Memories about a Newspaper

Memories of Goa’s first English daily newspaper and my school days are entwined, peculiar though it may sound. The Navhind Times, which completed 50 years on February 18, was established when I was studying in Class 2 English medium primary in my village, with Konkani in Devnagri as a subject.

My idea of a newspaper was shaped by the structure, layout, presentation, contents and style of this only English newspaper that I could lay my hands on, there being no other local one in the nineteen-sixties. The Marathi dailies Gomantak  and Rashtramat, and the Portuguese daily O Heraldo were out of my circle, and the Konkani Uzvad in the Roman script could not sustain my interest for long in its short life span. 

Two other English dailies, the Goa Monitor in 1972 and later the West Coast Times, made their appearance for a short time but had to be closed down. The television would make its increasingly mighty presence in Goa in the nineteen-eighties. The Herald in its English avatar, and the Gomantak Times came into existence along with the advance of television. The local edition of the Times of India followed much later in 2008.

Back to the nineteen-sixties. Goa had been liberated end of 1961. Goans were looking at their world in a new way. New openings. New commercial opportunities. A democratic way of life. English education. New industries. National outlook.  An English newspaper was the need of the hour. So the Navhind Times was established at the right time in the right place: Panjim, 1963. I guess it was appropriately named Navhind, meaning New India. The very first Panchayat election in Goa had taken place in the closing quarter of 1962, and the first election to the Legislative Assembly of Goa, Daman and Diu was impending. It took place in December 1963. Democracy was on the move and the fourth estate had to be in place.

The new daily helped Goans to get into the national mainstream by presenting national news every morning in print form. Listening to the news bulletins on the All India Radio would be another way of keeping in touch with daily events. 

The assassination of American President John Francis Kennedy and the death of Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru were two events that took place in 1963 and 1964. These events were big enough to draw the attention of school students like me. We must have seen the first pictures of these shattering events in our local newspaper. Where else could we have seen those photographs? The election of Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri in 1964, the India-Pakistan war 1965, the ‘Jai Javan, Jai Kisan’ slogan, the shocking death of Prime Minister Shastri at Tashkent in January 1966, and the election of Indira Gandhi as prime minister immediately thereafter are events recorded in my memory as they are in the archives of the newspapers of those eventful times. The newspapers played as important a role in making news interesting as the news itself made the papers interesting. The sports page was much sought after by students, specially the football coverage at the local, national and international levels. Where else could we see pictures of Pele? No colorful news magazines were available on the newsstands. At times we could lay our hands on  few copies of the Illustrated Weekly of India, more for the illustrations than for the serious content. Now I miss it, contents and all. Very interesting newsmagazines are published these days, but the Illustrated Weekly and the secretly borrowed Eve’s Weekly of my student days will never be forgotten. 

What brought me seriously to the newspapers, the daily and several weeklies, was the Opinion Poll of Goa in 1967 . I was in middle school at that time. I discovered the power of the press. And the power of the platform. The press would present the news, comments, editorials and letters to the editor. What a marathon debate. So what if we students were not eligible to vote. Our parents, our relations, our neighbors, our teachers were all going to vote. Our future, our identity, our land and our language were all at stake. We had to read the newspaper to check about yesterday while we anxiously waited for tomorrow. And the day passed, 16^th January 1967. The papers became even more interesting with three days of counting. The results were declared on the All India Radio on 19^th January afternoon. We had won. Our excitement knew no bounds. But still we had to wait to catch a glimpse of the newspapers on 20^th January. It was a delight to see the results in print.

Ever since then newspaper reading became a necessity, a habit, a compulsion.

A month later the first English daily of Goa completed four years. 

I wish the daily many more interesting years on the occasion of its golden jubilee. I consider it appropriate to quote James Thurber: “There are two kinds of light – the glow that illuminates, and the glare that obscures”. Keep illuminating.

Published in The Navhind Times, Panorama 24.02.2013

A Stunning but Exemplary Renunciation

Whatever may be his legacy, this single historic decision of Pope Benedict XVI to renounce the papacy  “with full freedom” will be remembered as a very significant contribution to the papacy in particular, and leadership in general.

It is very clear that the octogenarian pope has not resigned due to any pressure or a particular illness or a crisis. He has done so, in his own words, because “strength of mind and body … has deteriorated in me to the extent that I have had to recognize my incapacity to adequately fulfill the ministry entrusted to me.” He could have continued till the very end of his life but chose otherwise in the wider interest of the church he has led for almost eight years. It is indeed a wise and inspiring decision.

Humanly speaking, it could not have been an easy decision to forsake the powerful office of the pope, and to move from the centre of the mainstream into the obscure margins. If Jesus Christ himself had to undergo and resist the temptation for earthly power as depicted in the Gospel of St Luke on the first Sunday of Lent, Pope Benedict must have surely had a tough time repeatedly examining his conscience before God. Therefore, as many have commented, it was a courageous decision. It sets a precedent for future popes, and an outstanding example to present bishops as well as any other leaders occupying positions of power and responsibility. When one encounters the moment when one can’t do justice to a responsible job due to deteriorating health or the ageing process or any other inability, one should pass on the baton in the interest of the church, the organization or the state as the case may be. 

I still remember the answer Pope John Paul II gave to a journalist about 10 years ago when asked about running the papacy in spite of his severe suffering with deteriorating knees. The pope replied in a lighter vein that he ran the papacy with his head and not on his knees. That was the charismatic and strong Pope John Paul II. He had a mission, a much needed mission in the early years of the present century. He had led the church to the twenty-first century from the previous one that was marked by unprecedented violence and suffering during the two world wars. The century of science and progress it was, but also a century of nuclear weapons, of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, of gas chambers, of genocides, and of exiles to chilly Siberia.  He himself had come from totalitarian Poland. He knew suffering from close quarters,  and could face it stoically. He had the opportunity to show the world the meaning of suffering unto death from his papal seat, and he did it gracefully in April 2005, stunning the world in another transforming way.

As a personality, Pope Benedict has been a contrast to his popular predecessor Pope John Paul. While the conservatives were happy with him, the liberals felt that he was in some ways turning back the clock of reforms started by Vatican Council II. He is a scholarly theologian speaking and writing in a cerebral and yet lucid language. When he became Pope, it was reported, while his luggage and personal belongings were transferred to his nearby new residence, he not only personally supervised the transfer of his books but carried some himself, walking his way with his red shoes, carrying a meaningful load in his hands. Popes are generally intellectuals, but the outgoing one is specially so. He has communicated his viewpoints and admonishments in a rational way to the science oriented and the young. He has been using cyber space for quite some time, and of late has been twitting to reach out to the modern. 

The search for the successor has begun in the minds of those interested in the future of the church. Pope Benedict will neither participate in the proceedings nor advise. The college of Cardinals will meet probably in mid March in a Conclave in the Sistine Chapel to choose prayerfully the new pope. It is the cherished hope of many that the new leader of the Catholic Church will be either from Latin America, Asia or Africa; that he will be relatively young; charismatic and inspiring; reaching out to the young; liberal; initiating measures for peace and dialogue with other religions; and of course a man after God’s on heart who can make a difference to the church as well as our difficult and crisis ridden world.

Inspired by the timely resignation, I shall end with a quotation by Tao Te Ching, placed on my work desk:

“Do your work, then step back. The only path to serenity.”

 Published in The Navhind Times, Panorama 17.02.2013

Celebration of Ideas

We have just finished the 6^th edition of the D D Kosambi Festival of Ideas. It is good that the event continues to be organized even after the change of government.

Change, innovation and progress begin with ideas. Ideas move the world. One man with ideas can be a great force in bringing about change. It is fortunate that Goa was a pioneer state in starting a celebration of ideas. One of the speakers at the festival has said that she would like to do something similar in her own country.

Politicians have so many opportunities to address the people to the extent of boring them, and it was wise to have kept them out of the first five editions of the festival. The inclusion of the national spokesperson of the ruling party in Goa could have been avoided this year.

Recently President Pranab Mukherjee inaugurated the Hindu Centre for Politics and Public Policy, a think tank set up at Delhi by the publishers of The Hindu, an excellent national newspaper. In his inaugural speech, he said, “we were taught that the essence of democracy is the three Ds:  debate and discussion, dissent and finally decision. We were told by our teacher of political science that the three Ds are essential for democracy… When I retired from Parliament… I found there is another D which has been injected, that is, disruption.”

Disruption of parliamentary proceedings has almost become the order of the day in our parliament and in some state assemblies. It is not the voice of reason but the strength of the vocal chords that carries the day at times. It is not the raising of hands to exercise your vote but the raising of hands to strike and to disrupt.  This has become the common spectacle for the television viewers. 

Disruption is on the rise. Debate is on the decline. Where’s the place for ideas?

The decline of debate in our legislatures is fortunately not so much reflected in other non political forums. The letters to the editor in our newspapers and periodicals are a shining example of good debate. The panel discussions on television channels are a good example of exchange of ideas, except that they are too much controlled by the moderator or anchor, and the expression of a full point of view is curtailed by taking the mike away. Public lectures, memorial lectures, seminars, symposia, etc. are being organized by various NGOs. All these lead to dissemination and exchange of ideas, deepening of understanding, and broadening of outlook.

The ideas expressed by Prof. Lord Bhiku Parekh, on the third day of the Kosambi Festival, are worth recalling. While speaking on the topic “The Indian Tradition of Public Debate”, he said that protest and debate “form the heart and head of democracy”.  True. But in our country, like in a rising number of others, dissent is throttled and protest suppressed. Rulers, even those democratically elected, are becoming more and more intolerant. Dissent is sometimes treated as  not patriotic, and protest as anti-national. Not true.  The greatest danger to the future of the nation comes from those who are intolerant of others and other viewpoints. They confuse unity with uniformity. Unity is good and desirable. Uniformity is suffocating, stifling and most undesirable. Creativity happens in a free atmosphere. Uniformity produces a herd mentality and a copycat following.

The danger of uniformity prevailing over diversity arises with the ascendency of dictatorial tendencies. Mind you, dictators can rise from a democratic setting. When we become obsessed with just one idea, we become so blind that we choose to be followers of one strong leader and put him up on a pedestal, a pedestal so high that we may later find it difficult to unseat him from the throne.

In the last century it happened in Germany. Powerful orator. Demagogue. Mask. Hitler.

Those who do not learn from history repeat the mistakes of the past.

India, as Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru so often said, is a country where unity prevails in the midst of diversity. Variety, not uniformity, is our defining characteristic. Party based parliamentary democracy, not leader based polity, is the best form of government for India to grow in progress, peace, prosperity and happiness. It is slow but steady growth. One man show may look fast and attractive, but it will be a disaster.

Ideas. Collective leadership. Diversity. Democracy.

All the above mentioned four concepts are interconnected. By celebrating ideas let us promote them all.

Published in The Navhind Times, Panorama 10.02.2013

The Moral Compass

Mahatma Gandhi was a moral force, the like of whom India has not seen after his martyrdom, which we commemorate annually on 30th January, five days after the Republic Day celebrations. I was born many years after Gandhi’s assassination and I still remember the one minute silence we had to maintain on this day for many years during my schooling. Our teachers, who had experienced the dark shadow of the day when Gandhi migrated to his eternal abode, used to remind us of Jawaharlal Nehru’s immortal words of the light having passed away. Gandhi was more than a great leader. A moral force. A saint.

Having gone through President Pranab Mukherjee’s  eve of Republic Day address to the nation, I found these words most relevant and worth pondering: “It is time for the nation to reset its moral compass.”

It is long since we have heard such words from any leader of eminence, official or otherwise. On the contrary, every contemporary leader seems to be reluctant to speak of morality. The only references are to moral policing, moral brigades and moral hypocrites. True. No one speaks of moral authority because there is hardly a public leader with moral authority in India. In the absence of any, we only pay lip service to the Mahatma. Our powerful media also forgets him on the Martyr’s Day when the nation should be reminded of his sacrifice.

How can we reset our moral compass if our moral authority is on the decline?

Is there a moral force?

Does our religion, whichever it may be, give due importance to morality?

The rituals, customs and traditions of our religions, with the support of technology, hold sway over the followers while the voice that upholds moral teachings is almost lost in the dust and din of our festivities with glittering lights and deafening sound.

The voice of morality is a voice in the wilderness.

The President said: ”There is the law of the land. But there is also a higher law.”

When we break the law of the land with impunity, we weaken our Republic. When we break the higher law, “we wound the soul of our civilization.” As it happened when six men brutalized a young woman in a moving bus in our capital city last December. As it happened when a seven year old girl was sexually assaulted in a school in our port town in Goa. As it happens every day, every night with increasing frequency in our modern India.

Where Is the moral compass? And how are we going to reset it?

The Mahatma spoke of seven deadly sins: wealth without work, pleasure without conscience, knowledge without character, commerce without morality, science without humanity, religion without sacrifice, and politics without principle.

Our religious texts are full of teachings about the ideal life that we should live. All religious directives can be reduced to a common maxim: Do unto others what you expect others to do unto you.

Instead of searching for the common truth in our religious texts, we are busy misusing our religions to divide people, build prejudice and hatred which results in blind violence. As Gandhi said, an eye for an eye will make the whole world blind.

The preamble of our constitution is an inspiring document which enshrines the soul of our civilization: equality, liberty and fraternity.

What better guidance can we seek than that which is encoded in all scriptures and our own constitution of India? 

The code of morality is already there in the compass. Are the pointers missing? Or are the pointers not sharp and clear? What is it that can drive the pointers to move?

The moral force. The moral authority. This force, this authority is different from the mere authority of the state or government. While law enforcing authority is very much required and derives its power from the laws of the state, the moral authority derives its power from the soul of our civilization and culture, from a higher power. Mere pious talk will not do. Example is better than precept. The person who inspires others to practice the moral code, should also be an inspiration himself or herself.

We need morally tall persons to be the pointers in the moral compass.

We don’t have to look at others or at established leaders to fill this vacancy. Each of us - whether parents, teachers, executives, directors, legislators, ministers, physicians, engineers, writers or priests (list not exhaustive) – has the potential to rise up to the occasion. 

Vacancy not advertised. It is the need of the hour. It is the cry of our civilization.

As James Q Wilson says it: “Crime is the price society pays for abandoning character.”

Published in The Navhind Times, Panorama 03.02.2013