Contrary to the times when there was not a single Dalit journalist, Dalits today are accessing all points of progression in the mainstream
The Whites have been mercilessly brutal towards the Blacks. With the setting up of Jamestown, the first White man’s settlement along with the Black slaves, till World War II, Blacks were treated sub-humanly.
Several factors accumulated in ending slavery, stopping Blacks’ lynching and reducing poverty amongst them. The Blacks’ rebellion, Abraham lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation and the growth of urbanisation reinstated a humane treatment of the Blacks, particularly in North America. However, they were still subjected to discriminations in the white collar jobs.
The Civil Rights movement led by Martin luther King Jr had shaken the White man’s conscience. The question of the integration of the Blacks, native Americans and Hispanics with the American mainstream turned into a central issue of debate within the American consciousness.
The American Society of Newspaper Editors (ASNE) carried out a survey in the presence of the Blacks, Native Americans, Hispanics and persons of Asian roots in 1975 which found that the persons belonging to the above categories were only 03.95 per cent whereas their combined share in the American population was approximately 20 per cent.
Since 1978, the ASNE has been encouraging newspapers/journals and News Channels to hire candidates from the excluded categories aggressively. Consequently, by the year 1997, the share of the excluded categories rose to 11.35 per cent in the American media.
For the past 20 years, Blacks/Native Americans/Hispanics journalists have been organising gatherings called UNITY Journalists for Diversity. Even American Presidents join on these platforms.
But what is the situation in IndiaIJ
On November 17, 1996, legendary journalists BN Uniyal published an article in The Pioneer’s edit page titled “In Search of Dalit Journalists”IJ Uniyal was pressed into writing it when a foreign journalist approached him with an unusual request—to interview a journalist who was a Dalit.
“Suddenly I realised that in all the 30 years I had worked as a journalist, I had never met a fellow-journalist who was a Dalit” he wrote.
What was the response of the Editors Guilds or of the Press Council of IndiaIJ Or of the unions of Journalists and individual editors and columnistsIJ They maintained a deadly silence.
A Dalit group in Delhi prepared a memorandum and researched on how often leading newspapers published edited articles on issues related to the Dalits. It was submitted to all the newspapers. No organisation acknowledged receiving it. Chandan Mitra was an exception as the Dalit Diary was born in The Pioneer.
Today, some Dalits are getting into civil services without using any quota. Some are also competing globally and enrolling into American universities; while some are blooming in businesses. There are also some who have won medals in the Asian Games. But they find it difficult to survive in the media and film industries.
The upper caste media propagated Anna Hazare and subsequently, the AAP. But did they organise panel discussions on how a man who dupes the state of lakhs of rupees can be considered a crusader against corruptionIJ How can a lady charging money from multiple groups for the same air ticket could be an anti-corruption campaignerIJ How can Anna who beats people who are caught smoking or eating non-veg in his village be compared with GandhiIJ
Was it because Anna Hazare and the AAP have been questioning all those institutions which empathised with the Dalits and other excluded groupsIJ Sure, the upper caste treats media as the Upper Caste Republic and completely excludes of the Dalits/Adivasis from media.