Media Mail – Volume 2 Issue 5
February 1998
Guardians of democracy?
The 12th Lok Sabha will be constituted by the 2nd week of March. And despite the displeasure of a few parties (most of who have gone into opportunistic regional alliances), a coalition government will emerge in India. And if everything goes well, the 13th Lok Sabha will be constituted only in the 21st Century. However, that seems like a distant possibility. Perhaps we will face yet another election in this century itself.
There are some, very vocal people, who believe that a poor country like India cannot afford to bear the cost of repeated elections. Vajpayee and Advani have already promised that, if voted to power, the BJP will ensure that the Lok Sabha lasts its full term and that elections are not held so often. However, in countries like India it is dangerous to define stability as merely the full term of the Lok Sabha. All those who talk of the costs of elections mostly do not caste their votes and abstain from elections. Their life is not effected in any way by the cost of the election. For the common people, however, elections are a celebration of democracy. Mostly elections become a collective festival. Although the directives from the Election Commission has cut down on the festivities around elections, increasingly common Indians are participating in this democratic process. For the common people their vote is the only political weapon with which they can intervene politically and attempt to ameliorate their socioeconomic condition.
The position that the Dalits, backwards and Muslims have achieved today, however limited, is only through their votes. The Shiv Sena, who, after the demolition of the Babri Masjid had proudly claimed responsibility, today are proposing that a national monument, flanked by a temple and a mosque, be erected in that same space. The shift in the stand is not because of the Thackeray’s change of heart but because of the significance of the Muslim vote. The truth is that at the present times in India stability is a euphemism for maintaining status quo.
The hullabaloo of election has also thrown up questions about the role of newspapers and media. As soon as the elections were declared the newspapers wrote that this time the political parties do not have an agenda. They produced reams of newsprint to lament the ‘issueless’ election. Has India resolved the problems of development, poverty, or inequality ?
Or are the political parties not addressing the issues of the people? So, what should be the role of newspapers when despite the existence of such problems the elections are ‘issueless’? Should the newspapers limit themselves to only reporting defections,alliances and predict poll outcomes?
The newspapers claim to be guardians of democracy and the fourth pillar of society. However, they do not take on the responsibility of spreading awareness, providing forum to common people or disseminate their issues, priorities and concerns. Other than sensations, and scandals, news has no value for them. People dying of hunger is a news for them but the creation of hunger, due to institutionalized inequalities, is not ‘newsworthy’.
Historically, the English newspaper in India was the tail of the rulers. Before Independence most English newspapers were owned by Europeans whose main objective was to campaign against the national movement. Regional newspapers emerged in India to counter this precise tendency of the English newspaper. The regional newspapers played a role in creating a dialogue amongst people as well as reflecting their aspiration. In addition few newspapers and journals by intellectuals and national leaders provided a forum for dialogue. Gandhiji’s ‘Harijan’ and ‘Young India’, Baba Saheb Ambedkar’s ‘Mook Nayak’, Rabindra Nath Tagore’s ‘Probashi’, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad’s ‘Inquilab’ and many others, initiated important debates on national issues.
After Independence the industrial houses took over the English newspapers from Europeans. Even the regional papers were not untouched by the take over. Today, commercialization has taken complete control over the newspapers. So, although theoretically even today newspapers are supposed to be guardians of democracy, in practice they are status jurists and protectors of the big industrial houses.
The growth and development of the electronic media although a recent phenomenon, reflects the same tendencies of the newspapers. Whether it is the DD, or foreign channels, they are controlled by advertisement. Prasar Bharati is yet to change anything.
Today, in this situation, there is a need to initiate an independent, people-to-people dialogue. To an extent the ‘little magazines’ are doing this. However, most of such magazines suffer from limited resources, vision, perspective and scope. There is a need to collectivise these limited initiatives, utilizing the limited resources effectively, and initiate a movement to reach people. The future of India is dependent on how effectively such a movement is able to reclaim the lost spaces and establish an effective forum for dialogue and debate.
Tohra threatens to ban Gursharan Singh
The latest in the ”ban list” is the play, ‘Ek Kursi, Ek Morcha, Tey Hava Vich Latakte Log’ ( One Chair, One Front and the People in Limbo ) by the prominent theatre activist, Gursharan Singh. lrked by the biting sarcasm of the play the senior Akali leader, Gurcharan Singh Tohra has issued a diktat to banning the staging of all plays of Mr. Singh.
Mr. Tohra, president of the Shiromani Gurdwara Prabhandhak Committee, issued the ban while presiding over the final day celebrations of the Punjabi University youth festival at a college in Garshankar in Hoshiarpur district. As part of the celebrations, student of DAV College, Hoshiarpur presented Gursharan Singh’s play,’ Ek Kursi, Ek Morcha, Tey Hava Vich Latakte Log’.
Mr. Tohra was so enraged by the performance that he forced the judges to disqualify the play. A teachers who witnessed the event, pointed out, ” throwing all norms of democracy to the winds, Mr. Tohra got the play stopped as he thought it be an attack on him and his party.” Disturbed over the anti-BJP and anti-Akali stance of the Left parties ,Mr.Tohra apparently used the public function to lash out at Mr.Gurshara Singh, targeting his ire at the playwright and his work.
Seven cultural groups have condemned Tohra’s ban threat as an attack on the freedom of expression. The groups said that “the play was in no way against the tenets of Sikh religion and only a comment on political maneuvering”.
Gursharan Singh has been staging street plays on social and political issues for decades. He has braved threats on his life even during the days of militancy in Punjab, staging plays with Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale and other militant leaders as characters, while depicting what was actually going on behind the scenes.
The Bombay Film Festival’1998
The 5th biennial edition of the Mumbai International Film Festival for Documentary, Short and Animation Films(MIFF’98) will take place from March 1 – 7,1998 in Bombay.
The aim of the MIFF’98 contest is to disseminate images and contributing to wider knowledge and closer fraternity among the nations of the world. The event provides a unique opportunity for film makers, producers, distributors, exhibitors and film critics to meet in the historic Nehru Centre, Worli located in the heart of the city.
Since its inception in 1990, MIFF has been recognized world-wide as one of the premiere short film-festivals. The festival’s mandate is to help expose and educate a culturally diverse audience to the short film genre and create a market where film-makers and buyers can interact.
Many films will be screened in the Competition, Information, Retrospective and Spectrum India sections. As part of the festival, a suitable workshop/symposium will be held to invite participation of practicing film-makers.
For further information,contact:
The Director,
Mumbai International Film Festival for Documentary, Short and Animation Films
24, Dr. G. Deshmukh Marg, Bombay 400026
“Ad revenue – a vicious circle”: Rajendra Yadav
The Media Mail Team had a talk with Rajendra Yadav, the editor of the widely respected Hindi journal Hans, and one of the members of the Prasar Bharati Committee. We are sharing with our readers some of his views on the electronic media, viz-a-viz the print media.
Could you talk about your views on the present day electronic media versus the print media?
Although we have about 10-20 television channels now, still a large number of books and periodicals come out every year. There is no dearth of the printed word. This means that the authencity stays with the print media. The printed news has more credibility.
A survey done by the Times of India some months back revealed that out of every 1000 people who are regular readers of periodicals, the highest is from Patna,the second from Trivandrum, the third from Muzaffarpur in Bihar and the fourth from Calcutta.
The Indian people were baffled when the MNCs opened up the satellite TVs all of a sudden without having an alternate medium. The satellite TV was, in a way, responsible for the breakup of the USSR. With the satellite TVs reaching to each and every house of the Soviet block, portraying the rich and glossy lifestyles of other western countries without any appropriate context, the people were frustrated and disillusioned. Similiarly, the Tianamen Square event in China was blown out of proportion by the western media without understanding or analyzing the situation in a proper context.
These days industrial houses are buying the media.Is there any scope to create an alternate culture?
We cannot create as big a network as those of Star TV, Zee or Doordarshan. Even if one I sable to form such a thing, eventually that too gets into the same vicious circle of commercials and ad revenue for self-support.
The present day TV portrays the intrigues of the upper middle class of 4 or 5 metros- sex, violence & crime. The relationship of the middle class with the ads have vulgarized the scene. Although 80% of viewers watch Doordarshan, the 15-20 % who watch the satellite networks are the influential section of the society and they are the opinion makers.
Serials dealing with the lifestyles of the lower middle class families like Buniyad and the like have totally disappeared now. But now the metro scene is so saturated that they turn to the country side. After the Prasar Bharati was set up, Star TV and Zee have booked 4 serials based on Hindi novels.
ls there any plan to make DD a Public Service Broadcaster without taking any ad revenue ?
It should be a Public Service Broadcaster eventually. But we cannot get out of those ads completely, then it becomes the same vicious circle. There are other problems as well: our excellent equipment are getting under used in Doordarshan. The staff come late and play cards to while away their time.
Some of the old hands doing announcements and news, were asked to go. They say that they had been working with DD for nearly 25 years. But the fact is that most them are running their own companies. The news readers and announcers are not convinced that they no longer have the same looks that they had 25 years back. For that matter, no woman will admit that .
How will you make DD accountable to people and more participatory?
There is no such sure devises to make it accountable. But we want to expose criminals and the corrupt through the election programmes.
BJP accuses the board of the Prasar Bharati of being left oriented , but out of the 10 members, hardly two can be called leftists. If the BJP comes to power, they cannot do anything to us (the Prasar Bharati) since we are autonomous. But they might revive the Broadcasting Authority of India an bring in MPs into that.
Are you hopeful about the Prasar Bharati?
To be very hopeful will be exotic! But everyone has hope, without that death would have already set in.
Media & Elections
Parties go high-tech
Even though the political parties are not very keen to raise any important issues for the 1998 general elections, the campaigns of some of them have truly gone high-tech with BJP, Shiv Sena and AIDMK having websites on the internet.
Column space for leading parties
This is a chart of how much space covered for the three contenders in four English dailies of Delhi edition during the period Jan 26-28, 1998.Space covered is in approximate column centimeters.
| Newspaper | Congress | BJP | United Front |
| The Indian Express | 861 | 1 011 | 4725 |
| The Times of India | 444 | 473 | 109 |
| The Hindu | 677 | 586 | 689 |
| The Asian Age | 894 | 966 | 205 |
| Approximate Total |
2876 | 3036 | 1475 |
Source: OUTLOOK, February 9, 1998
EC bans telecast of political ads
The Election Commission of india has told the Union government it wants a ban on all political advertisements in electronic media, whether state or privately run channels, till the general elections are over.
Chief Election Commisioner MS Gill told journalists that the EC had taken the decision after “considering the matter in its totality”. It has already announced a scheme of free telecast time to recognized parties on Prasar Bharati , totaling around 60 hours.
This ban comes in the wake of the EC barring the newspapers and periodicals from publishing opinion polls and speculations related to the elections.
Source: Times Of India, February 6,1998
Column for people’s voice
The Delhi edition of the Pioneer has started a new column as a part of its election specials inviting their readers to express their views on issues of health, employment,education etc.
Titles People’s Manifesto, the readers voice their agendas on issues as against those promised by the party manifestos.
Prakriti’ 97: A Festival with a difference
Prakriti ’97 was a film festival with a difference. It presented a number of outstanding films on environment, development and human rights. Held from 17-19 December, 1997 Hyderabad, Prakriti’ 97 was jointly organized by the Centre for Education Communication (CEC), New Delhi with Educational Media Research Centre (EMRC), Hyderabad and the Central Institute of English and Foreign Languages (CIEFL), Hyderabad.
The aim of Prakriti’97 was to locate and strengthen ties between media and education. With this in mind, Dr. Manmohan Chaudhry and his team from CEC, New Delhi, began a country wide search for films that deal with issues of environment, development and human rights. In 1988 Dr.Chaudhry, then from CIET, New Delhi, had organised a festival on similar lines. That database helped to locate people. They also made a tremendous effort to locate others who are using the tool of video for social change or mass awareness.
An interesting mix and match of practitioners and products emerged. From mainstream programmes like Niret and Nikhil Alva’s ‘Living on the Edge’ to Bedi brothers’ films on Ladakh. From hard core activist films made with nearly no-budget like SriPrakash’s ‘Another Revolt to Sehjo Singh’s award winning documentary ‘Sonamati’.
The banner at the venue announced ‘A festival of films’. As I walked in with Sehjo Singh I commented that by changing the order of words a new meaning had emerged. The 3 days event proved that this was a conscious decision. The spirit of Prakriti’97 was that of a festival, a celebration. Whatever may be the original concept behind organizing film festivals, today there is a platform to showcase filmmakers, their new films and locate markets. This necessarily gives rise to a ruthless competition. Prakriti’97 was not competitive, and also helped to create and maintain a spirit of celebration, sharing and camaraderie. It was a celebration of activism, of resistance, of making choices, and most important, it was a forum to interact with others who have made similar choices.
Except for a couple of filmmakers, all those whose films were invited were present. The program had provisions for discussion after screenings and lively discussions followed all films. Filmmakers, many of them vary from aggressive urban audience, especially amongst their own brethren found to their amazement that issues raised by the films were being debated rather than the skill of the filmmaker.
Parallel screenings went on at 2 auditoriums. A very interesting selection of films were presented. Some films were quite old, some very well known, and a whole crop of new films and filmmakers were present. Although the organizers refrained from making any classifications, there were basically 2 kinds of films, broadcast and non-broadcast. Amongst the former Ramesh Menon’s ‘Taj Mahal : not a love story’ presented a crisp analysis of the real story behind the pollution related problems of the Taj. Although made in and by the mainstream, the programme is eminently suitable for raising discussions in the social sector.
Three documentaries (two new and one old) made the festival extremely useful for me. ‘Time to Listen’ by Deepa Dhanraj, ‘Meals Ready’ by Vani Subramaniam and Surojit Sarkar, and ‘Kahankar: Ahankar’ by Anjali Monteiro and Jayashankar.
Deepa Dhanraj presented her documentary as a report - a report of a meeting in Karnataka of working children from Asia, Latin America and Africa. They met to strategise and discuss their demand to be allowed to organize. Deepa explained how this was the first time she had made a film where as a filmmaker she had no role to play. She could not intervene but was allowed to only document, that too with clear instructions from her very young clients. If ‘Time to Listen’ is a report then I am yet to see a more brilliant and relevant report. A very useful film for the social sector.
‘Meals Ready’ is the first film by the husband and wife team. Based on a study the documentary looks at a case study in rural Tamil Nadu. They use rice, its production and marketing and locates the different layers of controlling interests. The film is a brilliant analysis and again very useful for the social sector.
Anjali Monteiro and Jayashankar aims to de/construct the ‘other’ and ‘us’ through the brilliant documentary : ‘Kahankar :Ahankar’. Using an apparently simple format of juxtaposing text on the Warlis with stories and songs by the Warlis, the film delves horizontally as well as vertically. The text moves chronologically providing a linear continuum, and contrasts with the timelessness as well as the changes in the Warli communities. The film moves at many levels simultaneously and is an extremely useful tool for raising discussion on identity, and the questions of culture and market.
‘Kaise Jeebo Re’ by Jharana Jhaveri and Anurag Singh, ‘Narmada Diary’ by Simantini Dhuru and Anand Patwardhan, ‘Call of the Bhagirathi’ by Anwar Jamal, ‘Another Revolt’ by Sri Prakash, ‘Because of our Rights’ by Gargi Sen, Ranjan De and Sujit Ghosh question on the development paradigm being practiced and locates development within the context of human growth as against mere economic growth.
Krishnendu Bose’s ‘Creeks of Conflict’. ‘Wings of Kokre Bellur’ by K.P.Sasi,’Pastoral Politics’ by Sanjay Barnela and Vasant Sabharwal give a new meaning and expand the concept of environment and its protection.
Many films on and by women gladdened the heart. ‘Sonamati’ by Sehjo Singh, ’Tu Zinda Hai!’ by Shabnam Virmani,’ The Hidden Story’ by Ranjani Mazumdar and Shikha Jhingan,’ Barred from Life’ by Raman Mann and ‘Now I Will Speak’ by Sagari Chhabbra looked at different initiatives by women, especially poor rural women. Most of these films would challenge the view that locates women as mere victims and are odes to the spirit of struggle and sustenance.
Three other documentaries must be mentioned if only for their brilliant craftsmanship. ‘Ladakh: a desert in the sky’ by Narinder and Rajinder Bedi, “The Last Migration’ by Mike Pandey and ‘Kaun Layega Ritt’ by Praveen Kumar are superbly crafted documentaries. In fact Kumar’s documentary is a sheer viewing pleasure. However, these don’t have the potential for raising a discussion and appear to be made with the foreign audience and film festivals in mind. Mike Pandey’s film in fact has problematic analysis.
The festival also provided a forum for interaction. Filmmakers of the alternate hue spent all evening ensconced in the rooms talking, sharing and celebrating.
Organization and arrangements were superb. If there is a criticism, it is that there was a serious scarcity of local audience. Many friends and well wishers from Hyderabad had not even got to hear of the festival. Perhaps a round of publicity and dissemination of information prior to the event is called for.
Lastly, I understand from the organizers that they are planning to continue with “Prakriti’97’ as a biannual event. My request is to make it into an annual festival, as not only will it help to show case important alternate films but also provide a space and forum for alternate practitioners to meet and share common concerns and locate directions. For the alternate sector events like the Prakriti’97 are crucial.
The Academia – Media Interface
How does one characterize one epoch of civilization as distinct from another? Karl Marx suggested the mode of production, the system defining the means to produce commodities of value and the mechanisms of controlling these means as well as the sections of society that control or are compelled to produce the commodities. In about a hundred and fifty years, this seminal contribution from Marx became well recognised and widely accepted until the last decade, when rapid progress in information technology necessitated a modification of this characterization. The mode of information, symbiotically stands next to the mode of production as a meaningful characterization. The hunter – gatherer society, the primitive and modern agrarian societies, the modern bourgeois or industrial societies and the post-industrial society, each has a distinct mode of information. The growth from communication by playing drums or loud noises to the era of the Internet parallels the stage of development in human civilization.
While it is interesting and certainly necessary that the role of information and the revolution in the communication and the revolution in the communication technology be recognized, unfortunately this fact has become one of the numerous mechanisms to subvert organized effort by large sections of human society to change the present state of exploitation and inequality of the masses by an alike minority. Suddenly most of the information industry seems determined to shed whatever pretence it had earlier of being involved in spreading awareness and contributing in a process of democratization.
Media today has become an inherent part of the drive towards free market culture. Any event of social relevance is now to be judged by its marketability. Thus media, aware of its crucial role in influencing the extent of hegemony of the current ruling classes, has created a world of its own. It is no more a world of important events occurring all around us and what people ought to be informed of, it is much more than that. It is a world where ‘information’ sells.
A commonly encountered question these days is, “why should the media be responsible to initiate reforms in society?” simultaneous with this attack on responsible journalism, the involvement of academicians, scholars and thinkers in the popular media is becoming marginal. And the reverse is also true. By and large, media sources takes very little interest in what happens in the world of academia.
This situation should appear paradoxical. After all, isn’t the academic world full of ‘experts’ who can analyse and supplement empirical data on politics, technology, sports etc.? while the corporate world controlling the info-media complex has its own definition and description of what an expert opinion or analysis should be, on the other hand, petty political meddling in academics has also destroyed the academic environment. Professional intellectual activity is more often, and with better quality, available outside the traditional academic institutions.
Ironically, the free market culture has, indeed, compartmentalized the whole reality into areas of expert supervision- every newspaper or news programme on TV has separate sections on business, education, women, sports, etc. often these sections are geared towards specific classes of readers or viewers who, presumably, buy the newspaper or watch TV because they have special interest in these themes. The information is highly selective and limited. It is assumed that the rest of us, the information is not of much use. We simply may not look at it. Sections of management are devoted to the impact value of each section for reasons nothing other than further fine tuning for greater profit-making.
Special programmes are designed by the visual media to compete against each other in buying more viewers who are apparently making a choice to steer away from the real and are more interested in ‘Chitrahaar’ and the like. The scholar is no more, if not less, important than the ‘ready to answer everything’ faces in a talk show.
Likewise, the interaction from the academic world has also changed remarkably. Every meeting today has to be publicized before and after it occurs, not by reporters who are keenly interested, but via carefully prepared press notes and special efforts in pursuing their publication. The idea is to blow one’s trumpet, hopefully for betterment in career or sometimes to impress public opinion in favour of a particular discipline of research, so that the funding agency may be pressurized to garner further support.
This was not the kind of interaction that existed a few decades back. It may be argued that things have moved towards better with a more powerful and cheaper technology and the educational value of mass communication, as it exists today, is still as good as before. It may be simplistic to assume that the apparent utilitarian role of the media half a century ago was not protecting the interests of the elite in society. Perhaps what is more true is that the truly representative sections of the media that did cater to real issues of real people have become further marginalized. Any effort on the part of democratically minded individuals in media today seems to be a remarkable exception – a drop in the ocean.
While it is true that the idiot box and the colour and the bold printer have conditioned our minds into indulging into junk for long hours, what needs to be questioned is the idea that information for the sake of true knowledge does not sell. When linked with coordinated efforts of mass movements, information relevant to people’s needs sells well. Numerous examples of this can be given. Perhaps the best one is the projection of the solar eclipse and activities centred around it in October 1995. Nothing sold so well as this rather short lived phenomenon. The entire nation sat glued to the TV baring the few who had gathered at the special sites where the eclipse was to be seen best. This could happen because prior to that morning, concerted efforts by numerous people’s science organizations had generated an awareness and excitement in the minds of the people.
Thus, education and questioning sells, provided the prerequisite of sustained co-ordination is fulfilled. In any case, it is worth asking if the information industry can be regarded as completely dissociated from the needs of a society as underdeveloped as ours, one that is struggling to achieve a meaningful democratic form and structure. And thinking along these lines, a stronger media-academia interface seems desirable.
Responsible persons in the information industry must take greater interest in the academic world. It is from the state of health of its academia that one can judge the progress of its civilization. Among the most fundamental interests of the people is an awareness of what is going on in the intellectual world. The more advanced a society, the greater is the access that a common citizen has to intellectual exercises carried on by the scholars. What is the situation in India?
Higher education in India is not only limited to a narrow and select elite, it is also ridden with fraud, petty politics and often blatant corruption. No serious effort is made to make the people aware of this situation. Middle classes have come to accept the degeneration that has engulfed the institutions of higher learning and research. There are simplistic and authoritarian views on how much an average teacher or researcher works, but no serious effort is made in understanding the complexities of the system of education and research. Media sources in public domain should address these issues seriously and initiate debates on the long term dangers of the prevalent crisis.
There can be numerous facets of an academia-media interface. It is not possible to elaborate upon these here. The point being made is that serious thinking needs to go into it. Matters of great significance as this should not remain ignored simply because it is not considered ‘saleable’. All those seeking a substantial meaning in our evolving democratic polity must work towards this end. Greater input from academicians to the communication industry is going to strengthen both ends of this interface.
Dr. Harjinder Singh (Laltu)
TF 10, Punjab University, Chandigarh 160014
Hate Speech and the Rwandan genocide: A crisis for freedom of expression?
Rulers often use the media to persecute a particular community or an ethnic group. The Rwandan experience shows us how media with the help of ”hate speech” incites hate against a community leading to mass genocide. India too has witnessed the ”hate speech” phenomenon of the media and the ruler-bureaucracy nexus during the Sikh riots or the demolition of the Babri Masjid and its aftermath. Even now it is covertly active. The genocide in Rwanda is in that sense an eye opener.
Despite overwhelming evidence that the genocide was centrally organised by the military authorities which seized power on 6 April 1994, many commentators maintain that the killings were carried out by the ”Hutu majority” against the Tutsi minority. It is this view of the genocide that had led observers to present RTLM as an extreme example of the dangers of hate speech, and to advocate greater restrictions on the media in other countries plagued by violence.
This interpretation of events in Rwanda has since been applied to the conflict in neighbouring Burundi. In March 1996, a UN Security Council resolution called on member states to intervene and to “dismantle radio stations which incite hatred and acts of violence in Burundi.”
This was a reference to Radio Democracy, a pirate radio based from mid-1995 until November 1996 in Eastern Zaire and operated by the Conseil National Pour La Defense de la democratic (CNDD) of Leonard Nyangoma, whose broadcasts were continually likened to those of RTLM but about which little was known. The following month, the UN Commission on Human Rights also condemned the hate media in Burundi but failed to address the political and military forces responsible for the violence.
Moreover, in response to lobbying by NGO’s, the Burundian Government in March 1996 placed indefinite bans on seven newspapers, including L’Aube de la Democratic and the Front Democratique du Burundi (FRODEBU), a publication which was not generally considered extremist. L’independent, the hardline newspaper of the Union pour le Proges National (UPRONA), the then former political party which retained close ties to the army, was not among those suspended.
These measures appear to have dealt a severe blow to the private press: by the end of 1996 it was reported by the US State Department that all newspapers in Burundi, except for the government – owned Le Renouveau, had closed.
To justify, not to provoke
Yet, is there evidence enough of a strong casual link between extremist media and the violence in the Great Lakes region to justify such far- reaching restriction?
In Rwanda, the precedent which has led policy makers to focus on the hate speech issue, incitement to ethnic hatred was mounted by the government as part of a larger crackdown on Tutsi civilians following the October 1990 invasion by the Rwanda Patriotic Front(RPF), a rebel group of mainly Tutsi exiles. Thousands of Tutsi were arbitrarily detained during the first few months of the war for alleged involvement with the RPF.
Moreover, from 1990 to 1993, local authorities organized killings of Tutsi within their administrative divisions, claiming that they were RPF accomplices. Yet, according to historian Gerard Prunier, government officials used hate speech not primarily to provoke violence but rather to try to justify massacres which they organized and directed. He explains that the killings in the pre-genocide Rwanda were “preceded by political meetings during which a ‘sensibilisation’ process was carried out.. to put local peasants ‘in the mood’; to drum into them that the people they were to kill are the ibyitso(accomplices), actual or potential collaborators of the RPF arch-enemy.”
Similiarly, the rise of hate speech against Tutsi through the media, hardly a spontaneous phenomenon was promoted by government authorities. It did not prove characteristic of the independent press but rather was systematically propogated, from 1990 onwards, by media organs with covert government sponsorship. The first and most notorious example of this pattern was the newspaper Kangura, which was created in 1990 and had links to the members of the Presidential entourage. In December 1990, it published the “10 Hutu Commandments,” blatant calls to discriminate against Tutsi. In 1991, as independent journalists faced arrest and harassment by the authorities, President Juvenal Habyarimana publicly defended Kangura, claiming the newspaper was merely exercising its legitimate right to freedom of expression.
Close links with the militia
RLTM, which was formally established in April 1993 and began to broadcast in July, very much followed this tradition of government-sponsored hate speech. The only private radio station to be authorized under the Government of President Havyarimana, RLTM’s 50 original founding shareholders were prominent figures with ties to the ruling party, the Mouvement National Revolutionnaire du Development. (MRND). They included government officials, as well as members of the interim government which later seized power on 6 April, army officers, and the leaders of what has been called the “second power” in pre-genocide Rwanda: pro- MRND militias and the Zero-Network death squad, which carried out government critics. It was this very relationship with militia leaders which made RTLM such a dangerous instrument.
Human rights activist, journalist and opposition representatives who were denounced by the station as “enemies” were often threatened by the militia groups, which became increasingly active in late 1993.
Warning of massacres
Contrary to many reports by the international media, RTLM did not call for killings before the genocide. Nor did the station seem to have much impact in rural areas, as is often assumed, but instead attracted mainly urban listeners with its use of street slang and Western style talk shows, complete with audience participation and offensive jokes.
From July to October 1993, its broadcast are reported to have been fairly innocuous, consisting mostly of popular music with few commentaries. However, with the assassination of Burundian President Melchior Ndadaye in October 1993, RTLM began to incite ethnic hatred with inflammatory broadcasts. Though unrelated to events in neighboring Burundi, RTLM accused the RPF, and its “accomplices”, understood to mean the Tutsi generally, of being behind the violence.
On 3rd April 1994, just three days before the genocide was to begin, RTLM suddenly warned that massacres would sweep the country in a matter of days and hinted that President Habyarimana would not stay in power much longer. It ominously warned that the RPF was planning to topple the Rwandan Government.
“They have dated, we know them… we have agents.. who bring us the information. They tell us this: on the 3rd, the 4th and the 5th, there will be a little something here in Kigali City. And also on the 7th and the 8th… you will hear the sound of bullets or grenades explode…” (RTLM, 3 April 1994)
On 6 April, when President Habyarimana was to be killed after the plane carrying him was hit with a missile as it approached Kigali, is conspicuously missing from the broadcast.
Within half an hour of the crash, military and security forces threw up roadblocks in Kigali and began selective killings of Tutsi and opposition supporters. One week later, approximately 20,000 civilians has been massacred in the Kigali area alone by the Rwandan security forces and interim Government authorities.
‘The cure is total extermination’
From 6 April, RTLM openly called for genocide. Yet despite reports in the international media that the station invited listeners to “help fill the half – empty graves, “ its message during this period was far more subtle.
RTLM used the fears instilled by the government propaganda of the early 1990’s about the RPF and its “accomplices,” a reference to Tutsi civilians, to advocate genocide. Rather than acknowledging that the main targets in the killing were civilians, the station maintained that the country was fighting the “Simusigha”, or “final war”, against the RPF and argued that all Rwandans needed to participate in the defence of the nation in order to survive. RTLM warned, “understand that the cruelty of the Inyenzi is incurable, the cruelty of the Inyenzi can only be cured by their total extermination.”
Despite the conclusions which have been frequently drawn about the impact of RTLM during the genocide, there is still no evidence to indicate that the station ever led the general population to rise up and kill.
However, RTLM played a more concrete role in assisting militias and other groups already involved in the slaughter. The station read out the names and locations of the indivisuals trying to escape and directed militias to attack places of refuge. It sometimes even announced licence plate numbers of vehicles in which people were trying to flee. In this context of genocide, the station merely claimed that such indivisuals were “enemies” or RPF combatants, and the order to kill was understood. In many cases, such people were tracked down and killed within days of the directions being broadcast on RTLM.
Hold the Government accountable
In the Rwandan tragedy, then the recent emphasis on hate speech – and the resulting argument for greater restrictions on freedom of expression – appears misplaced. In a country where hate speech was used by the authorities to justify the abuses, and ultimately genocide, which the government carried out against a minority group, extremist media cannot be said to have been a major casual factor. However, after 6 April 1994, RTLM’s role is not predominantly a hate speech issue: RTLM participated directly in not only inciting but also organizing the genocide. Its activities at this stage were a gross violation of national and international law and its broadcasts clearly should have been jammed by the international community. Yet this measure alone would not have stopped the killing: the extent of the station’s impact should not be exaggerated.
The lesson to be drawn from the Rwandan example lies not in the dangers of “hate speech” but rather the rise in government- sponsored violence against Tutsi and government critics which occurred in the pre-genocide period. This problem of informal repression, whereby governments use a third party such as militias or traditional leaders to intimidate or attack particular groups, is increasingly pervasive in Sub – Saharan Africa and needs urgently to be addressed. To advocate measures against hate speech in the context of such violations only serves to obscure the responsibility of governments for human rights abuse, by suggesting that these result from the actions and beliefs of private actors. Moreover, where censorship already prevails, as in pre – genocide Rwanda and currently in Burundi, such a response would only enable governments to exercise even greater control over access to information. And it is such situations where hate speech, as well as other government propaganda, will have the most force.
Linda M. Kirschke
Africa Programme Researcher, ARTICLE 19
Reproduced from ZEBRA NEWS Issue 34 1997
Tactical Media Network
A new initiative, the “Tactical Media Network’, has been launched as a follow up to the Next 5 Minutes Conference in Amsterdam and the television programme WEB World Receiver.
The network is hosted by the Society for Old and New Media in Amsterdam and is currently working on a website database containing names and addresses of so called tactical media makers. A broadcast site to display new work is also under way.
The objective of the network is to facilitate the exchange of ideas and distribution of material between tactical media makers outside festivals and conference.
TMN has devised a manifesto, “The ABC of Tactical Media’ which can be obtained from the below address. The same applies to ‘The People’s Communication Charter’, a project which seeks to equate the right to media access and literacy with all other human or civil rights.
Contact:
Society for old and new media
De Waag, Nieumarkt 41012 CR Amsterdam, The Netherlands, E – mail: society@waag.org
Courtesy: ZEBRA #34, 1997
Tampere short film festival
The 28th Tampere International Short Film Festival will take place in Finland between March 4 -8, 1998. 16 & 35 mm films of maximum length 30 minutes, completed before 1 January 1997 are eligible for competition.
For more information:
Tampere Film Festival
Box 305, FIN-33101, Tampere, Finland, Fax: ++ 385-3-2223-0121, E-mail: film.festival@tt.tampere.fi
Website: http://www.tampere.fi/festival/film
Oberhausen’98
The International Short Film Festival Oberhausen is an independent festival acknowledged by FIAPF/IFFPA, the International Federation of Film Producer’s Association. The festival has three parts : the International Competition, German Competition and Children’s Short Film Competition.
The International Competition which will take place between 22 – 30 April 1998, is particularly meant to present new tendencies in the short film and video for discussion.
Contact:
Festival Director, Internationale Kurzfilmtage Oberhausen, Grillostr,34, D-46045 Oberhausen, Germany, Fax: ++ 49-208-82255413, E-mail: kurzfilmtage_oberhausen@uni-duisburg.de
Website: http://www.uni-duisburg.de/HRZ/IKF/home.htm
Journees du cinema africain et creole
From April 23 to May 3, 1998, the 14th annual Journees du cinema africain et creole, a 10-day celebration of cinema, television and video featuring African and Creole countries will be taking place in Montreal, Canada. Over 100 short and feature length films, documentaries and animated films will be showcased during the event.
Directors in developing countries, and other directors who have made films in Africa or in a Creole country are invited to submit their recent productions for this one – of – a kind North American Film Festival.
The Journees du cinema africain et creole is intended to familiarize Canadians and other North American with African and Creole productions and promote audiovisual industries in developing countries.
Contact: Vues d’Afrique
67 Ste Catherine Street west, 5th Floor, Montreal, Quebec H2X 1Z7 Canada, Tel: 1/514/284 3322, Fax: 1/514/854 0631, E-mail: vuesda@cam.org
Website: http://www.vuesdafrique.org
The Dream of Hanif
26 min, 1997
Like other traditional art forms, scroll painting has lost its ground to the modern electronic entertainment producing devices. Every artisan tries to cope up with the changing time and its demand. But one man, Dukhu Shyam Chitrakar denies to compromise, refuses to give up the heritage. He has nothing to sell except the ‘Dream of Hanif’.
By Supriyo Sen & J. Chakraborty
Perspective Audio Visuals, 30/3A, NS Dutta Road, Howrah 711101
Adha Asman
Women’s Access to Health
Hindi/English, 32 min, 1996
A video on differential access to health care, about what pushes healthcare beyond the reach of most women in India. Despite the Indian government’s declaration of Health for All by 2000, women’s health continues to be seen in limited ways. Shot in the villages of Almora and Sitapur districts in UP, this is a film about the attitudes that deny women their share of healthcare.
By Samina Mishra
Source: The Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration, Mussorie, UP
Time to Listen
English, 50 mins, 1997
A film about the first International Meeting of Working Children, it documents the process by which 29 working children delegates from 33 countries came to a consensus on the strategies concerning them. Overcoming barriers of language and culture, the children spent 2 weeks together sharing experiences of work, organizations and political actions. They presented unified positions on the need to organize and represent themselves. The film advocates the cause of working children as protagonists and legitimate actors, actively participating in society.
Deepa Dhanraj
D & N Productions, 268, 5th Cross, 3rd Main, 1st Block, Koramangala, Bangalore, 560 034
Ek haadsa aur bhi
60 min, Hindi
Film by Sunil Minj, Philip Kuju6 Biju Toppo (Akhra)
On August 6, 1997 there was a disaster in our country about which no one came to know. The Kutku dam in Palamau, Bihar, burst and the homes of hundreds of adivasis were swept away by the water released. 19 of them perished. The death of 19 adivasis was hardly a sensation, so it was never covered by the national media. Very soon we went on to celebrate 50 years of our independence, swaying to the beat of Rehman’s new version of Vande Mataram. That was news.
Far from the glitters of celebrations, Akhra, a media group from Ranchi, documented the disaster making best of their meagre resources. The documentary begins from Rehman’s performance and the fireworks of the golden jubilee celebration in Delhi. Tribals speak about the dead, the homeless and how the local authorities were completely inactive to even carry out rescue operations, leave alone prevent the disaster. But the film does not stop at treating the episode as just another disaster. It weaves its way slowly and systematically to unveil the larger stories behind the disaster. Through the issue of compensation that the tribals are fighting for, the film deals with the complicacies of land ownership, the complete lack of any development inputs to the people who made way for the dam in the last 30 years. The film makes a strong comment about the complete indifference State towards tribals in general and towards all those people displaced by ‘development projects’.
Shot and edited entirely on VHS, the film certainly lacks the visual slickness of a television documentary, but the spirit of the film makers and the story itself leaves a strong impression in the viewers’ mind. The use of various versions of Vande Mataram – by Bhimsen Joshi, Lata Mangeshkar, an instrumental recital and finally Rehman – has added an interesting dimension to the film.
Apart from being the only audio visual record of the disaster, “Ek haadsa aur bhi” is also significant as it heralds a new trend in documentary film making. It is among the initial instances where films are being made and used locally, without funds, without high quality production facilities or the involvement of trained professionals. Sunil, Philip and Biju who made the film, as well as most of the others in Akhra, are tribals themselves. None of them are strictly professionals as most of the time they are involved in their farms or other family occupations. The rest of the time they are involved with numerous other activities of Akhra in Ranchi and surrounding areas. Talking of funds, many a time they do not have resources to travel by bus. They shoot their films on a VHS camcorder and edit manually using two VHS VCRs. In a local situation efforts such as these become all the more significant, especially when they are extensively screened in the area. The impact of “Ek Haadsa aur bhi” was crisply summed up Ajay Singh’s article in the Pioneer of 26 January,1998 that said, “a forty minute documentary on the collapse of the famous Kutku dam in Palamau district is giving jitters to political parties canvassing for votes in the region”
For information, contact:
Biju Toppo, Akhra
Dhruv Nivas, Shastri Nagar, Kanke Road, Ranchi 834006
Ek minute ka maun
72 min, Hindi
Film by Ajay Bhardwaj
“Ek minute ka maun” is a tribute to the slain student leader Chandrashekhar. The film revolves around the nation wide students protest that erupted after Chandrashekhar, along with Shyam Narayan Yadav and Bhutli Mian, were shot dead in a public meeting in Siwan by goons of Janta Dal leader Sahabudddin. Chandrashekhar, Chandu to those who loved him, was the President of the JNU student union.(AISA). Even though Chandu belonged to a premier institution like JNU, he strongly believed that political change can only be initiated by the common masses, even though students and intellectuals may have a very important role. With this conviction, Chandu dared to go back to his own home town Siwan to work for social justice with the common masses.
The film moves at two levels. Its main thrust is the spontaneous protest movement that built up after the news of the murder reached Delhi. At another level, it traces Chandrashekhar’s personal upbringing, his family, his conviction and his commitment. In an emotional high moment of the film some students say that although they were not much motivated in student politics when he was alive, Chandrashekhar gave them a cause to fight for with his death. The most heart rending sequence of the film portrays the anguish of his mother who in a public meeting says that she is happy to have lakhs and crores of children in exchange of her only child, Chandu. Through interviews of the students the film also reveals the person Chandu. Finally, the film hits hard on the brutality with which the police attempted to suppress a democratic, non violent movement of the students.
Chandu’s death is a paradox in the Indian society. While people who raise fundamental questions of life and livelihood are brutally killed, the administration and politicians go on protecting the killers like Sahabuddin or goons like Sadhu Yadav in this case.
The film has made extensive use of archival footage shot by various TV channels. At a level they add to the strength of the film as some of the footage would be difficult to get in a normal documentary situation. Yet, on occasions they also seem limited as they were definitely shot with a news feature in mind. However, the hard work put in by the director is worth an applause. Ajay Bhardwaj, a seasoned television producer, started making the film without any funds. But he was able to mobilize various production houses for free footage and equipment. He also took the help of various people engaged full time in mainstream television.
Ajay Bhardwaj talks about his experiences:
Initially, I met some students who were involved in the protest. They had already started collecting some footage on VHS tapes – like NDTV’s news coverage of one of the protests. The idea of my film at that time was to show this to the students which gives them energy and spiritual strength. My first job was to get Beta tapes. I was very scared because I knew that the news footage does not have a long life. The tapes are recycled very fast. Through a friend of mine in a television company, I managed to get three 90 minute Beta tapes – second hand. Once those tapes were there, we started approaching the television companies. I was myself going to every television company, also there were students, some ex-students who occasionally accompanied us.
The first significant breakthrough came with the late S.P.Singh. He said, “Definitely, you are doing good work. If you require any help from us in such work, we should extend it.” He asked me not to make any commercial use of the film since the footage was being given free. He let me log and transfer whatever I required. Sadly, within one month of this, he passed away. He had also promised us a couple of shifts of edit tables and camera, but when we thought of approaching him, he was in coma. But we got the footage from him, and some very important footage of the firing in Bihar Niwas. The entire chunk of footage came from Aaj Tak. That was the beginning.
Then we went to BiTV, I spoke to to Bhaskar Bhattacharya and Nandan Unnikrishnan. They gave me very significant 8 minutes of edited footage. Arvind Das (APCA) gave us important footage. We also managed to get footage from NDTV.
The main footage on Chandrashekhar came from Mr. Arun Kaul. He was very helpful when I approached him. There were 17 tapes which we scanned, and in one tape there was this interview of Chandrashekhar which I have used in the beginning, middle and end of the film – very substantial information about what this man was all about. There was some footage with the JNU authorities on the elections. They had covered the elections and Chandu was contesting for the President’ s post that year. We scanned all those 30 odd, unmarked, unlabeled tapes. We selected about 4 minutes of footage which we could use. Later on, again through a friend, I got some footage of Che Guevara and dalit killings in Mumbai from TV-Today.
Then we were wondering what to do with a1l the footage spread over on VHS, Hi Band and Betacam. I also shot fresh footage. Now the important part of the film, the body, required excellent graphics of all the newspaper clippings and press photographs that we had gathered, for which there no footage. Also, the sequence of his Mother.
I negotiated with BiTV for either edit facilities, camera for a couple of days or shooting or graphics. Bhaskar was keen to help, but they have a tremendous pressure of work. Finally, we decided to do the graphics there. There was another friend who did graphics and animation for me in Turning Point. He scanned all the material on floppies. Another person, who was scanning the letter of Chandrashekhar, read the letters of Chandrashekhar and said, “I can’t imagine people can write this kind of letters to their mother!” after that, she did all the work free – just because she had read the letter while she was scanning it. Sunil Wadekar, a well known graphics/3-D person, also helped – he worked on the red spots that come on the JP Chowk in Siwan. It affected people in whatever manner and wherever they were involved. In my TV-18 days, I was doing a live –game show and Sunil Kalis was my on-line switcher. I asked him if he would help me. He agreed immediately. He took me to USL. I have never met the management of USL, but till this date all the bills that I have to pay USL come in the name of Sunil Kalia. I used his credibility to facilitate the entire editing.
When the film was complete we thought we should have a particular kind of music to this film. I could think of only one person in Delhi who could do justice to the music without charging, it is Gautam Ghosh. When he was composing the music, he would call me up on the phone and play the music. He used to literally cry while playing some of the tunes. Obviously, he didn’t charge a single penny.
On 6th of December, the film was screened to an audience of 600-700 students in the open air auditorium at JNU. There was a tremendous response. Many of the students were crying, but the feedback I got from them was that this film makes you to look towards the future. The film makes sure that this is not the time to repent or feel melancholic about the incident. The film ends on a positive note, the film is about coming back, it leaves you with a hope. It had to be, because it was not an obituary that we were trying to create.
For information contact:
Ajay Bhardwaj
9191 DDA Flats, Masudpur, Vasant Kunj, New Delhi 110070, (011) 6898610
New Audio Cassettes
Nayi Azadi Media, a unit of Azadi Bachao Andolan has brought out the following two audio cassettes:
Krantikari Geeton
Revolutionary Songs)
Music by: Ajay Kumar Shukla
Price: Rs.30/-
Bahurashtriya Companiyan Aur Bharat
(MNC’s and India – Lecture)
Voice: Rajive Dixit
Price: Rs.30/-
Copies available with Nayi Azadi Media, 21- B, Motilal Nehru Road, Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh 211 002
New Documents
Chhi!
A Process Document & Playscript
Chhi! is a one-act play in Hindi that deals with the struggle of a theatre group to evolve a socially relevant play. The play was developed as part of a campaign on the issue of “garbage as an environmental hazard in cities” The project involved a four-day residential theatre workshop, scripting a play and 30 performances of the same in Bombay.
The play is an effort to bring theatre on the streets. It seeks to break away from the conventions of street theatre, even as it adapts them in an attempt to blend activism with aesthetics. Chhi! strives to combine the rigorous demands of serious theatre with the need for easy communication that motivates all issue-based theatre.
The campaign objective was to reach out to all sections of the society, highlight the urban environment threats and raise questions on how these can be tackled, both individually and collectively.
1997, Pages 80
Published by Media Matters,
2nd Floor, Kolsawala Building,
16 Cawasji Patel Street, Fort, Bombay 400 001
Ph: 2871751, 2870544
Copies can be had for Rs.20/- from the publishers.
The Shadow of Light- III
(The third in a series of articles on the art and craft of cinematography)
The Lens
The lens is the medium through which light enters the camera – whether it be a cine or a video camera. In essence, the lens is just a piece of glass that has one or two curved surfaces. When light hits one of these curved surfaces, due to the laws of optics, the path of the light is altered. This is the basic phenomenon that allows light to be ”collected” b a camera.
Focal Length of the Lens
Once the light has passed through the lens, it is focussed at a point behind the lens (inside the camera.) This point is at a certain distance from the centre of the lens and is known as the focal point of the lens. This fixed distance from the centre of the lens to the focal point is known as the focal length of the lens. It is at the focal point that the focal plane of the camera is situated. It is easy to see that the light collecting medium needs to be at the focal point of the camera. In the case of cine cameras, it is the actual film that lies at the film plane. And in video cameras, the chip which collects the image is positioned at the focal plane.
Although we talk of a lens in singular form, the tube that houses any lens actually has multiple optical elements in it. These are essential to reduce the size of lenses among other things. Therefore we find 600 mm and 1000 mm lenses focus which are not really that long in physical length.
Tele and Wide Angle Lens
Lenses are known by their focal length, usually measured in millimeters(mm). Depending on the curvature of the surface that the light hits, the lenses will have a specific focal length. Typically, lenses are divided into two categories, wide angle lenses and long/telephoto lenses. Dividing them into these broad groups is what is known as the normal lens. The normal lens is that lens which sees the same perspective that the human eye sees. Depending on the medium we are shooting on (i.e 35 mm film, 16 mm film, video or 35 mm still, etc.) the size of the normal lens varies. For example, in 35 mm still photography, the 50 mm lens is considered normal. Every lens other than the normal lens will distort perspective. In wide angle lenses, the perspective is exaggerated while in long lenses, perspective is condensed.
Which is the reason that lens selection for a particular shot is such an important part of the cinematographer’s work. Each lens will give the whole scene a unique feel. One only has to see any work by a good cinematographer to realize how using a wide variety of lenses adds texture to the film. One should realize that the zoom lens was created for a certain reason which is mentioned below. It was not created so that the cinematographer changes image size while keeping the camera at the same place. The correct thing to do when image size change is required is to change lenses.
The relationship between the foreground and background(relative sizes of each) is the clue we use to judge perspective. So, when a camera (with a specific lens on it) is moved, as in a trucking shot, the perspective changes, since the relationship between the camera, the foreground and background is constantly changing. In the fifties, there was a concerted effort to create a lens that changes magnification without changing the perspective. Out of these efforts was born the zoom lens. The zoom lens has many optical elements in it like any other lens but these change position relative to each other to give us different focal lengths as the zoom control lever is moved. One can change magnification without moving the camera or changing perspective. But a zoom will never give the feel of motion to the shot. It will only appear to magnify a portion of the frame. So, in essence, the trucking shot brings us closer to the scene whereas the zoom brings the scene closer to us.
Depth of Field
The lens is spherical in shape, therefore, the plane of focus (i.e the plane where everything is in focus) is a semi-circle in front of the camera. Although only objects lying on this semi-circle will be in exact focus, other objects close to this plane will be in acceptable focus. The distance within which objects are in acceptable focus is known as the depth of field. The depth of field extends in front of and behind the plane of focus. Typically, 1/3rd of it is in front of the plane of focus and 2/3rd of it are behind the plane of focus. “Acceptable focus” is a very nebulous term, but there is technical methodology to quantify this concept. The scope of this article does not allow us to get into the exact science employed, but depth of field charts for different lenses (at various aperture openings) are easily available. Depth of field depends on the following factors:
- The lens used : the wider the lens, the more the depth of field.
- Quantity of light : the more the light is available, the higher the depth of field, and
- Subject to camera distance : More the distance, more the depth of field.
Reading the above should remove a common fallacy that the lens by itself is responsible for the amount of depth of field. Actually, if two lenses( say a 50 mm and a 25 mm) are used to shoot the same objects, and by adjusting the camera to subject distance, both frames are the same (i.e the foreground object is the same size exactly), then one will see that both the situations yield exactly the same depth of field. The only difference between the two frames will be that the one with the longer lens (in our case the 50 mm) will have a compressed perspective. Meaning whereby, that in the scene shot with the 50 mm lens, objects in the background will be bigger as compared to the scene shot with a 25 mm lens.
The lens being in front end of the camera needs to be meticulously taken care of. It should be handled carefully to avoid any scratches on the front element and should be kept dust free for a sharp picture.
Somnath Sen
Indialink addresses
Not-for-profit organizations, campaign groups and activists in India have recently set up the first India-based mailing-list to discuss alternative issues. Following are some of the mailing-lists currently set up by Indialink, a network of alternative groups on the Internet, in India, along with the address of the person who is to be contacted to join the group:
il-biotech Biotechnology concerns
ii-child-labour Child labour
ii-environment Environmental issues (lndia)
it-gender Gender issues
il-tribals Tribal concerns
il-vasco-da-gama Asian colonialism/Vasco da Gama 500 years
toxic-links Toxic dumping in the Third World
To join any/all the above lists contact Leo Fernandez <leo@unv.ernet.in>
ii-tourism Adverse impact of tourism on the Third World
To join the tourism list, contact owner-il-tourism@ilban.ernet.in <Veena>
il-h-rights Human rights issues (India)
il-m-ethics Medical ethics
To join the above lists, contact Aspi B. Mistry
aspi@cedbomailbom.ernet.in
There is no charge for joining any of these mailing lists.
People’s Media Website
Uttar Pradesh will soon have an on-line web site giving an opportunity to professional journalists, writers, artists and film makers to put their work on the Internet. This web site named ”People’s Media” will be linked to a server which will be maintained by the South Asian Network for Alternative Media (SANAM). Some other groups within the country like Tamil Nadu Science Forum from Chennai and Communalism Combat from Mumbai are also likely to be linked to the server in New Delhi by mid 1998.
The People’s Media web site will focus on the Hindi heartland of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and other adjoining states. It is a group which was formed in Delhi in the early 1990′s when the Gulf war proved beyond doubt that media itself has become a lethal weapon, more powerful than the world’s entire weapon industry.
People’s Media believes that to fight a bull one has to lock horns with it. The weapon in this fight is the pen. Unless it is strategically deployed and tactically used a weapon remains ineffective. So, for People’s Media, organizing is the need of the hour in order to make a positive intervention. The fact that the prevailing mass media has reduced the masses to a mere crowd, the most strategic task of People’s Media will be to expose the fallacies of the Information industry led by multinational corporations, which is appropriating al1 the benefits of new technology to promote consumerism and other commercial purposes.
An interview with Gursharan Singh
…the early days
I was born in Multan on 16.9.29. My father was in the military reserve force. He went to war in 1939 and was taken prisoner by the Japanese. I did most of my studies in Amritsar. Later, I did MSc in technical chemistry in Delhi Polytechnic in 1951.Since my childhood I was very fond of literature. There was no theatre in my life those days. In my student days I saw the partition of Punjab. In school and colleges those days, there were no ‘cultural activities’ as we have today. But we were serious about social change. Since my 9th class 1 was a member of the Communist Party of India – I was the youngest card holder at that time. I cannot say I have been with the Communist Party all along, but since 1944 I was fully committed to Marxist philosophy.
Between 1951 and 1962 1 worked in the research laboratories of the Bhakra dam project. It was there, in the midst of workers and staff, that I performed for the first time in 1957. Of course I wrote my first play in 1954 when there was a strike by the workers. The play was called ‘Lori’.Those days were of peak activity in the project and workers worked round the clock. They asked the management to relieve some workers for the night shift on the Lori festival. When the management refused they went on strike. The play was on that strike. It carried the message that workers were not machines, they too needed time off for relaxation and rest. After watching the play many officials were convinced and thought if they had seen the play earlier the strike (of 6 days) could have been avoided.
….learning theatre
I learnt by seeing plays that were performed in Lahore and Amritsar. Of course those plays were different. In 1957, I formed a staff drama club.We did a play called ’Diwa Bujh Gaya’. It was written by Kartar Sing Duggal on the Kashmir problem. I did the role of an old father. The play became very popular and gave me the confidence as an actor.That was the start of my drama career.It was exactly 40 years back.Since then I have participated in 6000 performances all over Punjab.I have written 132 plays.
Due to my social an political commitment, my main focus is on social justice. All my plays and performances deal with the fact that in this age of scientific advancement, the common people, the marginalized people, are leading a life that is extremely backward , full of exploitation.That the disparity between the rich and the poor is ever increasing. I had started writing on this theme with a play I wrote in 1959 called ‘Ghumman Gheri’(Whirlwind) on the life of a clerk. Since then I have carried on writing on this theme.In 1964 I founded our group ‘Amritsar Natak Kala Kendra’. I am still running the group and it has emerged as the most well known drama group in Punjab today.
….on his own theatre.
We perform in the midst of people. There are no tickets. After the play we ask people to contribute whatever they can. Initially we performed in the streets of urban areas.After 1970 , we shifted our activities to villages. Ever since my Bhakra days, I used to think, when we can change the course of a mighty river by building a dam, why can’t we create a strong enough force to change the course of society? Why can’t we build an egalitarian society?
My plays became sharper day by day.People often called them ‘propoganda’.Propoganda is used for personal gain.But I feel, if my aim is to achieve something positive for the society,where is the propaganda? I don’t want to be vague when I tell my people that they are being looted or taken for a ride. I want to tell people very strongly and openly that they are living in inhuman conditions, they are oppressed. When people talk about corruption amongst political leaders, they don’t take names. I made it a point to identify people by name, like Giani Zail Singh has done this. I named those people. So what if he is the President? So my drama always came in direct conflict with the establishment. During the Emergency in 1975, they slapped Section 311 Clause 2 on me and threw me out of my job.The clause says that the President can terminate, without any notice, the service of any Government servant who is a threat to the nation. I continued my activities in colleges and university as I was close to the students. Then in 1976, I was jailed under MISA. Of course,after the new Government took over the Emergency I was reinstated. But I took voluntary retirement in 1981.Since then I have been completely committed to social awakening of people through drama.
I move around a lot in the villages.We have 170 performances every year in villages. Some of my best plays were written during Emergency and then in the period of terrorism in Punjab that lasted for 14 years. Even during the peak phase of terrorism,I continued my activities. We moved around vey openly. Why should we be afraid of death when s o may people were being killed everyday? We felt we must tell the people what is going wrong. They could not harm me but on of my comrades, Sukhdev Preet, he was killed by the terrorists. I would not say he was killed because of his drama activities, but he was a victim of terrorism.
….. a unique theatre tradition
As such thereis not distinct theatre tradition in Punjab., though our folk culture is very rich. We have 4 kinds of theatre in Punjab. One is the kind that Neelam Man Singh does in Chandigarh.Her theatre caters to the elite,with large budgets and big shows.Next you have the ‘theatrical theatre’, or the conventional theatre. Though they don’t have tickets, but you can call them proffesional theatre. They are all very good plays with good performances.The third kind are plays done by amateur groups,like college students, but they are not very committed. The fourth kind of drama is our kind of drama.
We define our theatre as ‘rural theatre of modern sensibility’ with committed themes and committed aims.We don’t do folk theatre , it is ‘People’s theatre’. The difference between the two is the content.In folk theatre you have tales of Heer Ranjha,Mirza Sahiba, or stories based on past heroes. In the past I have done plays on heroes,like ‘Dhamak Nagare ki Dulla Bhatti’. But now we concentrate only on contemporary issues affecting the lives of poor and marginalized people.
Our theatre requires total commitment. We are already in conflict with the establishment. Because our theatre is pro-people, we try to limit its expenses to the bare minimum.Expenses for a show in the village is never more than Rs 2000/-, which includes artists,travel, stage preparation. Lights.You can trace the source of this kind of committed theatre back to the IPTA. Though I was not involved with IPTA as a theatre person,but I used to associate with them as an organizer. Our theatre is also on those lines.
Now we have a collective of seven groups,all belonging to the same genre,and are known as the PULS Manch(Punjab Lok Sabhyacharik Manch). We formed this manch in 1981. The seven groups of the PULS Manch perform individually in their own areas. But five times every year we organize all-night festivals wher all the groups perform at the same site –these occasions are January 25-26 at Jullandar, March 23 at the village of the poet Pash. That is his martyr day. We have one festival on May Day at Ludhiana, 28 September at Bhatinda on the occasion of Bhagat Singh’s birthday.Finally on November 1 , the Gaddar Lahar Foundation day. On these occasions usually there are day long political meetings. Our theatre performances start around around 6 and continue all night. Today I can make a humble claim that this tradition of rural theatre in Punjab has emerged as a unique tradition. You will not find it anywhere else.Certainly not in this scale. Last year all the seven groups did 722 shows all over Punjab.
All our funds come from the people.After our performances we collect contributions from the people in a ‘jholi’. A number of times we visited Punjabi communities settled in Canada, America etc. Some funds came from their contributions as well. Besides, I received the Sangeet Natak Academy award as Punjabi playwright in 1993.
…..impact of theatre.
It had tremendous effectivity but it is not that visible. It is clear to us that we are not trying to create a revolution through theatre. Theatre can only help in a larger process of revolution.It can create the ground,it can create awareness in people, it can raise issues of social equality. So we can only bring about a changein people’s consciousness, their psyche.That is theatre’s contribution. Last year we have addressed to a range of 1.75 lakh people through theatre.We dealt mostly with women’s issues and social inequality. A fact that went completely unnoticed in the Beijing women’s conference, that mothers of all countries had demanded the recgnition of primary education of all children (till the age of 11) as a legal and fundamental right. In many countries there is equality in primary education.In our country,however out of 31 crore children there are at least 1 crore children who never see the face of a school.Thia is a 1995 figure.And we say when we have achieved so much , developed so much. It is a shame on us! These alarming facts are never reported in our papers, our media. When our women delegates returned returned (from Beijing) they told us. If we see the state of children form underprivileged homes, the budgetary allocation for one child is 7 paise in a year! Compare this with the elite schools whose per child figure is Rs.700 per month! This why the poor remains poor and rich remains rich. Yet we claim to be a democratic country. I tell people on their face that merely casting a vote every 5 years doesn’t make us democratic.
I used theatre to get people together. I want people to see our play but before the play begins,I talk to people about those issues as an introduction to the play. Our plays too deal with such issues. In that sense I feel theatre is definitely playing a role in changing people’s consciousness, but its effect is not immediate. For example, even my wife tells me, “you are doing all this for forty years, but there doesn’t seem to be any change”. I say that there has definitely been a change in people’s psyche. Forty years ago,common people used to be in awe of a rich and powerful man, they used to salute him.Today , they know who deserves respect, they may even spit at him.For example, there is a tendency of lumpenisation among Dalits who have found voice.This is very natural for a community which has been through centuries of ostracisation. They cannot be’ decent’. But this is a very temporary phase.In their struggle for equality they will change their attitude very soon. So we can say very strongly that people’s theatre or literature plays a very important role in the process of awakening.Of course , there will be a section who will view theatre as an art form, for art’s sake. We need not discuss that.
…..fighting fundamentalism or comsumerism
I feel fundamentalism or consumerism, are only forms that are used by our opposing forces. They use these to distract people from us. Our role is to sustain our struggle recognizing all our limitations,using our resources to the maximum extent. At this point, we may feel they are too powerful.But it is not true. We will continue. I have reached the twilight of my life, I may be around for a few more years. But you people, I keep telling my young artists,that you still have forty more years to go. You should not lose hope.See,in the terrorist period all cultural activities virtually stopped in Punjab. Then, four years back when Beant Singh came to power, there was an overflow of cultural expressions.There was also a vulgarization of culture.Peple told me that I was reaching to a mere 1000 people with my plays while they had tens of thousands tapping their feet to Bhangras etc. I told them’ koi baat nahin, let them go on.’ Now, demands are coming from the same people that they are tired of these vulgar things. So this phenomenon is also going side by side. No doubt there is struggle, but we should not lose hope.
… the recent ban threat
In 1982 I wrote a play ”Ek Kursi,Morcha, aur hawa mein latak rahe log”. The kursi was of Darbara Singh of Congress, the morcha was Shiromani Akali Dal’s ‘Dharamyuddh Morcha’ (I symbolized it as a manji wala), and the people hanging in the air were the unemployed youth, migrant labour, a woman whose daughter was raped, and a farmer who lost his harvest. The farmer goes to the kursi – the ruler – asking for a job. He says he has studied 16 jamaats (MA). The kursi tells him ‘did I tell you to study? You should have studied less’. Then he asks the manji wala for a job. The Manji wala tells him ”I don’t know if I can give you a job, but I can certainly teach you how to seek the will of god. lf you get the will of god you will have no worries”. We did so many shows of this play. That these fundamentalists have nothing to offer to people. On the other hand the rulers like the Congress who is ruling for the last 50 years, are totally indifferent. So they have worked out a mutual arrangement of taking turns whenever the need arises. Sometimes they wear white pagris, sometimes blue. But in reality they are what we call in Punjabi “pag wat pra” (change turbans and remain friends).
The play essentially points out that they are playing this game and confusing people. Some Akali people saw the play and felt rather uncomfortable. I still perform that play and we keep updating it.
… anti- Sikh , anti- religion?
Yes, that they say. But I also tell them that Sikhism has two parts. One which chants the name of god- radhe radhe, or wahi guru, wahi guru. The other part is based on social aspects.From Nanak to the 10th guru, they have all talked of equality. So did Kabir and Ravidas. But the fundamentalists are not concerned about that. They won’t touch the root cause of inequality and present the whole thing as the will of god. We must challenge this thougt and go on with our struggle.
Films on Environment
Wings of Kokre Bellur
Kannada, English, 45 min, 1994
A film on the relationship between the birds and the people. No forest department or sanctuary can match the deep rooted respect for life that the people of Kokkre Bellur have. The film is a tribute to all the unknown and uncelebrated communities that live in harmony with nature. From them we seek inspiration for the future of our environment and of all life on earth.
Film by: K P Sasi
Source: ALCOM, Jyotsna, ELipode, Thirumala, Trivandrum 695 006, Kerala, Fax: 0471-450541
The Weeping Rice Bowl
Malayalam/ English, 29 min
Kuttanad, the rice bowl of Kerala, is a unique region in its natural settings and human intervention. The film narrates the consequences of short sighted development programmes and pesticides pollution which adversely affects this fragile ecosystem lying below the sea level.
Film by: K Mohankumar
Source: C-Dit, Chitranjali Studio Complex
Thiruvallom, Trivandrum 695 027
Fax: 0471-460681
Marubhumi
Hindi, 52 min, 1995
Marubhumi tells the story about water in the desert-state of Rajasthan by stringing together glimpses of the history, politics and development of water harvesting in ancient and modern Jodhpur.
Film By: Amar Kanwar
Source: INTACH, Bharatiyam, Near Humayun Tomb, Nizamuddin,
New Delhi 110 013
Fax: 011 – 4611290
Oru Vanavyasthayude Seshippukal
(The Remains of an Ecosystem)
Malayalam/English, 20 mins
The video tries to communicate the intricate role played by the Mangrove system that is a productive ecosystem, contributing significantly to the fertility of nearby coastal waters.
They produce large quantities of organic matter, transforms this into surrounding deeper waters and into detritus which in turn are used by a large group of consumer organsims. Mangroves also function as an important nursery ground for many economically important species of fishes.
Film by.. K R Mohanan
Source: C-Dit
Taj Mahal – Not a Love Story
English, 28 min, 1996
The film talks about how futile it is to try and save the Taj Mahal from pollution if the focus doesn’t shift to saving Agra and improving the quality of life of the people who live there.
Film by: Ramesh Menon
Source: BiTV, 268 Masjid Moth, Uday Park, New Delhi 110049
The Seeds of Malabar
Malayalam / English, 22 min, 1996
Kerala, on the western coast of India, is a land of incredible plant and bio-diversity. From early times foreigners arrived on this coastal land and have plundered its natural wealth. Today, the issue is how the seeds of basic crops are now threatened with the new issues of patent rights.
Film by: Rajeev Vljayaraghavan
Source: C-Dit
Revolution and After
English, 33 min, 1991
The film examines the environmental effect of the agriculture strategy of the Green Revolution, its impact on soil, bio-diversity, water table, and food contamination. The film shares the experiences of 3 ecological farmers from Gujarat, Karnataka and U.P.
Film by: Krishnendu Bose
Source: Earthcare Films (P) Ltd,
B 91, Defence Colony, New Delhi 110 024
Fax: 011-4647310, 4626699
The Good Earth
English, 42 min, 1993
Sustainable agriculture or ecological farming is a sum total of organic/natural and other such alternate farming practices and more.It is a perception of life beyond agriculture,agriculture in a sustainable world. The film examines the movement from few perspectives- indivisuals,the state,international institutions and the urban consumer and their health consciousness.
Film by: Krishnendu Bose
Source: Earthcare Films (P) Ltd.
Creeks of Conflict
English, 40 min, 1996
The film throws up the ideological and power equations determining the development patterns in India and the scant respect paid to environment of the indigenous population’s need in this pattern.
Film by: Krishnendu Bose
Source: Earthcare Films (P) Ltd.
Veli
(The Open)
Tamil, 55min, 1995
A film on environmental pollution of Cauvery river. Rythms of the river determined the images of the video which is the filmmaker’s expression of love for the environment. It consists of free flowing images of Cauvery beginning from the hills of Coorg to Poompuhar where it merges with the Bay Of Bengal.
Film by: A. Sasikant
Source: 34 Varren Road , Myalpore, Madras, Tamil Nadu 600 004
Pastoral Politics
English, 29 mins, 1996
This is a film on the sheep-herding community of Gaddi in Himachal Pradesh.It puts forward an ecological debate on the issue of traditional Gaddi grazing practices vis-à-vis deforestation.
Film by: Sanjay Barnela & Vasant Saberwal
Source: Moving Images,D 3/3425, Vasant Kunj,
New Delhi, 110 070
Fax: 011-6893384
Amrit Beeja
(The Eternal Seed)
English, 43min, 1996
The traditional role of women in nurturing nature’s seeds is endangered by modern technologies and patent laws. Who owns nature’s seeds? Who controls the fertility of women and of the earth? Those who have valued biological diversity through ages or the multinationals with their property rights? A film on traditional scientific knowledge of women farmers in preserving bio-diversity.
Film by: Meera Dewan
Source: Southview Productions,
73 Poorvi Marg, Vasant Vihar ,
New Delhi 110 057
Fax:011-6862206
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