INDIAN JOURNALISTS

-Urvashi Sharma
 The Icon of Fearless and Ideal Journalism

When India was under the control of the British, few jewels were born in this
country, who always worried for the upliftment of this country and
sacrificed their body, mind, wealth and soul for the welfare of this country.
One of these magnificent, shining jewels is Bal Gangadhar Tilak. Tilak is
famous for his multi-faceted personality as a philosopher, a mathematician,
promoter of Dharma and a legal expert. He was conferred the title of
‘Lokmanya’.

The idea of creating awareness among the people, take them to a new era
creating new hopes among them and their implementation started taking
root in his mind. As a part of this mission, he decided to start two
newspapers, ‘Kesari’ in Marathi and ‘Maratha’ in English.

He had created small special booklet of three- three and half words. This was
guideline for specific words to be used in newspaper. During 1881 to 1920
Tilak had written 513 editorials. His writings were having different aspects.

LOKMANYA TILAK He had written through the role of journalist, Pandit, Politician and leader.
Upliftment of nation and development of humanity these were his
inspirations of life.
 To ably point out the shortcomings in administration

In the year 1896-97, there was a severe famine in Maharashtra and people
had no food to eat. Tilak wrote an article in ‘Kesari’ and brought it to the
notice of the British Government what were its duties under the ‘Famine
Relief Code’. He also warned the officers who were trying to throttle the
rights of the citizens and made an appeal to the people to fight for justice.
Tilak showed how effectively one can serve the people, remaining within the
frame of law.

Tilak believed in journalism as a right to form public opinion

Lokmanya argued in the Court for 21 hours and 10 minutes against the
charges of treason leveled against him. He clarified that the newspapers have
a right to form public opinion and it is the duty of a newspaper to bring to
the notice of the Government the nature of powers created in the political
life of a country and warn against such powers and he argued that he had
not committed treason.
 As a poet, Subramania Bharati, ignited the minds of people with his verse
and as a journalist, he proved that pen was mightier than the sword.
He gave a political edge to journals in South India and introduced
cartoons as a sarcastic visual form of protest. Unflinching in the face of
imminent arrest, Bharati did not back down on his ideals and provided a
caustic commentary on the British administration.

His journalistic career began as a translator of English inputs into Tamil in

G Subramania Iyer’s Swadesamitran, the first Tamil journal of Madras
in 1881. Bharati was selected for fluency in both English and Tamil.
Working for Swadesamitran, Bharati learned the elements of journalism
-collecting news, translation and proofreading. When partition of Bengal
was announced, Bharati got involved in politics and it made a difference to
his writing, which became hard-hitting. His next journalistic step forward
was as the editor of the new magazine in August 1905 by a Tanjore
businessman Vaidyanatha Iyer. It was in this journal for women,
Chakravarthini, that Bharati wrote his first article on women’s rights.

His journalistic experiments in India opened a door for the f uture

SUBRAMANIA BHARTI of the newspaper and made it popular among the masses.
 Swadeshabhimani K. Ramakrishna Pillai (1878–1916) was a writer,
journalist, Newspaper editor, and political activist in the erstwhile
princely state of Travancore (Kerala, India). He was the editor of the
newspaper Swadeshabhimani (The Patriot) and hence known by the
name.

The criticisms against the Diwan of Travancore, P. Rajagopalachari,

the Government and the Maharajah of Travancore that appeared in his
newspaper irritated the authorities and eventually resulted in the
confiscation of the newspaper and press and he was arrested and exiled
from Travancore in 1910. He wrote Vrithantha Pathra Pravarthanam
(1912), the first book on journalism in the Malayalam language. He also
wrote the biography of Karl Marx (1912) in Malayalam, which was the
first Marx biography in any Indian language.

His pen moved against corruption of the state and injustice in the
society. Ramakrishna Pillai wrote over 20 books in his lifetime and all
K RAMAKRISHNA PILLAI of them are really valuable.
 Shankkar Aiyar is a prominent India-based journalist, analyst, columnist and
author. His path-breaking book, "Accidental India: A History of the
Nation’s Passage through Crisis and Change" has earned him national
acclaim as a public intellectual.

As an analyst, Aiyar specialises in the interface of economics and politics. As a

public intellectual, he comments on how politics impacts people, governance and
the economy. A journalist for over three decades – his 1991 scoop on a
bankrupt India pledging its gold reserves made national headlines – he has won
awards and been at the helm of a national newspaper and newsweekly.

Aiyar, 54, has authored a study on India’s Socio-Economic Fault Lines and its
100 worst districts. His investigation on 25 years of political corruption,
Smoking Guns, is part of an anthology on Indian journalism. He has been a
Wolfson Chevening Fellow at Cambridge University where he studied the Life
Cycles of Emerging Economies.
Aiyar is a columnist with for national newspapers, is empanelled expert on the
political economy for news channels and is invited to decode the interface of

SHANKKAR AIYAR politics and economics for Indian and international audiences. Aiyar is currently
working on evolving demographics and implications for the next economy.
 Anuradha Bhasin is an Indian journalist based in the city of Jammu, who is the
executive editor of the newspaper Kashmir Times. She was a fellow under the
Commonwealth Scholarship and Fellowship Plan for the year of 2016, and has
published in peer reviewed academic journals such as the Journal of Borderlands
Studies,and the Economic and Political Weekly. Bhasin is noted for being one of the
first to conduct in-depth investigative reporting on the psychological aspects of people
living in the Kashmir conflict region.
In 2019, she petitioned India’s top court against the communication and media
blockade in Kashmir.
Born to Vimal and Ved Bhasin, Anuradha has worked at the Kashmir Times since
1989 when she joined the publication as a trainee reporter.
A journalist with three decades of experience in covering Jammu and Kashmir, with
special focus on border issues, Kashmir conflict, and human right, She has offered
fresh perspectives and deeper insights into the different dimensions of the conflict and
is among the first to have done in-depth investigation into the impact of landmines on
the lives of the people living on the borders and psychological impact of Kashmir
conflict.Anuradha has also accomplished several research projects on media reportage,
ANURADHA BHASIN conflict, human rights, and gender and contributes regularly to several newspapers,
magazines, periodicals and anthologies. She is also a peace activist.