[Reader-list] Representation of Religious and Caste Minorities in Malayalam Media

[SUNDARA BABU]

Concerned Citizens Group

*Representation of Religious and Caste Minorities in Malayalam Media*

*Indian Womens Press Corps*

*Raisina Road, New Delhi*

*23rd December, 2009*

Some of us concerned citizens had issued a statement on 18th December, 2009,
appalled

by the mainstream media reportage of the anticipatory bail hearing of
Soofiya Madani in the

Kerala High Court in connection with her alleged involvement in a conspiracy
that led to the

burning of a Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation bus at Kalamassery,
Kochi in

September 2005. Many of these reports bordered on pronouncing her guilt with
complete

disregard for Judicial processes and the Rule of the Law. This kind of
reportage can be

understood only in the backdrop of a disturbing new trend in the Kerala
media and civil

society vis-a-vis representation of issues and concerns affecting religious
and caste

minorities. This press conference has been convened to present some of our
concerns

regarding this and to appeal to the media and civil society actors to be
more sensitive and

balanced in their coverage of various events.

Apart from vitiating the communal harmony of the state, this trend also
encroaches upon

the fundamental rights of people to fair trial, freedom of speech and
expression, freedom of

association, freedom to practice and preach a religion and right to equality
regardless of

caste and religion; along with other fundamental rights guaranteed under the
Constitution of

India. In this context, we would like to enumerate a few of these media
campaigns and the

obvious religious and caste bias present in them.

*Love Jihad*

It was 2 cases of inter-religious love affairs that the media took up and
blew out of

proportion to create the bogey of “Love Jihad.” In both these cases, what
was involved was

love and attraction between Hindu women and Muslim men, which led to
marriage and the

conversion of the Hindu women into Islam. Following this the mainstream
media in Kerala

went on a rampage, claiming that thousands of women were being lured into
converting to

Islam by Muslim boys who were doing this as part of “Love Jihad.” This led
to Justice K T

Sankaran’s remarks on “Love Jihad” and directions to the police to conduct
investigations on

it.

This campaign not only vilifies women as being incapable of decision-making,
but also

portrays young men of the Muslim community as members of “Love Jihad,”
without any

proper investigation or proof for doing the same. This regressive campaign
was not stopped

even after the Kerala Police clarified that such a phenomenon does not
exist. It has come to

a temporary end only after another judge of the Kerala High Court put a stop
to all

investigations on the issue, saying that saying that one could not target
any particular

community and that “inter-religious marriages are common in our society and
cannot be

seen as a crime.” .

*Dalit Terrorism*

Following the murder of a middle-aged man in Varkala, the media in Kerala
came out with

a new term called “Dalit Terrorism.” Regardless of the identities of the
Victim and the

offender, media reportage on this case very often appeared to have been
written in the

police station. The press bought into the police story that it was activists
of one dalit

organization who had committed the murder. They joined hands with the police
in

reproducing unsubstantiated reports of the existence of a “Dalit terror
network”. This

legitimized the large scale persecution of the organization’s activists by
the police and also

led to violent attacks on them by members of the local Shiv Sena. The media
in Kerala is

party to these atrocities as it had stood with the police in accusing the
organization and its

activists, failing to control the excesses of the police and reinforcing the
existing prejudices

against a historically marginalised community.

*Beemapally*

On May 17, 2009 6 Muslim men from a fishing community were killed and 47
others injured

(27 of them had bullet injuries) in a police firing in Beemapally. Later
studies by Human

Rights organizations brought out “the extremely unjust and criminalized
violence”

committed by the police in Beemapally (NCHRO, Kerala Chapter). The
government also

suspended some police officers as a token measure. However, when the
incident happened,

most of the Malayalam media observed silence on this issue. A few others
reported the

police version of the firing, branding it as “communal tension”. They
promoted the

assumption that it was the provocation by a communally charged mob that had
made the

police resort to firing, and it was wise to keep silence. There was no
analysis or even proper

investigation of the whole incident. In this way, one of the worst incidents
of state violence

in Kerala against Muslim fish workers virtually went unnoticed in the
mainstream media.

All this shows the impunity with which the Malayalam media is treating
issues related to

caste and religious minorities. It easily communalizes every issue related
to the Muslim

community and works to spread hate and suspicion about them. Similarly, it
also

misrepresents caste issues and works to reiterate existing prejudices.

Here, we would like to reiterate that we do not hold a brief for any
individual or organisation

and would like to see the Law take its own course and we would urge proper
investigation,

trial and conviction of any person mentioned above, provided that the
procedure established

by law and Constitutional guarantees are upheld and they are not singled out
by virtue of

their religious or caste identities. We call upon the media to fulfil its
role and check excesses

committed by the State, its agencies or other formations that is likely to
infringe upon the

quality of our democratic polity and uphold values of plurality enshrined in
the Constitution

of India.

by

*John Dayal, Member, National Integration Council*
*K. Satchidanandan, Poet &*
*A. K. Ramakrishnan, Professor, JNU*