I have been reading a remarkably detailed book about the Indian media and secularism by a dear friend a fellow journalist and poet, Dr. Dharmesh Bhatt of Mumbai. Dharmesh approaches this perpetually incendiary subject almost forensically tracing the history of communal/sectarian violence in India from as early as 1851 when rioting between the Parsi and Muslim communities broke out. Dharmesh enlists 20 milestone conflagration to drive home his thesis about the complexity and diversity of such riots that not only frequently tear apart India's social fabric but pose a grave challenge to the Indian media as well expose ideological fault lines.
Speaking of thesis, Dharmesh's book has resulted from his dissertation for his Ph.D. Being an astute journalist and observer of India's many societal challenges, Dharmesh brings to bear his expertise of juxtaposing a vast number of communal breakdowns over the past couple of centuries and offer a clear-eyed perspective. The only problem with the slim 158-page book titled 'Bhartiya Prasar Madhymo Aney Binsampradayikta', published by Navbharat Sahitya Mandir, Mumbai, priced 250 rupees, is that it is in Gujarati which makes its accessibility limited.
Dharmesh takes a middle-path approach to the overwhelming challenges that India and the Indian media face because of frequent breakdowns in its societal equations.
At a time when the debate over the Indian idea of secularism, which dominated as the political currency right until 2014, has not just become bellicose and bilious but even viciously violent, this book offers both micro and macro perspectives. At some point, Dharmesh should consider getting it translated into English and other Indian languages. He successfully combines his skills as a journalist with scholarly strengths to marshal a wide variety of facts to support the overall narrative of the book. Since we live in the times of ever shortening attention spans, while the book's slimness is useful, its very detailed explanation of the many conflagrations and tensions could be a challenge for the younger readers. However, it is a good problem to have.
If I had my way, I would prescribe this as a textbook for high school students who can get an early and elaborate overview of the world they are going to step into.
