In India the print media is mostly owned by large business houses with a variety of trade and commercial interests, and they are keen to propitiate Hindu religious interests. As a reaction to the propagation of the majority viewpoint, and many times out of their own vested interests, smaller non-Hindu sections of the media promote their own religious lobbies. In an atmosphere which is vitiated by such propaganda it is very difficult for the ordinary citizen to sift fact from fiction. When there are inter-religious disturbances, the media go to town with their distorted version of the happenings, depending on whichever vested interest they represent, so adding fuel to the fire of communal passions. This naturally increases the intensity of the conflict, thereby promoting their agenda and sometimes their self fulfilling prophecies. Usually, after a few days of mayhem order does return. Since the average citizen of India is mostly a peace-loving person, the media stokes the fires of communal passions proactively. They are kept burning with a low key program of soft communal agenda and promotion of various types of superstition. This article will deal with the manner in which the print media uses religion.

Almost every newspaper has a column on religious propaganda – even the most so-called progressive ones. There are some exceptions to these like those published by some of the left front parties. The largest selling newspaper in India, The Times of India, carries regularly on its editorial page, columns like the ‘Speaking Tree’ which is a vehicle for the “thoughts” of reactionary elements of Hindu leanings while on certain days like Christmas or Eid token write ups are carried authored by those professing other religions. As the author has experienced, there is nothing pertaining to the scientific temper, Humanism of any type or rational thinking ever printed in this column. If one were to send reactions to the drivel published therein they would never be published.

Take the so-called progressive newspaper The Hindu (it has supposedly nothing to with eponymous religion) originally started from the southern town of Madras (now renamed Chennai). It carries a regular column called ‘Religion’ which has write-ups like ‘God’s graciousness’ (loving devotion to God is an end to itself as a devotee who has reached such heights of devotion transcends all duality and exists only for His sake). Another one, ‘Karma – a binding force’ quotes Swami Paramarthananda as follows:

“The universal law of Karma is a binding factor on all human beings. This manifests itself as the joys and sorrows one experiences in life as a consequence of one’s past deeds, good and bad. What is the solution for these? …the Karma Kanda section of the Vedas suggests ritualistic solutions for the varieties of problems the mankind faces while also offering methods and skills for diagnosing them.”

If this is the sort of thing published in a newspaper with a ‘progressive’ outlook one can imagine what the others do.

With reference to the newspapers published in Indian languages, the biases are even more blatant and their role in the spread of superstitions and communal hatred is legendary. In the state of Gujarat the newspapers belonging to a certain section incited passions and actively assisted in the Muslim genocide of 2002.

In Muslim dominated areas like the city of Hyderabad in southern India the Urdu press (Urdu is a language identified with the Muslim community) has incited riots, communal hatred and intolerance. In his hometown of Mangalore in the southern state of Karnataka, the author can vouch for the role of the local and state level newspapers in pursuing a hidden communal agenda with a view to making it as communally polarised as the state of Gujarat. The largest circulating newspaper of the region called Vijaya Karnataka was first owned by a transport baron who later on joined the right wing Bharatiya Janata Party (which was instrumental in opening up communal tensions in 1992 with the destruction of the Babri Mosque in North India, a structure owned by both Hindus and Muslims to be communally sensitive, thus unleashing communal riots in the entire country), got elected as a Member of Parliament on their ticket, resigned from that and started his own party. During his ownership, the newspaper was promoting his ideology. The newspaper was taken over by The Times of India group, arguably the largest media group in the country but the editorial policy did not change. The newspaper caters to all sorts of superstitions and carries columns one of which called all Muslims ‘terrorists’ and had to face their ire. One thing in common to all of the columnists is the hatred towards the forces of reason, rational and Humanist thought.

In the area where I reside, the largest circulated newspaper called the Udayavani is unique in having no editorial section. This lack does not mean that it has no agenda – in that department this rag is very strong. It promotes the communal interests of one community and the upper castes in particular. It goes to great lengths to glean pearls of communal wisdom and stories of so-called miracles from everywhere. As is the usual practice, reactions to these are never carried and even if carried are heavily edited and the debate distorted to make it appear as if the forces of rational thought have been defeated.

Thanks to these, minor incidents like a Muslim vendor pricking a girl with a needle have been projected as Hindus being infected with AIDS, minor quarrels between communities projected as major riots (the resulting reactions fulfilling their own prophecies). In another case a tableau depicting a Muslim bowing before a Hindu goddess (which was a part of a local legend in which there is a temple built for that goddess by a Muslim and named after him) resulted in communal riots. These resulted in almost three days of round the clock curfew in certain areas and the loss of several dozen innocent lives. All this because the media had projected such a minor incident as a great affront to the faith of some. This has been going on for a long time and has resulted in benefit to the Hindu right who have gained a lot of political advantage. The Bharatiya Janata Party has won several seats to the legislative bodies.

One may question why voices of reason are not raised against these. The unpalatable truth is that the media is in the hands of a few powerful barons who claim to mould public opinion.

The new age guru Ravi Shankar who attaches two ‘Sris’ before his name (it is like being addressed as Mr.,Mr.!) and titles like Guruji Maharaj (Lord and Mentor Supreme) is promoted by the media as a saviour of mankind. He promotes something called art of living, probably implying that those do not undergo his course are dead, which is a mishmash of yoga and some Hindu superstitions. All his fame has been due to the support of a section of the media and unreserved acceptance by others. Then there is one Ram Kishen Yadav, who calls himself Baba Ramdev (Father Ramdev), who claims to be a yoga expert and promises health for all and cures for every possible disease through his untested, unproved concoctions. He is almost solely a product of media hype. The success of these godmen is probably due to their publicity on TV channels, but the print media has also played a large role in promoting them.

On the other hand, rational forces within the media can find themselves harassed by the law under various obscure sections of the Indian Penal Code. When B.V.Seetaram, columnist of the Kannada newspaper Karavali Ale, questioned the propriety of Jain ascetics going around stark naked and why that did not attract the provisions of the Indian Penal Code on nudity, he was arrested and paraded around in chains like a criminal. On the personal front, when the writer of this article, who is the president of the Federation of Indian Rationalist Associations was queried at a public meeting about the efficacy of cow’s urine as a panacea, he replied that urine of all animals whether a cow or a dog was an excretory product. This was highlighted in a newspaper famous for its reactionary views. It was followed by a campaign orchestrated by statement and the person who made it with threats to prosecute him under any possible sections of the Indian Penal Code. The campaign came to an end only after a legal luminary suggested that no legal action could be taken as the author was a Hindu (despite his claims to the contrary) and that every Hindu had the right to criticise and try for the reform of his own religion!

One has to understand the role of the media in the Indian context to know its effect and efforts to promote religion and related superstitions. Though most of my analysis had been of the Hindu right and its efforts in promoting the Hindutva (radical Hindu) agenda, one cannot discount the role of the followers of the other proselytizing religions like Islam and Christianity. But due to the smaller number of the followers and their realisation that it would better for them to be in the good books of the secular non-believers, they have toned down their attacks against most of us. Of course Taslima Nasrin and Salman Rushdie who have chosen to launch direct attacks on their prophet are exceptions to this! The Christian dominated media is at the very fringes in most of India and they have not succeeded anywhere except in the southern state of Kerala (which has a large Christian population), where they own a newspaper chain. Their utilisation of the media has been mainly through the power of money and claims to empathy from Sonia Gandhi, leader of the ruling Congress Party, whose Roman Catholic origins have made the party faithful obsequious to followers of their leader’s faith. Under these circumstances it is very difficult for Humanists to make our voices heard. We are provided a platform by a very small section of the media sympathetic to us to express our point of view, and sometimes heavily edited versions of our side are also published to make a show of fair play.

Narendra Nayak is President, Federation of Indian Rationalist Associations