mrs Dipti Rani Gini, the curator of Carey musuem, and assistant professor in Christian minister, narrated the history of the college and the life of William Carey as we stood in front of the main college building with massive corinthian columns. Students lounged on the steps leading to the portico, some practised cricket in the college ground on a matted wicket. She led the way to the musuem, which was a relatively modern building (estd 1993), which like all museums tried to showcase a slice of life as it was during a certain period in history.
The ground floor of the roughly circular two~storey building contains a bust of Carey and the walls are inlaid with imitation tombstones of the founders of the college, including William Carey and Ward Marshman. Carey`s epitaph read~....
The main attraction of the musuem is Carey memorabilia, including a library in an annexure that contains his collection of books. Apart from his letters and writing samples, the musuem also contains articles that he used in his daily life~ his pen, medicine cabinet, desk. Sample pieces of translations of the bible done in various Indian languages are also on display, so are the usual photographs, maps and sketches. There are a few interesting deviation from the Carey theme, primary among them a prehistoric carving spear that was discovered on the site of the college and preserved with care.
Though the books in the library looked fragile and gave the odour of old paper and glue, the collection was worth in gold. According to Ms Gini there was a first edition copy of Charles Darwin`s Origin of species in there somewhere, then there were books whose titles had gone invisible on the spines. Finally, we got to see, and which according to our teacher Mr AK Ghosh was the purpose of the visit, the Friend of India publication. It was preserved in three volumes in a thick green cardboad binding. The pages were brittle and it seemed a touch would crumble them. Some of us took turns to hold that book in our hand with a lot of reverence. Some people admired it from a distance and we were told that it was a first a quarterly publication, later to become a monthly and finally, after many alteration, took the shape of the Statesman.
Dr Ghosh explained elaborately how the tourism department as well as the government of West Bengal
have been unwilling to maintain or preserve these heritage sites and have been adamant on denying their indifference towards the same. The grave of Sir William Carey is in shambles and does not require a special mention. Tucked away in the corner of a small garden, with no care for his tombstone, William Carey`s memories have been buried along with him, except for those at the theology department of Serampore College who carry on with his good work.
So it goes, as Kurt Vonnegut told us, and as time proves and I thought looking out of the window at the Hooghly(. A few from the Danish monarchy hung on the wall in a room reserved for research and reading and highlight of which was a huge circular table. By the entrance was a very detailed map of Serampore. On the table were a few Indians talking about an Englishman who came to India in the late eighteenth century to preach Christianity. Such is the detail and incongruity of history and more reason for it to be preserved. And especially the period that the current museum documents. The genesis of modern India lies in that period. The late eighteenth and the early nineteenth century India not just came in contact with the renaissance of the west but also rediscovered its rich cultural heritage.
After a quick bite at a restaurant in Chandernagore, we visited the The Dupleix Museum, one of the oldest and finest museums of the entire region. It boasts a beautiful collection of French antiques, like cannons used in the Anglo~French war, some exquisite wooden furniture, oil paintings of famous personalities like, Michael Madhusudan Dutta, Sri Aurobindo. Crafts in Terracota from Krishnanagar were also displayed. We came to know of the entire history of Portuguese, British, Danish, French and Dutch settlements in this region. The First French Colony had been set up at Chandannagar in 1722. DIG DURSUN was the first Bengali magazine and SAMACHAR DARPAN was the first newspaper to be published form Chandannagar in April 1818 and May 1818 respectively.
Soon it was time for us to return, and we were surprised to note about time which had passed so quickly. We were all enriched and enlightened by the visit. The places oozed history from every corner, with each brick having a tale to tell.

SPJS students.