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Wednesday, Aug 15, 2007
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India more in news but is it good news?

Hasan Suroor

Anything that Indians do is judged against the claim that they are now big boys out to conquer the world

India faced less scrutiny when it was regarded as just another Third World country.

London: No doubt, the days when India barely figured in the British media except as bad news are behind us thanks to the country’s new status as an emerging (super?) power, but it is still, mostly, bad or frivolous news. Ironically, because of the expanded coverage there is more of it; and it comes with expressions of horror that despite its galloping economic growth and aspiration to become a leading power India remains stuck in poverty and corruption.

The staple diet is Bollywood and the lifestyle of India’s new elite contrasted with continuing grinding poverty; creaking public services; illiteracy; female infanticide; and corruption. Typical images out of India continue to be those of slums (invariably framed against the backdrop of gleaming skyscrapers); children begging at traffic lights; people perilously hanging on to rickety buses; and labourers pushing carts as BMWs and Jaguars whiz past.

“Mumbai labourers trudge past a bill advertising the ‘soft superpower’ — a new film from Bollywood,” read a caption to a photograph in last week’s New Statesman. In another picture of a man sellin g generators in New Delhi, the magazine noted that India’s capital “like other Indian cities suffers frequent power cuts.”

The arrest of a politically influential Delhi businessman over allegations of being involved in a land scam is just the sort of story that is enough to puncture “new” India’s image of itself. No wonder the British media played it up as an example of corruption in India and the nexus between corrupt politicians and bureaucrats, on the one hand, and greedy businessmen on the other. Even The Economist had a go at it giving it nearly one-and-a-half columns.

Negative story

Another negative story from India, highlighted in the British media in recent weeks, included the discovery of the remains of several female foetuses, just days after India elected a woman to the country’s highest office. The discovery took some of the shine off the hype over Pratibha Patil’s election which, in the version it was reported in the U.K. press, was itself overshadowed by the controversies relating to her family’s business dealings.

The BBC was quick to remind its audience that the case of aborted female foetuses was not a one-off incident but reflected the continuing gender bias in India despite laws against it. “According to one report, 10 million female foetuses may have been aborted in India over the past 20 years. India, where boys have traditionally been favoured over girls, banned gender selection and selective abortion in 1994,” it pointed out.

British readers were also treated to the plight of an Indian industrialist’s wife who complained of harassment by her husband and his family over dowry. Her story was presented, rightly, as the dark side of Indian society, which despite its economic progress, remains mired in socially regressive practices especially in relation to women.

India faced less scrutiny when it was regarded as just another Third World country expected to be poor, backward, and corrupt. But in its new, post-liberalisation, avatar, it is watched more closely and anything that Indians do is j udged against the claim that they are now big boys out to conquer the world. The only time India seems to “shine” is when it is compared with Pakistan — as in the coverage of the 60th anniversary of Indian Independence.

Special media focus

The event has been marked by a spate of radio and TV programmes, special newspaper reports, anniversary issues, and commentaries with the focus mostly on India while Pakistan, portrayed as a failed or a failing state, getting only a walk-on role. India alone featured in the special issues brought out by the New Statesman, The Times, and The Independent.

This was New Statesman’s “nth” special issue on India and the buzz is that the magazine is desperately trying to tap the Indian market, and looking for a partner there. The Independent, which alr eady has an Indian associate, did a six-page report on “India at 60.” The Times, with its old colonial ties with the subcontinent , had a “India Special” on travel, India’s sights and sounds.

The BBC’s coverage, in the form of an India-Pakistan season, was more even-handed. It sent a British Indian and a British Pakistani on a passage to their countries of origin from where they reported “on camera” as they travelled.

Actor and comedian Sanjeev Bhaskar (for those who may not have heard of him, he is also the husband of the better known Meera Syal) travelled to India feeling the pulse of modern India, listening to stories of Partition and then crossing over to Pakistan to find his father’s native village which he fled during Partition.

Saira Khan, a British Pakistani entrepreneur, who journeyed to Pakistan finally reaching her own ancestral village in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, introduced us to a Pakistan the outside world didn’t know.

The BBC does these things well, though there has been some criticism that its approach had echoes of the “raj” relying too much on feel-good nostalgia and mushy images than asking the hard questions. But as a birthday tribute, it wasn’t bad at all. At least, it wasn’t bad news.

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