From 'kalam wali bai' to presstitute: The sad journey of women journalists in India
In India, working women return home from their workplaces only to work more, serve more people. If lucky, praises are heaped on her. If not, it's abuses. And yet she has to work her way out, keeping her sanity intact without raising her voice.
But there are women who do speak up, not just as women but as human beings, for human rights. And that's sufficient ground for things to get ugly. The entire universe will conspire to cut her down to size, to shut her up.
When Gauri Lankesh, a senior journalist-activist who had the courage to speak her mind, returned home on Tuesday from work, she was silenced by bullets. Some reports said she was shot three times, others claimed four bullets were pumped into her, one in the forehead.
While news of her assassination spread, Lankesh was hailed by her peers across media houses as a fearless, rational voice – a noted woman journalist who was critical of "Hindu extremism and communal polarisation". According to this NDTV report, Lankesh had frequently written in “support of the rehabilitation of Naxals and against divisive politics”. Another report in The Indian Express said she brought back many persons involved with the Naxal movement in Karnataka into the mainstream with the help of the Karnataka government.
The grieving literary community felt the assassination of noted journalist Lankesh is an attempt to “silence those who believe in democracy and decency”.
According to historian Ramachandra Guha, Lankesh’s murder was “part of a pattern that links the deaths of Narendra Dabholkar, MM Kalburgi and Govind Pansare”.
It’s true that she was noted, but perhaps only among the media fraternity and select readers. Yet for all women journalists, the solidarity extended by their male colleagues is appreciated. Because Lankesh’s activism was not limited to women only. If not in life, perhaps Lankesh will make more Indians take note of women journalists and their struggles, in her death.
Life for female journalists has never been easy in a society which is so hostile to the gender in general and refuses to acknowledge her contributions (barring a few cases of decorative concessions - a Union minister here, a party president there).
But media, if not the worst, is also not the best industry for Indian women to be serving in. While the tag of a journalist does give you some sense of pride, the constant hate campaign against scribes by the political class (supported by a considerable section of cronies within the media) has worsened the situation.
As if it was not bad enough to be hitting the glass ceiling in a highly male-dominated industry, the fight for female journalists grew harder with the trolls unleashed both online and offline. So from virtual, the attacks have now become real.
Incidentally, Lankesh, who was convicted in two defamation cases last year filed by BJP MP Prahlad Joshi and party leader Umesh Dushi over a report published in her paper, was often issued death threats on social media.“Let me assure you, they are keen to somehow shut me up too,” She had told Newslaundry soon after she was convicted.
While most women journalists eventually reconcile to online abuses and threats over news articles and opinion pieces they write, those who try to assert themselves and stand by their values often find themselves fighting a lonely battle against their abusers.
In journalism, it's not just the women's body that has been politicised but her mind and actions too. That there are very few women in top editorial positions is not without reason. There are many senior women journalists, yet they are not considered good enough to head organisations. The same bias that guides women's fate in Indian households also flows unabated within the media industry.
She may be the best but not yet fit to lead men - good to write and talk about human interest stories (also called soft stories in media parlance) or perhaps to be relegated to desk job (editing) without leadership responsibilities. That's why when one female reporter fights her way to war reporting she herself becomes news. Because it's the male bastion that she invaded.
For years, female journalists have been working for much lesser than what their male counterparts are paid. But not enough of them have complained about the salary gap. Because there are more important things to fight for - the right to work, right to equal opportunity, right to protection from sexual and mental harassment.
That's why it becomes a huge disservice to womanhood and the profession when some women journalists sell their souls to bigotry and fall for ideas peddled by male chauvinists, further perpetrating the myth that women don't have independent mindset and can't function independently. The same chauvinists who turned the image of journalists who were once fondly referred to as "Kalam (pen) wali bai" to "presstitute".
While Lankesh was mourned by the media fraternity last night, another female journalist became news as she expressed her delight over karma coming back to haunt the Gauri Lankesh Patrike editor.
So, Commy Gauri Lankesh has been murdered mercilessly. Your deeds always come back to haunt you, they say. Amen.#Bengaluru#GauriLankesh
— Jagrati Shukla (@JagratiShukla29) September 5, 2017
So we're officially a country where one journalist can say "amen" to the murder of another journalist and make it her pinned tweet. https://t.co/QoyY57lDxD
— G Sampath (@samzsays) September 5, 2017
What have we become! How did it become so easy for politicians and the ruling dispensation to buy journalists' opinion? Why is dissent so difficult? And if it's difficult for you to speak up, at least don't stop the ones who are brave enough to stick to their beliefs. Because those who may have bought your consent today may not pay you enough to shut up the rebel in your child tomorrow. And god forbid, if your karma comes to haunt you, who would you turn to for help?
No amount of mourning can bring back Lankesh but maybe we can hope that her story of immense grit in the face of overwhelming odds will inspire a whole new generation of male and female journalists. Because courage is not gender-specific nor is honest, unsullied journalism.