Dalit journalists in India believe caste-based discrimination and antagonism against them are pervasive in the mainstream media.
Over the last three months, I interviewed students who were admitted to Indian media institutes in the ‘reserved’ category and are, or were, journalists. I also spoke to
Dalits who entered the media directly. Altogether, I interacted with 21 Indian Dalit journalists, of whom 12 have left, or would quit journalism in case they were to get better career options. Caste-based discrimination was ranked as the principal factor why Dalit journalists want to leave the media.
Discrimination in its most severe form was experienced in the Hindi and other regional language media. Dalits having ambiguous surnames, often adopted to conceal their caste, invited relentless questioning from upper caste colleagues.
At the disclosure or identification of their Dalit identity, most of the 21 journalists reported harassment and deliberate targeting that was manifest in denial of promotions and increments.
When Naveen Kumar was employed in a premier Hindi tv channel, his boss began to pester him to divulge his caste. On Naveen’s disclosure that he belonged to the Bairwa caste, his boss began calling him by his caste: “Bairwa do this, Bairwa do that.”
Sangh Priy Gautam, a Hindi journalist in Agra, was laid off in Meerut and approached an influential acquaintance to recommend him to an editor in Haryana. Within hours, Sangh Priy received a text message asking whether he was a Brahmin. “Why do you want to know that?” asked Sangh Priy. The acquaintance replied: the editor (in Haryana) is Brahmin and wants to hire a Brahmin.
In Hyderabad, Chanti Kranti Kiran, who is the Input Editor of V6 News, was asked within a few days of joining his first job what his caste was. In response to his reply, his boss said, “You were hired because we thought you were Brahmin.”
Their experiences appear inordinately tragic because many of them had overcome terrible odds to enter the media. For instance, Santosh Valmiki, principal correspondent at the Hindustan newspaper in Lucknow, would as a child accompany his mother as she went from house to house cleaning toilets. He hawked newspapers to finance his college education. Despite over two decades of experience, he rued he was passed over for promotion. “Those junior to me in the profession have become editors,” he said, arguing that connection and patronage are important to rise in career.
But Dalits are poorly represented in the media and consequently have no friends in high places to bank upon.
In fact, at times, the desire to transform an unequal, oppressive society prompts Dalits to take to the media. For instance, Ved Prakash, assistant producer in Total tv, decided to become a journalist following the beating he was subjected to by an upper caste bully in a Bihar village where he taught in a school. The upper caste villagers resented a Dalit teaching their children.
Satyendra Murli, now with Hindustan, witnessed his mother and sister thrown out of the village temple. In many ways, Dalits become sorely disappointed when they find that the Indian media, which professes to be progressive, tends to reflect the inequalities of the larger social system.
Instances of caste-based antagonism against Dalits was less prevalent in the English language media. But even here, one woman journalist had to face a boss who was harassingly curious about her caste because of her ambiguous surname.
Dalit journalists in the English media also felt deeply insulted by the disparaging remarks of their colleagues against Dalit leaders in discussions. Their failings, they claimed, were often stereotypically portrayed as arising from their caste.
D Karthikeyan of The Hindu recounted such discussions in the newsroom of the newspaper’s Madurai bureau until the conversations became so objectionable that he complained to the bosses. The bureau got a warning.
Many Dalit journalists were rethinking their decision to continue in journalism. Their poor presence in the media has serious implications for news coverage in India. Telugu columnist Mallepalli Laxmaiah says media coverage is determined by five Cs – controversy, crime, cinema, cricket, and corporate. “Violence against Dalits comes under crime and is consequently covered. All other aspects of their life don’t make for a story,” he said.
Perhaps this is why Indian mainstream media speaks to and about upper caste, middle class India.
Read also:
Longer version in The Hoot
Champion of justice