Kasbah Express, Mofussil Times

For quite some time, the language media, particularly Hindi media, has taken centrestage in media discussions. As a media analyst, Ninan’s byline is as familiar to Hindi readers as to readers of English newspapers. Her columns in prominent Hindi newspapers show her understanding of the inner and outer scenarios of the language media. While initiating a fresh debate on the fast-changing public sphere in the Hindi heartland, Ninan painstakingly chronicles the metamorphosis of major newspaper houses in UP, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Bihar, Jharkhand and other states. The mushrooming local editions of Jagaran, Bhaskar, Amar Ujala, Rajasthan Patrika, Hindustan, Aaj, Prabhat Khabar and other dailies have decentralised and democratised the Hindi print media at the district level. This has undoubtedly played a significant role in effecting far-reaching changes in the so-called "sick states". The phenomenal growth of the Hindi press is also linked with increasing literacy levels and the urbanisation of the Hindi belt, as Ninan’s study indicates.

Headlines from the Heartland is a brilliant commentary on the burgeoning growth of the Hindi media and its emerging trends. Ninan underscores both the positive and negative effects of the unwieldy growth of the Hindi press—localisation and delocalisation of news, local customisation of contents, price and prize wars, marginalisation of the editor’s power, the expanding rural market for advertisements, the nexus between press controllers, journalists and new ruling elites.

The rise of the Hindi press coincides with the renaissance of the 19th century and its stalwarts. Mahabir Prasad Dwivedi, Ganesh Shankar Vidyarthi, Baburao Vishnu Paradkar, Makhan Lal Chaturvedi and others played a missionary role in the freedom movement. The Hindi press has come a long way from mission to profession, and is now lunging towards commercialism.

On its commercialisation, Ninan says: "The commercial instincts of the Hindi press were honed early on by developing pragmatic political linkages to procure land and favours. Both big and small Hindi newspapers benefited from government largesse." She rightly observes: "When a local public sphere is market-driven those who remain outside its market do not figure in it, unless the newspaper is driven by a sharp social conscience." Yet, as she also says, the Hindi press is gradually becoming quality-conscious.

Ninan’s study takes forward Robin Jeffrey’s book, India’s Newspaper Revolution. Written in the ’90s, it encompassed the challenges before the language media, including Hindi, Urdu, and southern language newspapers, and their responses to it. But in both books, there are gaps in comprehending the public sphere in the Indian situation. The application of Habermas’s concept of public sphere in India’s diversified and unevenly developed society has limitations. India’s agrarian society, having passed through colonial rule, is fundamentally different from a liberal, developed society in the West. The basic class character of the Hindi press’s ownership has been mercantile-capitalistic. The changeover from mercantile capitalism to industrial capitalism, and switching over to digital printing technology, do not necessarily cause a shift in the social and professional behaviour of Hindi press barons and mufassil proprietors. Also, the century-old caste character of the Hindi press is fairly intact. Still a caste Hindu-dominated press, proprietors, editors, bureau chiefs and chief reporters invariably come from Vaishya, Brahmin, Kayasth and other upper caste backgrounds. This affects the democratic functioning of the Hindi press.

Though pioneering work has been done in documenting the Hindi press since colonial days, by Madhav Saprey Museum in collaboration with M.C. Patrakarita University, Bhopal, and Naidunia, Indore, most histories of Hindi journalism are sketchy. Ninan’s book is a welcome contrast. A lucidly written mix of statistics, empirical data and sharp analysis, it is a valuable source on the subject, and will be read with great interest by media watchers, media students as well as ordinary readers.