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To each, his own tinted glasses

Readers’ antennae are highly sensitive, some ultra sensitive. I have often, while scanning the newspaper, passed over items viewing them as innocuous, only to be jolted out of complacency by reader reactions. Often these are percipient, at times tangential.

Long before some parts of the Muslim world protested against the award of knighthood to writer Salman Rushdie, The Hindu received criticism on the very day the news appeared: not over the award, but over the way Hasan Suroor from Lo ndon reported it. Ajit C. Sandilya of Bangalore was trenchant in his comments and I must quote him so that you have an idea of his anger and unique style. “For long I have refrained myself from railing against the munificent errors” in the newspaper but my “patience today reached the greatest bounds I can bring myself to impose upon it.”

The report, “Rushdie made a knight” (June 17, 2007) had a sentence, “Novelist Salman Rushdie has joined the grand legion of the knights of the non-existent British empire after being awarded knighthood by the Queen for his ‘services’ to literature.” The reader found this “unnecessarily flippant,” humour masquerading as irreverence. He had his own version of history and geography. The British Empire, according to him, today had a different appellation of Overseas Territories (he had a long list of small islands and bits of territories) and it was known to most people (but not to the writer) that the British Empire always included England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, and so on.

Objection was also taken to the word services being in quotes and the use of “legion”. The most glaring mistake was to call this award “Britain’s highest honour”, when what was given was the lowest in the system of knighthood (a long list of orders followed). There was much more in this strain.

That was one omission, Hasan Suroor acknowledged. I have rarely seen him slip on facts in his writings, which are marked by an undercurrent of subtle humour. And literature is his territory (he handled The Hindu’s Literary Rev iew when he was in Delhi). He said he should have clarified that this was the highest civilian award this year. The reader’s definition of the British Empire was something the Queen herself would not recognise. The British Empire is dead and MPs have been demanding an end to honours like OBE and MBE. “Services” was in quotes because that was what the order said. And the reader has no idea how irreverent the British themselves are when discussing the monarchy.

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If that was the response from a reader to an imagined slight to the Empire, on more solid ground were those who protested against a report on President Abdul Kalam, saying he had resorted to a “new format” to convey his willingness to enter the presidential fray. There was neither a communiqué nor a statement by an official spokesman, but only an oral statement. That, according to the special correspondent, was a “clever and new format that permits the option of denial at a later stage.” Arvind B., a student at NIT, Tiruchirapalli, took umbrage at this conclusion which he saw as “an unwarranted attempt at thinking for readers” who can think for themselves whether it is a clever idea or not. “Please stick to reporting, at least on Page 1,” he said. Dr. K. John Mammen of Thiruvananthapuram found it “irreverent, charitably incorrect.” The Hindu has been critical of Mr. Kalam, but that is the editorial writer̵ 7;s prerogative, which a reporter cannot assume.

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An area that provokes readers’ ire is what they consider unnecessary reference to caste in news reports. The specific instances they cited were three stories on different dates a couple of months ago. The comments came from Dushyant Kumar (Baghpat, U.P.), Murali Saranadhi (Chennai), Tandava Krishnan (Hyderabad), and Mahadeva Prashanth (Chennai), among others.

“Girl sets herself afire after rape” said a report on a 12/14-year-old girl, belonging to the Scheduled Caste Bairawa community, who set herself on fire after she was raped by a Dalit youth. “Seven members of Dalit family found dead” narrated the tragedy of another family. “Dalit tortured, FIR against kin” was a report of an attack on a Dalit youth by some of his family for spurning a marriage proposal.

The readers raised these questions: unless the incident is related to the caste of the victim, what purpose does the mention of caste serve? If it is some other caste, is that mentioned? There is a tendency to magnify the crime by giving it a Dalit colour. Does this not perpetuate caste?

The Delhi desk, defending what was done, said these were factual reports, narrating simple, basic facts. There was no suggestion anywhere that the incident took place because those involved were Dalits. What was sought to be highlighted was that caste or community is no bar when it comes to crime.

Why look at everything through caste-tinted glasses, the desk asked rhetorically. Well, that is exactly what the readers ask. Is “dalit” germane to any of these stories? Remove the word, there is no loss of news value. The addition can only be seen as an attempt to add colour, to sensationalise.

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The ultra sensitivity I mentioned at the start can be seen in the objection to the use of “cowshit” by Rohit Brijnath in “Familiar Kiwi is Wright man” (June 13, 2007). S. Visvanathan (Hyderabad) felt a “reputed, decent and dignified” paper like The Hindu should not have allowed the word to creep in. As the Sports Editor rightly pointed out, the word “shit” is edited out if it is used in an offensive or negative sense, or as a swear wo rd. In this case, the columnist was referring to a person cooling his heels in a cattle farm. Of course, cow dung would have meant the same thing. (Dung is also a four-letter word!)

readerseditor@thehindu.co.in

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