Minorities in Indian Urdu News: Ahmadis, Journalistic Practice and Mediated Muslim Identity

Arshad Amanullah

doi:10.3384/cu.2000.1525.2018103367

Authors

Arshad Amanullah Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.3384/cu.2000.1525.2018103367

Keywords:

Urdu News, Field Theory, Journalistic Practices, Ahmadis, Indian Muslims, Mediated Religion

Abstract

A case study of a protest campaign against the Ahmadiyya community in Punjab and its coverage in Urdu language news media of India, this paper locates its narrative at the intersection of media, politics and religion. It seeks to advance the field theory project beyond western media systems by applying it to Indian Urdu news. It demonstrates that the religious field is a neighbouring field of Urdu news and the former wields powerful influence over the latter. Moreover, the religious field with the help of news media uses politics to have its voice heard. The paper specifically reads into the manner in which Urdu dailies covered Majlis Ahrar-e Islam Hind’s (a Muslim interest group) protest campaign to cancel Pranab Mukherjee’s (then Finance Minister of India) visit to Qadian, Punjab in 2009. He was set to participate in an annual function of the Ahmadis who are a persecuted minority group among Muslims. The protest campaign, with an active support of Urdu dailies, got transformed into a media campaign against the Ahmadis and was successful in getting the Minister’s visit cancelled. The paper investigates the dynamics of collaboration between Urdu news and the ulama that made possible transformation of anti-Ahmadi campaign into a media campaign. It attempts to elucidate the uncritical support that Majlis Ahrar-e Islam Hind received from Urdu dailies. For this purpose, it delves into normative structure of Urdu news field and its journalistic practices. It draws attention to their implications for Indian Muslim identity.

Author Biography

Arshad Amanullah, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi

Researcher-Project Manager

Centre for Culture, Media & Governance

References

Amanullah, Arshad (2009): “Is Urdu Journalism in India a Lost Battle?”, Ather Farouqui (ed): Muslims and Media Images: News vs. Views, New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 262-291.

Amanullah, Arshad (2011, July 16): Urdu media me Forbesganj golikand se upje kuch sawal (Questions that arise from the reporting of Forbesganj killings in Urdu print media). Rashtriya Sahara Hindi, p. 2

Ansari, Khalid Anis (2011): “Pluralism, Civil Society and Subaltern Counterpublics Reflecting on contemporary challenges in India through the Case-Study of the Pasmanda Movement”. Pluralism Working Paper Series. Paper no.9. Promoting.

Pluralism Knowledge Program. Utrecht: University of Humanistic Studies, 1-38. Benson, Rodney and Eric Neveu (2005): “Introduction: Field Theory as a Work in Progress”, Rodney Benson and Eric Neveu (eds): Bourdieu and the Journalistic Field, Cambridge: Polity Press, 1-25.

Benson, Rodney (2006): “News Media as a Journalistic Field: What Bourdieu Adds to New Institutionalism, and Vice Versa”, Political Communication, 23: 2, 187-202. https://doi.org/10.1080/10584600600629802

Benson, Rodney (2014): Shaping Immigration News: A French-American Comparison, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Bourdieu, Pierre and Loic Wacquant (1992): An Invitation to Reflexive Sociology, Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Bourdieu, Pierre (2005): “The Political Field, the Social Science Field, and the Journalistic Field”, Rodney Benson and Eric Neveu (eds): Bourdieu and the Journalistic Field, Cambridge: Polity Press, 29-47.

Engineer, Asghar Ali. (1991): “The Press on Ayodhya Kar Seva”, Economic & Political Weekly, 26:20, 1263.

Gandy, Oscar H. (1980): “Information in Health: Subsidised News”, Media, Culture and Society, 2:2, 103-115. https://doi.org/10.1177/016344378000200201

Gandy, Oscar H. (1982): Beyond Agenda Setting: Information Subsidies and Public Policy, Norwood, NJ: Ablex.

Government of India (GoI) (2006): Social, Economic and Educational Status of the Muslim Community in India: A Report. New Delhi: Prime Minister’s High Level Committee (Sachar Committee), Cabinet Secretariat, GoI.

IANS (2009): “Pranab may attend Ahmadiyya congregation in Punjab”, 23 December 2009.

Jeffrey, Robin. (1993): “Indian-Language Newspapers and Why They Grow”, Economic & Political Weekly, 28:38, 2004-11.

Jeffrey, Robin. (1997a): “Hindi Taking to the Punjab Kesari Line”, Economic & Political Weekly, 32:3, 77-83.

Jeffrey, Robin. (1997b): “Punjabi The Subliminal Charge”, Economic & Political Weekly, 32:9-10, 443-45.

Jeffrey, Robin. (1997 c): “Urdu: Waiting for Citizen Kane?”, Economic & Political Weekly, 32: 13, 631-637.

Jeffrey, Robin. (2000): India’s Newspaper Revolution: Capitalism, Politics and the Indian-Language Press, New Delhi: Oxford University Press.

Kamran, Tahir (2013): “Majlis-i-Ahrar-i-Islam: Religion, Socialism and Agitation in Action”, South Asian History and Culture, 4:4,465-482. https://doi.org/10.1080/19472498.2013.824678

Khan, Adil Hussain (2015): From Sufism to Ahmadiyya: A Muslim Minority Movement in South Asia, Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

Marchetti, Dominique (2005): “Subfields of Specialized Journalism”, Rodney Benson and Eric Neveu (eds): Bourdieu and the Journalistic Field, Cambridge: Polity Press, pp.65-82.

Meyrowitz, Joshua (1997): “Shifting World of Strangers: Medium Theory and Changes in ‘Them’ versus ‘Us’ ”, Sociological Inquiry, 67:1, 59-71. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1475-682X.1997.tb00429.x

Mody, Nawaz (1987): “The Press in India: The Shah Bano Judgment and Its Aftermath”, Asian Survey, 27:8, 935-53. https://doi.org/10.2307/2644865

Orsini, Francesca (1999): “What Did They Mean by ‘Public’? Language, Literature and the Politics of Nationalism”, Economic & Political Weekly, 34:7, 409-416.

Press in India 2009-10: 54th Annual Report of The Registrar of Newspapers for India, Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, Government of India.

Qasmi, Ali Usman (2014): The Ahmadis and the Politics of Religious Exclusion in Pakistan, London: Anthem Press.

Rajagopal, Arvind (2001): Politics after Television: Hindu Nationalism and the Reshaping of the Public in India, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511489051

Rao, Ursula (2011): New as Culture: Journalistic Practices and the Remaking of Indian Leadership Traditions, New York: Berghahn Books.

Sigal, Leon (I973): Reporters and Officials, D.C.: Lexington

Smith, Wilfred (1943): Modern Islam in India: A Social Analysis, Lahore: Minerva Book Shop.

Soloski, John (1989): “News Reporting and Professionalism: Some Constraints on the Reporting of the News”, Media, Culture and Society, 11:2, 207-228. https://doi.org/10.1177/016344389011002005

Stahlberg, Per (2002): “The Illicit Daughter: Hindi-Language Newspapers and the Regionalisation of the Public Sphere in India”, Poluha, Eva and Mona Rosendahl (eds): Contesting “Good” Governance: Cross Cultural perspectives on Representation, Accountability and Public Space, London: Curzon Press, 207-236.

Stahlberg, Per (2013): Writing Society through Media: Ethnography of a Hindi Daily, Jaipur: Rawat Publications.

Tankha, Madhur (2011): “Exhibition on teachings of Quran denounced”, The Hindu, 24 September. URL: http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Delhi/exhibition-on-teachings-of-quran-denounced/article2481853.ece

Valentine, Simon Ross (2008): Islam and the Ahmadiyya Jama’at: History, Belief, Practice, New York: Columbia University Press.

Verschooten, Chris, Arshad Amanullah & Stefanie Nijs (2016): “Framing Gharwapsi and Muslim Identity in Indian Print Media”, Stefan Mertens and Hedwig de Smaele (eds): Representation of Islam in the News: A cross-cultural Analysis, Lanham. Boulder. New York. London: Lexington Books, 225-244.