Terrorism and urdu media

A serious research work on the approach of the Indian print media towards terrorism was brought out by India Policy Foundation (IPF) in March 2009. The book, ” Terrorism and the Indian Media” (English) & AAtankwad aur Bhartiya Media(Hindi) was released on March 9, 2009 in Delhi. It evoked a constructive discussion on its content in teh media. http://www. bhadas4media. com/ , http://sabyaweb. blogspot. com, http://www. haindavakeralam. com, http://requestingtruth. blogspot. om, Pratham Pravakta (edited by Shri Rambahdur Rai), Dainik Bhaskar, Rozanama Rashtriya sahara, Urdu Times, Zadid Khabar, Outlook (Hindi) and others published commentary on the book and its content and review.

Its first edition(Hindi version) was sold within three weeks of its publication and the second edition is expected to hit the market soon. The work critically analyses the role of Indian print media in dealing with the issues of terrorism on the one hand and makes a comparative study of the approach of English, Hindi and Urdu newspapers towards terrorism on the other.

It includes the study of almost all national Hindi and English dailies and 25 Urdu newspapers published across the country . It traces the evolution of media’s perspective towards terrorism. It finds that 26/11 had proved to be a turning point for the Indian media. It changed the conventional approach of the media which perceives the events of terrorism in domestic(law and order ) context. Earlier media analysed terrorist attacks from law and order and communal perspectives.

The issues like the demolition of the disputed structure in Ayodhya(1992), the Gujarat riots(2002), Muslim backwardness etc were discussed in reports and analyses while examining terrorism in India . Thus terrorism was largely, in the worldview of the Indian media , a product of domestic factors which could be deterred by good governance, alertness of police forces and removal of the backwardness of minority communities. 6/11 shattered such perception of the media. The Indian media created a strong public opinion in favour of the stricter laws (like POTA) to combat terrorism and it realised that the terrorism in India was intrinsically linked with the global terrorism/Jihad. The Indian media by and large became the votary of Hard State instead of its earlier advocacy of Soft State. The book also discusses the link between terrorism and media.

The terrorists and their ideologues use media to communicate the message of terror and ideology behind it, not only to their potential victims, but also to their potential supporters and recruits. That’s why the former British Prime Minister Mrs Margret Thatcher characterised media as an” oxygen of terrorism”. The book evaluates western debate on media and terrorism and traces its relevance in the Indian context. The most significant aspect of the book is inclusion of Urdu newspapers in the study.

Till now there has not been any comprehensive study on the Urdu papers’ perspective on terrorism. Their inclusion is not only acknowledgement of their importance in generating public opinion but also it enlightens non -Urdu readers towards the Urdu media. This is the beginning of the debate and it brings out the Urdu papers from the self imposed seclusion. The reaction and rebuttal of the Urdu papers proves the success of the work.