Aakar Patel likes “south” India better than “north” and I (and many people) agree. It is cleaner (relative), people are more literate, the weather is better. Personally speaking South is the home of my favorite cricketers (Dravid- Maharashtrian actually, Srinath and Kumble), favorite vacation spot (Munnar), favorite river (Netravati). My wife is a transplanted Malayali. Only in literature and fine arts can other regions dare to compare.
Now the South has taken the lead again. A daily English language broadsheet – Deccan Age- of and by (but hopefully not exclusively for) Muslims will be kicked off soon. Outlook has the details:
Explaining why they decided to take the risk, Sheikh Abdur Rahman, a freelance journalist who is promoting Deccan Age, says there is no Muslim mouthpiece even now to express the community’s concerns. “We hope to be the professionals who will voice the problems of Muslims and other backward sections to the government and to the people,” he says. While the paper will have non-Muslim employees and cover issues related to other marginalized groups, what is controversial is that the management will be completely Muslim. “We want our control, otherwise it is going to be just like any other paper,” he adds.
The goal is to be a “major player nationally with 15 editions, correspondents in neighboring countries and a targeted circulation of 20 lakh copies.”
Funding is being provided by NRIs (non resident indian), which explains the great expectations. The pitfalls are clear. Zafar Khan, editor of the bi-weekly Milli Gazette comments:
With few ads and a limited circulation, the fortnightly has even failed to attract Muslim financiers. “While there are not many big Muslim corporate groups, even the few that exist do not support us for they are afraid they will be labelled communal.”
It is a brave step in the right direction. An exclusive English language paper is a sign of community pride and the fact that they have “arrived.” I know that Zachary feels that Urdu is being downgraded (true), but English holds the key to success. Even the poorest auto-wallah knows this truth. And the best way to learn English is to read the paper on a daily basis. My only hope is that the paper will find a way to target female (especially young) readers.
regards
http://outlookindia.com/article.aspx?282913
A management solely Muslim by rule, already bodes badly. They can be more open minded and bring in any qualified person on the management.
A closed minded approach will make it just another fatwa mouthpiece, reluctant to do any introspection or tread on mullahs toes. Hope I am wrong!!
With respect I disagree. The sentiments that you talk about are already out there in the Urdu press. It would be better if all issues are inspected in the sunlight of a common (international) language (hopefully with an online edition). Even if (as it frequently happens in Mid-East press) the English version is tamped down, that would send a signal. Finally a commercial operation requires revenue from adverts. As mentioned above, if an “anti-national” (VijayTM) stance is taken, then revenue from Muslim sources will also dry up.
regards
I don’t really know about this topic, but I would tend to think it’s good if the Indian Muslims are engaging in English. That would seem to put them in touch with the broader world and should help them over time, I would think. The view in Pakistan (right or wrong) is that it was the less-modern Muslims that stayed in India post-Partition. Obviously such a crude break-down misses lots of interesting cases (like Fareed Zakaria to name just one) but I do wonder how true this is on average. Probably heavily true or not based on geography too.
Well, to the extent that poverty correlates with literacy that should be sort of true, because one significant factor in Muslims staying back in India were the ones without the finances to make the trip, as well as those whose wealth was tied up in land etc. This effect would be less pronounced in the border areas I suppose (Punjab, WB etc).
Any idea what percent of muslims from south india emigrated to pakistan
Apart from Hyderabadi Muslims; I would hazard fairly minimal.
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