Articles
Indian Muslim
By Yoginder Sikand,
Kerala's Muslims, who form roughly a quarter of the state's
population, are among the most literate Muslim communities in India..
A major reason for, as well as a consequence of, the community's high
literacy rate is the thriving Muslim-owned Malayalam press. Today,
literally hundreds of magazines, journals and newspapers are brought
out by various Kerala Muslim organizations. These deal not simply with
religion (as in the case of many north Indian Muslim-owned
publications) but with social and political issues as well. These
publications have played a crucial role in promoting social and
political awareness among Kerala's Muslims and in getting Muslim views
and concerns across to fellow Malayali non-Muslims and to the state
authorities and in promoting closer interaction between the various
communities in Kerala.
Set up in 1987 by the Ideal Publications Trust, most of whose members
are affiliated with the Kerala unit of the Jamaat-e Islami, Madhyamam
is regarded as the most successful Muslim-owned daily newspaper in
Kerala. It boasts the third highest circulation among all Malayalam
daily newspapers in the state. Its chief editor O.Abdur Rahman
stresses that it is not a specifically Muslim or an Islamic paper.
'Madhyamam is geared to all Malayalam readers and takes up general
issues, while focusing in particular on those related to marginalized
and minority communities, including Dalits, Adivasis and Backward
Castes, and not just Muslims alone. We see it as the voice of the
voiceless', he states. 'We have been consistently anti-imperialist,
supporting a range of liberation movements and also bitterly
critiquing fascism, extremism in the name of religion and terrorism',
he adds. He describes Madhyamam as 'a value-based paper, stressing
ethics and morals, in contrast to commercial papers, whose sole motive
is profit-making.'
Madhyamam's editorial offices are located in Calicut, the major
intellectual centre for Muslims in Kerala. Currently, it brings out
separate editions from six cities in Kerala—Cochin, Trivandrum,
Cannanore, Mallapuram, Kottayam and Calicut—and two in
Karnataka—Bangalore and Mangalore. Separate Gulf editions, catering to
the half million-odd Malayalis living in Arab countries, come out from
Dubai, Bahrain, Kuwait, Doha, Dammam, Riyadh and Jeddah, making
Madhyamam the largest-circulated Malayalam newspaper in the region. In
addition, the Madhyamam Weekly magazine has a circulation of some
25,000. Currently, the entire Madhyamam group has some 1200 staff on
its rolls, including around 500 full-time journalists.
A major challenge that Madhyamam has had to contend with is lack of
sufficient advertisement revenue. Explains Abdur Rahman, 'Newspapers
survive on money from advertisements, but from the very beginning we
had decided, as a matter of policy, to be very selective about the
advertisements we published. No ads showing immodestly-clad women, no
ads for banks, alchohol, fraudulent investments and movies. This is
why we had to suffer major losses, and even now just manage to break
even.' A portion of the profits that the paper generates is diverted
to the Madhyamam Health Care Programme, which provides free medical
facilities to poor people, irrespective of religion and caste in
hospitals with which it has a tie-up with. In the last six years, some
3000 patients have benefited from the Programme at a cost of 3 crore
rupees.
A major problem that Muslim-run papers face, Abdur Rahman explains, is
the lack of professionally- qualified journalists. It was to address
this concern that last year the Madhyamam Institute of Journalism was
launched. Currently located in the paper's Calicut office, the
Institute offers a one year diploma in journalism. At present, it has
fourteen students—girls and boys, Muslims and Hindus—on its rolls. The
course fee is Rs.20,000. 'This is the only Muslim-run institution of
its kind in Kerala,' says Abdur Rahman. The course involves
considerable hands-on training in Madhyamam itself, and successful
students are likely to be absorbed by the newspaper after they finish.
What lessons does the successful Madhyamam experiment provide for
Muslim-owned media houses in India? How is it that Madhyamam has made
such bold strides, in contrast to many Muslim-run papers in other
parts of the country? Abdur Rahman insists that for Muslim-owned
newspapers in India to be effective must be broad-based in their
appeal and approach, and not limited just to Muslims alone. 'A
Muslim-owned daily newspaper should be secular, and not confined to
simply Muslim community or religious issues,' he says. 'This is the
only way we can present our views and problems to the wider society.
Otherwise, others will not take us seriously and we won't be able to
have any impact outside a narrow Muslim circle. The example of
ghettoized north Indian Urdu papers well illustrates this argument.
Because of our approach, many of our readers are non-Muslims.'
'We do not regularly publish articles on or about religion as such,
limiting ourselves, as any newspaper should, to just news and views
about news', Abdur Rahman elaborates. 'On religious festivals we bring
out special issues, but this is not limited to just Muslim festivals.
We do this for Onam and Vishu—Malayali Hindu festivals—and for
Christmas as well.' He contrasts this ecumenical approach to that of
most Muslim-run publications in other parts of India, which, he
laments, 'focus only on Islam alone, often narrowly defined, and
ignore social issues.'
'At the same time,' Abdur Rahman continues, 'this does not mean that a
Muslim daily newspaper should ignore Muslim concerns. What we in
Madhyamam do is to present news as news, and highlight all relevant
news, and not just developments concerned only with Muslims. But we
also highlight our own views about the news in our editorial pages and
in the columns to which we invite specialists to contribute. In this
way, Muslim perspectives on various developments can be articulated.
We also allow people to critique us in our columns. Muslim papers must
allow this, and abstain from a one-way monologue.'
Another advice that Abdur Rahman gives for Muslim-run papers is to
invite non-Muslim writers to contribute their views. 'A number of
leading non-Muslim intellectuals and social activists write for
Madhyamam.' To make for a healthy work environment, he also suggests
that Muslim-owned papers employ non-Muslim professionals too and not
make themselves into a Muslim-only concern. 'In Madhyamam some forty
per cent of our journalists are non-Muslims—Christia ns, Hindus,
Marxists and atheists. And our staff have their own political leanings
and affiliations. Some are pro-Muslim League, others are with the
Congress, and yet others are with the Communists, but that does not
matter as long as they work in a professional manner,' he says. This
openness to others, he remarks, is a hallmark of Kerala society, where
different religious communities share a common culture and a strong
common identity as Malayalis. 'A major drawback of most Muslim-owned
papers', he opines, 'is the lack of professionalism. A multi-religious
and multi-communal workplace can make much of a difference in this
regard.'
Madhyamam has ambitious plans for the future, says Abdur Rahman. These
include a daily English newspaper, with simultaneous editions from
Delhi, Mumbai, Calcutta, Hyderabad, Bangalore and Chennai, a regular
television channel (that would follow the same media policy as
Madhyamam), as well as new editions from some other locations in
Kerala. Certainly, then, a novel experiment that other Muslim media
houses could learn much from.
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Abdul Karim Chisthi
MD Cptr Sect., Almech Enterprise,
c 15 Industrial Estate, Coimbatore- 641021,
ak@almech.co.in, mobile: 9944497786.
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All my Articles Available At http://karim74.blogspot.com
Assalaamu Alaickum
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