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egknsoh oekZ

NCERT

Mem

oria

l Lec

ture

Ser

ies

Mahadevi VermaSecond Memorial Lecture – 2009

BY KALPANA SHARMA

1907-1987

ISBN 978-81-7450-922-2

2101

Mahadevi Verma

Second Memorial Lecture � 2009

1907-1987

NCERT

MEMORIAL LECTURE SERIES

Mahadevi Verma Second Memorial Lecture

By Kalpana Sharma

atRegional Institute of Education, Bhopal

5 January 2009

December 2008 ISBN 978-81-7450-922-2Pausa 1930

PD IT IJ

© National Council of Educational Research and Training, 2008

Rs 10.00

Published at the Publication Department by the Secretary, NationalCouncil of Educational Research and Training, Sri Aurobindo Marg,New Delhi 110016 and printed at................

CONTENTS

OUR OBJECTIVES 1

SECTION 1 4

On Mahadevi Verma : Mahadevi Verma on Education

SECTION 2 18Mahadevi Verma Memorial Lecture: 2008-09

Theme: Can the Media Teach us Anything?

About the Author 31

Annexure 33

OUR OBJECTIVES

The National Council of Educational Research Training(NCERT) is an apex organisation, assisting and advisingthe Central and State Governments by undertakingresearch, survey, and development, training and extensionactivities for all stages of school and teacher education.

One of the objectives of the Council is to act as a clearinghouse and disseminator of ideas relating to school andteacher education. We have initiated the Memorial LectureSeries in order to fulfil this role and to commemorate thelife and work of great educational thinkers. Our aim is tostrive to raise the level of public awareness about theseminal contributions made in the field of education byeminent men and women of India. We expect that suchawareness will set off a chain of discourse and discussion.This, we hope, will make education a lively subject ofinquiry while simultaneously encouraging a sustainedpublic engagement with this important domain of nationallife.

The memorial lecture series covers public lecturescommemorating the life and work of nine eminent Indianeducational thinkers and practitioners.

Title and Venue of Memorial Lecture Series

Title

Gijubhai Badheka MemorialLectureRabindranath Tagore MemorialLectureZakir Hussain MemorialLectureMahadevi Verma MemorialLectureB.M. Pugh Memorial Lecture

Savitri Phule Memorial Lecture

Marjorie Sykes MemorialLecture

Venue

Madras Institute of DevelopmentStudies, ChennaiRegional Institute of Education,BhubaneswarRegional Institute of Education,MysoreRegional Institute of Education,BhopalNorth East Regional Instituteof Education ShillongSNDT Women's College, MarineLines, MumbaiRegional Institute of Education,Ajmer

2

We invite persons of eminence from academia andpublic life to deliver these lectures in English or any otherIndian language. Our intention is to reach a largeaudiences consisting in particular of teachers, students,parents, writers, artists, NGOs, government servants andmembers of local communities.

The Annexure (Memorial Lectures 2007-2008)provides a summary of the lectures organised in the year2007-08.

In due course the lectures will be made available onCompact Discs (CDs) and in the form of printed bookletsin languages other than English or Hindi in which it isoriginally delivered for wider dissemination. Each bookletconsists of two sections : Section one highlights the purposeof the memorial lectures and provides a brief sketch of thelife and work of the concerned educational thinker andSection two gives the lectures in full along with a briefbackground of the speaker.

Section 1 in this booklet has been contributed byDr. Shankar Sharan, faculty in the Department ofEducational Research and Policy Perspective, at NCERT.In this section the writer highlights how Mahadevi Vermaknown as a great poetess was also a teacher by profession.He presents briefly her educational insights on philosophyof education and a comparative of the Indian and Westernunderstanding of it, role of language, place of creativeliterature in curricula, problems of girls education,circumstances of unemployed youth and the poverty ofmodern Indian intellectuals enamoured with Westernthoughts and phraseology. He draws attention to the factthat the observations made by Mahadevi Verma on all theseissues are relevant to our current educational discourse.

Ms. Kalpana Sharma, is delivering the second MahadeviVerma Memorial Lecture on 5 January 2009 at theRegional Institute of Education, Bhopal. Kalpana Sharma

Sri Aurobindo MemorialLecturesMahatma Gandhi MemorialLecture

SNDT Women�s College, MarineLines MumbaiRegional Institute of Education,Ajmer

3

is an independent journalist, columnist and mediaconsultant based in Mumbai. In over three decades as afull-time journalist she was, until recently, Deputy Editorand Chief of Bureau of The Hindu in Mumbai. Her specialareas of interest are environmental and developmentalissues and she follows and comments on urban issues,especially in the context of Mumbai's development.

The theme of her lecture is Can the media teach usanything? In the wake of the terror attacks in Mumbai, on26 November, 2008 she focuses on the importance of themedia at times of such a crisis. She urges us to question:'Should not the media as a whole, and the electronic mediain particular, pause and consider the direction in which itis going?' She elaborates and further questions, "does itnot have a responsibility towards its viewers, how is itshaping perceptions, is it more concerned about accuracyor about popularity, and how can it ensure that at timesof crisis it acts as a conveyor of information and not panic?"She also highlights the need for the media to consider theimpact of the depiction of violent events on young minds.There is a strong need for the media to realise itsresponsibilities and in her words, "the best way some suchissues can be addressed is by internal guidelines developedby the media with the help of civil society representatives �including parents and teachers, as has happened in manyother countries. We certainly do not need censorship orgovernment control. But we do need to develop the tools ofsensitivity and sobriety along with the awareness of thepower we have to influence young minds."

We hope these lecture series will be of use to ouraudiences as well as the public in and outside the countryin general.

I acknowledge the contribution of Ms Shadab Subhan,Junior Project Fellow for helping me with the finalisationof this manuscript.

Anupam AhujaConvenor

4

SECTION 1

ON MAHADEVI VERMA

MAHADEVI VERMA ON EDUCATION

SHANKAR SHARAN1

Today's graduate has to think ... those who have all theworldly facilities want our life values. Why should thosewho already have such values consider themselves poor?

(Mahadevi Verma)Mahadevi believed that a person is always a student in therealm of thought and of feelings. If not, then somewherehe must have closed the door of his heart and mind. Shewas renowned as a poetess, but in fact, she devoted a lotof time during her life to education and teaching. She hadestablished the Prayag Mahila Vidyapeeth, which sheserved for as long as she could. Few people know that herdevotion to education was a conscious choice as shebelieved that educational institutions built the nation andsome of her great contemporaries have noted that.Sachchidanand Vatsyayan 'Agyeya' drew attention to thefact that according to Mahadevi, her poetry was thereflection of her moments of leisure and 'she would devotethe rest of her life to the field of education, where it wasrequired.'2

There are many definitions of 'Vidya' (knowledge/education) in Indian literature. What Mahadevi liked themost was 'Sa Vidya Ya Vimuktye' � which means 'educationis that which liberates'. She noted that in the past, Indianscholars had a very special regard for education and thatis why it was always kept under state control.

Analysing education Mahadevi described two aspectsof it: internal texture and external structure. Theperceptible subject and its communication comprise the

1. Dr Shankar Sharan is a Lecturer in the Department of Educational Research and

Policy Perspective at NCERT, New Delhi.

2. Agyeya, "Adhunik Kavi: Mahadevi Varma" in Trishanku (Surya Prakashan Mandir;

1973), p. 117

5

internal texture, while the Guru (the teacher), the disciple,curriculum and surroundings have a place in the externalstructure. All these six elements make up "the lotus ofeducation" with all the six petals tied together carefully bylanguage, the lack of which may cause these petals toscatter or fall off.

She considered education to be "the heart of society",which like purified blood, pumps new talent intoadministration, science, arts and literature, and intosociety, by and large. If new blood infused into the systemby education is healthy, the system would, as aconsequence, remain healthy and active. But "if germs ofdisease enter the system, all spheres would be fatallyaffected." How painfully true this statement is, can be seentoday, in our country.

According to Mahadevi, ancient Indian thinkersplanned education carefully since they believed that itplayed a role in regulating un-chiselled animal instinctsin human beings, and shaped human potential. Therefore,neglecting education could take human society back tobarbarism. Unfortunately, many countries in the worldseem to aptly reflect this fact, today.

Only in this backdrop can it be understood as to whyMahadevi Verma was against drawing divisive lines betweentradition and modernity in education. She had pointedout that we have misled ourselves by devaluing the greatachievements of our past as the precondition of our futureprogress. "Only by incorporating the lines of tradition,which carry the history of human progress in the conditionof the new era, can we add up new links in the century�slong golden chain of development, and not by breaking offwith them."3 Only plants, having been rooted in their ownsoil, can tolerate hot or cold gusts of wind coming fromany side. "If they leave the base of their soil, neither the lifegiving breeze of Malaya nor the divine water of rain cankeep them alive." The same thing was emphasised byRabindranath Thakur when he said that emancipationfrom the bondage of the soil is no freedom for the tree.

3. Mahadevi Verma, "Siksha ka Uddeshya" in Mere Priya Sambhashan (New Delhi:National Publishing House, 1986), p. 3

6

That is why Mahadevi had warned our modernistintellectuals:

Due to the disconnect with the previous achievementsof a society, "many cultures have vanished, and thisfact can be verified from history." She was not obliviousto the fact that in the process of transmitting the pastinto present, sometimes unnecessary elements havealso come to be preserved along with the valuable ones.In India's case, one more unfortunate fact is that thecountry had to suffer long periods of foreign subjugation,during which, the preservation of culture was morenecessary than choosing valuable elements over thosethat were worthless. Therefore, it may have happenedsometimes that 'a precious element was lost and auseless element was preserved'. However, that is not amatter of serious concern because, according toMahadevi, in every period only those values last whichprove their worth under all circumstances.

Mahadevi had felt from her long educational experiencethat communicating knowledge was more difficult thanacquiring it. Therefore, the sphere of education was atwofold, mysterious laboratory, where one had to provideample opportunity for the independent development of astudent�s inner world and of his personality and also helphim connect harmoniously with the outer world. This iswhy Indian thinkers always felt that it was necessary tomake the objectives of education clearer by classifyingVidya into Para and Apara , that is, for the benefit of othersand valuable in itself. Para is a medium of selfenlightenment while Apara is the means of its developmentunder social circumstances.4

On education, Mahadevi's thoughts are quite similarto world famous educationist Leo Tolstoy. Both believedthat education could be called �preparation for life� only inits limited sense, and that, in its broader sense, it wouldbe the ultimate goal of life. Tolstoy had emphasised thatthere was no such thing as 'the final goal of education�.Rather, it was the law of perpetual evolution that helpedand directed real education. Therefore, by its very nature,the education of a man never ends or finishes forever.4. Mahadevi Verma, "Matribhumi Devobhava" in Mere Priya Sambhashan, above, p.13

7

We must understand that if these classical referencesto education are overlooked or ignored, a seriousdisruption takes place in a given society. If education, forinstance, is taken as beneficial only for worldlydevelopment, not only does it become one-sided, its realmeaning is also lost. Such an education becomes aresultless activity with a meaningless preparation for life.It results in producing various diseases or malaises, whichcome to ail society. Therefore, considering one's educationas only a means of personal progress and prosperity isnot only harmful for the country and for society, itultimately makes one 'a feeble person, who is devoid ofself-perception'.

For Mahadevi Verma these were not idealist talks; thesewere practical facts about education. If proper care wasnot taken, concrete problems could arise, irrespective ofwhether the reasons for these problems could be identified."From the beginning till the end, children are usuallyneither given moral education nor is any attention paid tobuilding their character," she observed. This is why we shallfind few young men "whose life contains the values ofprinciples, courage, indomitable bravery and sense ofrespect and reverence for women."

According to Mahadevi, a person is "undeveloped"during childhood and "the question of the goal of hiseducation is left unattended". In his adolescence, he is inhis formative years. So the final goal - his education - isnot considered. But when a youth arrives at the entranceof active life and faces his duties on his own with anunhealthy body and a frustrated mind, a critical situationarises for both him and for society. In a sense, this crisishas become severe in our country today.

It saddened Mahadevi to see that India had to sufferprolonged periods of defeat at the hands of foreigners:

And in this cussed voyage, it lost a valuable portion oflife, and that was the philosophy of education. Itremains undisputed that a victor is never satisfied with

8

having merely the governing rights over the country hehas defeated. He wants cultural victory as well overthe conquered, for which the simplest and surest mediumis a domination on education. Therefore, the objectivesof education in a country ruled by foreigners can�t bethe same as in a self-governed country.5

It is an irony that in independent India, its effectiveintelligentsia was not ready to understand this fact, letalone take requisite measures to counter it! But the factremains that Mahadevi's views on education were fully inaccordance with those of nationalist visionaries such asRabindranath Thakur, Swami Vivekananda, ShriAurobindo and Mahatma Gandhi. Her view clearly assertedthat, "a self governed nation has to build able heirs for itsvaluable treasury of culture, society and nation, while therulers of an enslaved country need only the helpers amongthe ruled people so as to just maintain the status quo. It'snot surprising, therefore, if in both cases, the objectives ofeducation were quite different, functionally as well withresults."

According to Mahadevi, only in a free country was suchan evolution of a future citizen useful, where qualities suchas self-esteem, a sense of national identity, and the will tostruggle against injustice were developed. Under foreigndomination, on the contrary, the development of a newgeneration of governed subjects was "more threatening thanweapons" for the ruling class. Since so far, we haven'tchanged the inferior education system provided by thecolonial rulers, our field of education is disturbed,uncertain and disruptive. Free society and subjugatededucation are not coherent with each other and there is noway for us to move on without solving this contradiction.

Mahadevi also took note of the world scenario in so faras education was concerned. Analysing the extensiverebellion amongst students here and there, she underlinedthat in countries where the body of a citizen was free buthis soul was enchained , and where soul was free but thebody was in rigorous subjugation, education was at the

5. Mahadevi Verma, "Siksha ka Uddeshya" in Mere Priya Sambhashan, above, p. 6

9

centre of wild activity. From this she inferred thatsomething new was taking birth in the inner depths ofhuman consciousness, and that the pain was making thenew generation restless. This restlessness was not only theresult of a lack of material comfort. If that had been thecase, dissent among students of materially prosperouscountries like the United States of America wouldn�t havebeen there.

In Mahadevi's view, the world has become unified dueto the development of science. However, political conflictsare multiplying divisions among the people. This is acontradictory situation, which can be brought to order onlyby inducing a sense of higher objective of life. On the otherhand, in India, internal and external conditions of thestudents are so disrupted that to infuse creativity in themis a tough task. The generation born in independent Indiahas altogether different hopes and ambitions. But the lastgeneration, despite being independent now, has yet notgot freedom from mental subjugation, nor did it so far evenfeel it necessary to get it.6 This disorder has become amajor obstacle in the full-fledged development of ourstudent-class. Our students and educational scenario arein such a condition that although everything is there:education, training and various modes of communication," what would be trained we don�t know yet. There are nobooks on this, as such things are not in the purview ofbooks. It is in our scriptures, in our philosophy, in ourdharma.7 That is, it is in those things which we havepresumed necessary to forget completely.

Finding no means of livelihood after completingeducation, or being instigation by political parties forvarious reasons are also causes of dissent amongststudents. However, it should be understood that alterationof life�s values and beliefs is also disturbing them. Withoutcomprehending the goal of their education, they pass

6. This particular thought is recurring in Mahadevi's writings and speeches. Evidentlyshe gave it much importance. She mentioned it also in her significant speech"Sahitya, Samskriti aur Shasan" delivered sometime in the Legislative Council ofUttar Pradesh.

7. Mahadevi Verma, 'Matribhumi Devobhava' in Mere Priya Sambhashan, above, p. 14

10

through schools, colleges and universities, and never knowwhere they would land. 'Be it primary or higher, oureducation system has not paid attention to the overalldevelopment of a human being'.

Those who are fortunate find jobs, while others feel thatspending the golden years of their youth in colleges anduniversities is a meaningless waste of their time. But nothought is being given to this. It is the same for a self-governed society. Priceless years of its youth are beingdestroyed and it is watching silently, unable to think ofrequisite corrective measures. We have been witnessing thatin the hope of decent jobs, millions of youth are engagedin a hopeless rat-race. Thus, having no livelihood solutions,even after completing education, and themselves beingblamed by society for this condition, causes confusionamong students. Some politicians exploit this state ofstudents for their own selfish ends.

According to Mahadevi, if a student could geteducation that suits his talent and interest, he would notfeel the need to involve himself in undue political activity.'This question will arise not in student life. It will come tothe fore only when he attains a certain amount of maturity,and when he is called upon to perform his social duty.Only then will it benefit society'. If a student who has aninterest in science, art or literature finds the desired pathfor his creative talent to evolve and bloom, he wouldperhaps know that entering active politics at the wrongtime would amount to a misuse of his time. Mahadevi hadalso advised those active in politics against using thestudent class as weapon, and asked them to change theirways in the greater interest of society. 'Sects of religion donot scare me but sects of politics do scare me', she said.

However, in Mahadevi's view, the most difficult problemregarding education is related to its inner nature and itsmedium. It is self evident that only the mother-tongue canbe the appropriate medium of education for any child. Butfrom the psychological point of view, the question oflanguage is also concerned with culture and a sense of

11

national identity, especially for a country like India whichhas been subjugated as a nation despite having a greatculture. Even in utility, the English language proves to bean obstruction, as most students fail in it and even thosewho do not fail, neither comprehend any subject throughit nor become capable of expressing themselves fully. Thissituation persists even today, and we should be apprisedof it. Some people may benefit from the predominance ofthe English medium in our education system but theimportance accorded to English builds an inferioritycomplex and intellectual dumbness in our otherwise ableyouth. This fact is never taken into account. Mahadevireminds us that the vision of our great thinkers and seershas helped us so far to counter the vagaries of subjugation,and has kept the path from being lost in darkness."Language has been the flame of lamp for that light. Pavakanah Saraswati."8

Being a sensitive teacher, Mahadevi felt that due to thedeep relationship of language with human sensitivities,with perceptions and feelings, the desired development ofa student becomes impossible due to the burden of Englishlanguage. "Nothing can be more miserable for a thinkingperson than his inability to express himself and when thisstate of mind gets reflected in activity, it can only producedestructive tendency." This conclusion based onexperience was not only an analysis but a warning too,ignoring which, we have not done the right thing. Mahadevialso tried to persuade those intellectuals and educationistsof our country who believe that certain colonial legaciescannot be done away with. The educational frameworkgiven by the foreign rulers "has no strength to bestowhumanism", she explained. Not only has a foreign languagehas been the medium of our education for a long time, ithas also become for some of us, a proof of being eruditeand highly cultured. Therefore, it is no wonder that manyof us shudder at the thought of living without it. Alwaysrecalling death as the ultimate fate of human beings, notreatment would seem necessary to an ailing person. So,

8. Mahadevi Verma, "Bhasha ka Prashna" in Mere Priya Sambhashan, above, p. 22

12

to fulfil our national life the inner world of our nationmust be made free. This work is hard and demands specialefforts, as the chain binding the soul is stronger than thechains tying the body.9

Due to her broad-based vision, Mahadevi tried to makeour intelligentsia understand that the problems faced bycountries with ancient cultures used to be altogetherdifferent. Those having young civilizations did not havemuch to lose or change. And even if they changed, therewas hardly anything to fear. But countries with ancientcultures risk great loss in any reckless change. In amisplaced enthusiasm for modernisation or radicaltransformation , if we lose our valuable heritage, it wouldbe a great loss not only for the particular country but forall humanity. Thus, if a colonial legacy has become a fetterin the natural development of millions of Indians thensaying that it cannot be helped is plain defeatism. In thevery inspiring words of Mahadevi, "A river that springs fromthe heart of the Himalayas, whether a small current or abig one, does never ask for the way from the rocks. Has itever asked to make banks of gold, silver or marble for it? Itnever said so. Crossing the mountains it moves onovertaking everything with a gusty speed and it is herprinciple to make her own banks." Similarly, ourthoughtful people must build the path on which ournation could overcome the mental subjugation ofcenturies, not just the elite but every person in the country.And, this work cannot be accomplished by imitating othersmedium and models.

Therefore, the objective of our education must be tomake the natural relationship with our culture lively. Onlymaterial prosperity and economic development cannot bethe objective of education. If economic development couldnot be coordinated with the evolvement of the self, it wouldbecome an ugly phenomenon. "If someone asks you togive Ganga-Yamuna in exchange to get you to Mars, youwould never agree. There is a reason: we are made of thisland, we have a soulful relationship with it. You can

9. Mahadevi Verma, "Hamara Desh aur Rashtrabhasha" in Mere Priya Sambhashan,above, p.26

13

harmonise its message with science, but cannot leave itfor science."10 It would be fatal to make merely personaleconomic advancement the sole goal of anyone's education.That would lead to a blind alley. This can be appreciatedby looking carefully at the situation of the so-calleddeveloped countries. That kind of selfish goal creates'mental unemployment', which is as miserable asunemployment itself. Not only has higher education,'transformed itself into absolute dissatisfaction with life',it has sometimes become merely 'a means to get thenecessary amenities for a comfortable life.'

Mahadevi believed that Indian students have thestrength to face the challenges of the present times, andcontribute significantly. 'If they recognise their innerstrengths, then all doors would open automatically.' Butfor this to happen, one should have self-control over one'slife. If our life is not disciplined or if we do not lead abalanced life, we can't get inner strength. Giving theexample of electricity, Mahadevi explained that electricityis everywhere: in the sky, in the earth and in every atom;but you can't light a single lamp from it. Light would notget activated until it is collected first in a powerhouse whichis a centre, and then and only then can the whole city beilluminated. "A similar process takes place in one's heart.If you concentrate or focus and hold your full strength,physical power, inner power, faith, belief and the power ofyour soul, and consider the strength you have, all darkclouds could go away. All the obstacles coming your waywill be removed." She believed that if today's studentrecognises his latent strength, the disintegration of societycould be contained and that social life would be free fromall disparity. But if he fails to understand his duty, theentire nation could become weak and lost.11

Mahadevi had a profound thought on the role of creativeliterature in education. Usually, we make literature a smallpart of the study of a language and not an essential part ofeducation in general. Mahadevi was of the view that forevery student, literature must have a very important place

10. Mahadevi Verma, "Matribhumi Devobhava" in Mere Priya Sambhashan, above, p.1511. Ibid, p. 17

14

in his/her education. She considered it to be 'a chemicalcapable of removing the discrepancies of life.' Putting it inthe perspective of history, she reminded us that thecommand of armed force creates a relationship of aconqueror and the conquered between two countries, whilethe influence of literature always bring harmony betweentwo countries. Therefore, "We have to give such importanceto literature and culture in education that a student mayget the message of unity, fraternity or brotherhood ofhuman beings and ultimately would become a morecomplete person."

Those who are familiar with the writings of MahadeviVerma, knows the value of her thoughts on the status ofwomen and their education. The great Hindi poet(Maharani) Nirala wrote this about Mahadevi: "Until now,through her, thousands of girl students have beenbenefited and become dignified." And in the field ofeducation, "Mahadevi is greater than Sarojini Naidu. Nodoubt, her ideal in Hindi is greater than many great men."12

Mahadevi had studied the contribution of great womenscholars of ancient India and emphasised on learning fromthem. She did research on the great tradition of womeneducation and the high status of women in social life asexisted in our country. According to Mahadevi, in Indiantradition "there has been co-education with commonmethods for teaching. On completion of study, womengraduates were involved in teaching also." It continued till7-8th centuries. But then during the period of successiveforeign rules many things changed in our country.

To bring about the required transformation in the lifeof women was one of her main concerns. According to her,Indian women are presently 'queens of the empire ofignorance.' On the other hand, the modern educationcurrently being imparted to them takes away some goodqualities from many young women. "We can't say easilyabout a girl student that she is an inquisitive student,because she comes out of her home like an unrestrainedbutterfly, far from the reality and sensitivity of life, and

12. Surya Kant Tripathi 'Nirala', "Mahadevi ke Janma-Divas Par" in Chayan: NibandhSangraha, (New Delhi: Rajkamal Prakashan, 1981) pp. 116, 117

15

does not mind becoming the centre of attraction of others."13

Therefore, we may find 'qualities like simplicity andhumility, in illiterate women' but almost all the so-calledliterate women hardly have more than the ability torecognise letters and read some novels in exchange of givingup all their qualities'. The main reason for this sorry state,according to Mahadevi, is imparting education by thewrong kind of teachers. "If our children learn and geteducation under the guidance of such persons who donot have character and principles, who carry inherentweakness out of their own poor education and character,all these weaknesses would also affect the students."Mahadevi felt sad that we do not care to have even thosequalities in our teachers, which we want to see in thosepeople who perform ordinary jobs:

Those teachers responsible for building the future ofgirls, the mothers of coming generations; our lacklusterattitude towards them is an unforgivable fault. Toprovide the means for country-specific, society-specificand culture-specific mental development is trueeducation by which a person feels harmony in his lifeand makes it useful for others too. This important taskis not such that can be performed by a person ignorantof a distinct culture and one who is frivolous and weakin character.14

Mahadevi was firm in her view that copying westernsocieties was harmful for the upliftment of women here.Further, mechanical equality with men ultimately makeswomen more incapable and dependent. And, thoseeducated men, who are 'weak, helpless and useless degreeholders', should never be the ideals of women. Abandoningtheir natural qualities and unsuccessfully imitating mencan lead educated women nowhere.15 Whatever seems onthe surface, in fact, such women lose social and personalvalues. So, if we follow "such suicidal approaches of the

13. Mahadevi Verma, "Hamari Samasyayein: 2" in Shrinkhala ki Kadiya, (New Delhi:Radhakrishna, 1995), p. 117

14. Mahadevi Verma, "Hamari Samasyayein: 1" in Shrinkhala ki Kadiya, above, pp.106-07

15. To understand in detail Mahadevi�s thought on the situation, sorrows and theway to solve the problems before Indian women her book Shrinkhala ki Kadiyais most valuable. All the essays collected in this book centre on this issue.

16

western world, it would be as ridiculous as cutting one'sfeet to copy a disabled person."16 Basically, westernapproaches are hedonistic. Hence, relationships betweenmen and women generally may not rise above suchlimitations even though the social courtesies of westernsocieties may appear praiseworthy. Therefore, accordingto Mahadevi, if our women follow the western model offreedom, it will lead to other forms of distortions andabuses, not towards harmony, which is the life of a society.

Finally, Mahadevi had also assessed the Indianintellectual scenario in connection with the presenteducation system. She noted that the present educationsystem, "is not a bridge to bring us nearer but has becomea big gulf to divide us, which our selfishness is wideningday by day."17 This is an education after receiving we tryto become persons whom a common man hesitates toapproach. It is natural, then, that this type of educationtransforms our intellectuals into a hi-fi group who neitherconnect with the Indian people nor do the people feelcomfortable mixing with them. Rather, some intellectualsare such, 'in whom education has turned into poison likethe drops of Swati (nakshatra) changes in the mouth of asnake.'

This is why the intellectuals, who consider themselvesso very important, are actually extremely incapable ofcontributing to the interest of the country. Most of themlive and grow up with an intellectual inferiority complex,"whose even totally a lame dream, and who believe thatjust by attaching some foreign feathers, they have turnedinto messengers of heaven. Even their ugliest ideals,because they are in a western moulding, are identified asnothing more than being just pretty. Even their shoddiestviews, with some foreign patches here and there, are takento reign in the world of thought."18 Women intellectualstoo, are the same. "As a pot of cold water lying near hot

16. Mahadevi Verma, "Navin Dashak mein Mahilaon ka Sthan" in Mere PriyaSambhashan, above, p.62

17. Mahadevi Verma, "Hamari Samasyayein: I" in Shrinkhala ki Kadiya, above, p. 10318. Mahadevi Verma, "Chintan ke Kuchh Kshan" in Deepshikha (Allahabad: Bharti

Bhandar, Samvat 2022 Vikrami), p. 41

17

water loses its cool unknowingly, similarly, educatedwomen have silently adopted the weaknesses of men andcome to visualise this condition as the reflective ofsuccess."19 That is why most women intellectuals also givemore importance to meaningless mental exercises than thesimple and truthful feelings of the people. They even takeindividual confusions as some valuable formulations,publicise it and make selfish enterprises their petty'knowledge business'.

Mahadevi observed sadly that in such intellectuals, theoutlines of culture are found broken and that the imagesof life are incomplete. For this reason, she tried to inspireus to be attached to our cultural roots, although with anindependent mind, and find our way in a new era.Mahadevi�s great contribution to education, culture andliterature is comparable to any thinker of modern India.This doesn't pertain only to the subject of womeneducation, to which Mahadevi devoted a lot of effort duringher whole life to everything she had taken up to write andspeak about. Her views send us valuable messages eventill this very day:

Why I ask this night of separation,how much passed or remained?Moments echo and the particles sing,whenever they this way unwillingly come,writing self-sacrificing for themremained I an indelible message!

19. Ibid, p. 104

18

SECTION 2

MAHADEVI VERMA

MEMORIAL LECTURE

THEME: CAN THE MEDIA TEACH US ANYTHING?Aspects of the talk to be delivered by

Ms. Kalpana Sharma

ABSTRACT

I visited a government primary and middle school in avillage in South Bihar recently. Over 500 students, fromClass I to VIII, had just four teachers to instruct them. It isanybody's guess what these children will learn during theirschool hours. Once school ends, they return to their homeswhere there is usually no electricity at night. Hence, whatthey learn is what they see in the daytime.

In Mumbai, in an urban slum, children go to amunicipal school. There too the teaching is ofteninadequate. But at night, they return to their crampedhomes where the television is blaring. Their "learning", soto speak, continues even after they leave the confines oftheir school. But is the quality of what they learn any betterthan the children in a Bihar village without electricity andtherefore without television?

In an age of technology, what are the sources of learningfor our children? No more is the schoolroom � the solesource of knowledge. In fact it has never been so. The so-called unlettered are often the most knowledgeable andwise about things that books can never teach. They have awisdom that surpasses academic learning.

So we acknowledge that learning is not just booklearning. But these days, knowledge gained fromconnection with nature and the outdoors, for instance, hasbeen replaced by all kinds of media � Television and the

19

Internet. It's interesting to assess what exactly childrenare learning from these visual and interactive mediaand whether this improves the quality of learning ordiminishes it.

Take television, the very nature of this media suggestspassivity. You watch and listen and absorb the messagesbeamed at you. You can, of course, dismiss what you seeand hear. But the medium has a seductive and subversiveimpact, often difficult to quantify.

In the West, for instance, several studies have tried tolink violence depicted on television to children's attitudestowards violence. Do constant images of violence provokeaggression or do they make people hate violence? Do theymake us indifferent to violence? Will children try and copythe violence they see on screen? These are some of thequestions raised in these studies. We need to ask thesequestions in the Indian context to assess how much, inthe last decade, has the visual media led to indifference, orendorsement, of violence as a way to make a point, to settlea score, to seek revenge.

I am not an expert on this subject. I have looked at theimpact of media on attitudes towards women and how themedia tackles women's issues. But being a mediapractitioner, I think I should be thinking about themessages the media is sending out, particularly to children.Do they learn anything? Are they unlearning what theyare taught in school, or by their parents? Is there any rolefor civic society engagement with the media on this issue?

These are some of the issues I want to address todayas I believe they should concern all of us - parents, teachersand media practitioners.

CAN THE MEDIA TEACH US ANYTHING?When I began thinking about what I would say today, Ihad planned a talk connecting the messages that the mediasends out to what people, and children in particular, learnor unlearn from them.

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Since then Wednesday, 26 November, 2008 happenedin Mumbai, the city where I live. Over the next 60 hours,urban war was brought into our homes. As televisionbeamed images of the siege of the two hotels, the Taj Mahaland the Oberoi-Trident, and of the little known Jewishcentre at Nariman House, women, men, children wererooted to the spot. They could not move. They watched inhorror and fascination as men in different types of uniformstook on what first appeared to be an inestimable numberof gunmen in these three locations.

Meanwhile, the news filtered in that dozens of ordinarymen and women, people peacefully waiting for their long-distance trains at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, a realicon for a city where the majority depend on publictransport, had been mowed down by these men with guns,these men that we now know were terrorists out to send abloody and terrifying message not just to Mumbai but tothe rest of India, and indeed to the rest of the world. Wealso know now that out of the 172 killed over those threedark nights and two days, the majority, 58 in all, wereactually killed in the first few minutes of the terror strikeat CST. There were no commandos or army or navy tosave these very ordinary men and women. A few braveMumbai policemen with their outdated weaponry tried tointervene, and ended up dead. The only images of the CSTmassacre that we saw the next day were of the platformswith bloodstains and abandoned luggage. It is only muchlater after the electronic media had pulled itself away fromthe two hotels that the stories from CST began to be heard.Print media, however, had already begun reporting on thistragedy at the train station the very next day.

It is now more than a month since this unprecedentedterror strike in Mumbai people have written and spoken,about it. There has been analysis. Finger pointing. Andpolitical repercussions.

Some have claimed that this one incident will prove tobe a "defining moment" in our politics. Others, who aremore cynical, believe that this too shall pass as we move

21

back to business as usual, perhaps with a few additionalinconveniences in the form of tighter security checks.

What 26 November will define, amongst other thingslike the quality of governance, is the importance of themedia at times of such a crisis. One hopes it will definehow the media handles such a crisis without adding tothe panic and tension. It will also define how the mediacan direct, or rather misdirect, anger and popularsentiment when a crisis of this nature ends.

As we all know, the minute-by-minute coverage of the60-hour siege and gun battle in Mumbai wasunprecedented. Never before have television camerasconveyed to an entire nation a terror strike continuouslyover such a long period. The English news channels didnot even take commercial breaks for the first 48 hours.

What was the impact of the sights and sounds that weheard over those hours? How did the interpretation of whatwas going on by TV reporters and anchors govern whatwe thought?

We need to consider these and other questions not justbecause the electronic media, and particularly 24-hournews channels, is a powerful medium but also becausethe images, the choice of voices heard on this media, thesubtle and not-so-subtle subtexts determine attitudes ofa listening and viewing public. The impact has also to beseen in terms of how it influences young people, includingchildren, whether it makes them question violence orendorse it, whether it helps them to understand the historythat lies behind such events or see them in isolation,whether it encourages responsibility or just rage.

In the book "Bosnia By Television"1, the televised warin Bosnia has been analysed by several journalists. In hisessay, "War Without End? Bloody Bosnia Season onChannel Four", Ian Brough-Williams begins his essay withthe following quote that is eerily relevant today:

"Watching the news, we come to feel not only that theworld is blowing up, but that it does so for no reason,that its ongoing history is nothing more than a series of

1. Bosnia By Television, edited by James Gow, Richard Paterson and Alison Preston,published by British Film Institute, 1996

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eruptions, each without cause or context. The newscreates this vision of mere anarchy through its erasureof the past and its simultaneous tendency to atomisethe present into so many unrelated happening, eachrecounted through a series of dramatic, unintelligiblepictures. And so we have the correspondent, solemnlynattering among the ruins, offering crude 'analysis' and'background', as if to compensate us for the deepbewilderment that his medium created in the firstplace".2

In Mumbai, we saw some of what is quoted above comealive. There was an erasure not just of the distant past,but even the immediate, in the way the television camerasforgot that people had already been slaughtered at CST.The present was endlessly telecast, leaving viewers to watchalmost as if they were seeing something unreal. The most"unreal" element was that of the NSG commandos beinglowered on to the roof of Nariman House. Those imagesbeing telecast, we were told later, might have compromisedthe entire operation and even lead to the death of apoliceman.

And the "deep bewilderment" that Miller speaks of issomething that most viewers will endorse. The first fewhours, no one seemed to understand what had happened,least of all the journalists on the spot. Their bewilderment,and that of viewers, was compounded by the absence ofany kind of authoritative voice - from the police or the stategovernment.

Veteran BBC reporter Martin Bell dubbed the 1990sas the "Decade of the Dish". That is true even today with24-hour news television and live coverage of eventsunimaginable even a few years back. Wars, terror attacks,famine, floods, drought, all manner of conflict, are nowbrought to us even as they happen. There is no time tothink, to evaluate what is happening, to pause. You haveto talk and report continuously, as the story emerges infront of you. Being a TV reporter in such circumstances isa challenge that most print journalists have never faced aswe have time to collect, collate, verify and then write.2. Quote from Mark C. Miller, "How TV covers war" in "New challenges for documentary"

edited by Alan Rosenthal, University of California Press, 1988

23

The other aspect to consider, and that has a bearingon what people learn from the media, is whether the veryfact of continuous real time news, and the sub-text thatforms the commentary determines outcomes. In thisinstance, was it the coverage that brought home theseriousness of the problem, or would that have registeredin any case? Did the constant gaze of the camera prolongand hinder the operation, or did it not matter? Did theoutrage expressed by civilians and telecast by the channelstrigger the government's response or would it have takenplace regardless?

For this too, it is useful to look at the experience ofsome veteran television reporters who covered Bosnia. NikGowing, who is now with the BBC but was with anotherchannel during the Bosnia war, writes in the book quotedabove about coverage of the war and its impact:

"The information and nuisance value of TV images wasclear to diplomats, who, as one reflected, 'are used toworking methodically, slowly, systematically andreflectively'. Real-time TV pictures compress responsetimes in a crisis. They put pressure on choice andpriorities in crisis management. They skew responses.They shape the policy agenda but do not dictateresponses. They highlight policy dilemmas but do notresolve them."This again is relevant in the context we are discussing.

For instance, even before TV anchors had bothered tounderstand the nature of the operation being fought bythe NSG in the three different locations, they raisedquestions about the time taken to complete the operation.Why so long, some asked. By doing so they raised thewrong question, for they did not have the expertise tounderstand what was going on within those three locations.Such questions, however, did not deter those who knewwhat they were doing from continuing their job. Yet, in themanner in which the operations were questioned ontelevision, you would have imagined that these were theexperts and those on the spot were amateurs!

24

Another instance of media believing it could shapepolicy was the way the Pakistan connection came up. Evenbefore news about the identity of the one terrorist capturedalive had been fully confirmed, channels began talkingabout the Pakistan connection. Predictably, the rhetoricwas anti-Pakistan. No attempt was made to distinguishbetween terrorists trained in Pakistan and those directlysupported by the Pakistan government. The assumptionthat what had happened in the past continued to happentoday, despite the change of government in Pakistan andthe attempt to establish democracy. And based on thisassumption, many channels began demanding that thegovernment should take a "tough" line with Pakistan andseveral of the people interviewed even suggested "bombing"terrorist bases in Pakistan as a way of resolving the problemonce and for all. Was this justified? Is it the job of the mediato form judgements and attempt to influence policy in thisway, or should it at a time of crisis, when all the facts arenot yet known, attempt to place before the public as muchcredible information as possible? In this instance, theelectronic media became virtually another political actor,taking a line, arguing and pushing governmentspokespersons to respond instantly to their questions onpolicy that has enormous repercussions in the region.

Fortunately, diplomacy is not led by media badgering.So whether we agree or not with the government�s response,it chose to do what it felt best, despite the hysteriadrummed up by the media. This is a sobering lesson thatthe media needs to learn. I am not sure, however, that ithas as media anchors continue to believe that they havethe power to drive policy.

What the media does drive sometimes is popularopinion, particularly of the class that watches cable andsatellite television. If an opinion survey is taken of peoplewho watch only DD news and those who watch primarilyprivate channels, there is bound to be a stark difference inthe perception of events, including what happened in

25

Mumbai on November 26. While the private news channelsdrummed up considerable anti-politician and anti-Pakistan hysteria, which was then reflected on the streetsof Mumbai through numerous demonstrations, candlelight vigils and posters, DD in its usual style underplayedthis reaction and was more sober. So if you had accessonly to DD, would you join those who lit candles andshouted slogans against politicians? Chances are that youwould not.

The electronic news media can also establishhierarchies of importance of news, placing some news at ahigher level than other. So while the attack in Mumbaiactually killed more people at CST than at the two hotels,yet for the major part of the crisis, the cameras remainedfirmly fixed on the luxury hotels. As a result, even whenthe candlelight marches and demonstrations took placeon the days after the crisis, they too were limited to thesetwo locations. On December 3, a week after the end of thesiege, thousands spontaneously turned up at the Gatewayof India. Yet, no one went to CST. It was left to the portersat the station to hold their own candlelight vigil for the 58dead. This says something to us about the power of themedia to determine a hierarchy even in tragedy, to givegreater importance to some locations because of the powerthey represent over others that are "people�s palaces" if youwill, like CST.

In fact, one of the little known and moving stories thatemerged in the days after the terrorist strike was that of amiddle-aged woman who actually lived at CST. She wasan orphan who moved out of the orphanage when shebecame a major, did a variety of jobs, and finally ended upwith her three bags sleeping at CST and working duringthe day as a tourist guide. She got two bullets in her leg.She will not be able to return to her work as a guide. Otherstories, such as the one about the bravery and alertness ofthe announcer, were first reported in the newspapers andlater picked up by television.

26

In many ways, the stories about the dead and thesurvivors at CST is the real story of Mumbai, a city that isfull of ordinary people who work hard, who save, who sendmoney back to their "native" places, who live insecure livesas they sometimes don't know where their next meal willcome from, or whether the homes in which they live in aslum will still be there when they return, or whether thedaily wage jobs that they do will continue and for howlong. Yet these are not the people who are walking aroundwith slogans saying "No security, No taxes". The peoplewho were angry, and were egged on by the media thatgave them ample space and air time, are those who aresecure, who have the money to make them secure, wholive in houses from which they will not be thrown out, whodo not depend on public transport, who go to privateschools and use private hospitals, who rarely vote and arenot interested in politics. These 'non-citizens', in a sense,are the people who now feel insecure, because for the firsttime "terror" has visited them.

Yet, if you watched and listened to television, you didnot hear the voices of the voiceless of Mumbai but youheard plenty from those who can get themselves heard atall times. As a result, you were led to believe that the "mood"in the city was of anger, was against politicians and wasalso anti-Pakistan. If the TV cameras had ventured beyondthat cushioned part of South Mumbai, they would havefound a different mood. There is plenty of politics in therest of the city, people vote because they know that this iswhat establishes their legitimacy as citizens, and manypeople are angry, but at the media for presenting only apartial picture and projecting only one voice and oneopinion.

Fortunately, our country does not consist of the peoplewho want to disengage. In fact, what is encouraging, isthat in each successive election, there is greaterinvolvement, greater engagement, even in a place likeJammu and Kashmir. Far from throwing up their hands

27

and cursing the system, people are engaging with it, usingtools like the Right to Information to expose the sloth andcorruption of officialdom.

This is the response that was needed after 26/11, notslogans like "Enough is enough".

But "enough" about 26/1, for the moment. Let us lookat the impact of such an event, and its depiction by themedia, on the minds of our children, of young people.

Last October, I visited two government primary andmiddle schools in Bihar's Nawada district. In Loharpuravillage, the school had around 530 students, but only fourteachers. The old building could barely accommodate thechildren. They were being taught in additional buildingsthat were still under construction. Even these were notenough. In any case, with only four teachers, three classescrowded into one room so that they could be taught.

We acknowledge that school learning is not everything.Children pick up knowledge in many different ways andtoday television is an important medium for suchadditional learning. But in Loharpura, there was noelectricity on most days. So even this medium of instructionwas not available to the children. And what they learnedin the formal system was not much.

In Sikandra village the situation was better. There wasa pucca school building and10 teachers for the middleschool and four for the primary. But here again there wasno electricity. The water pump did not work as its headhad been stolen within days of installation. And the toiletshad been vandalised; the doors stolen and the panssmashed.

As in Loharpura, in Sikandra too there was noelectricity on most days except for a few hours. So fewchildren had access to a medium like TV. Even if they did,it would most likely be to DD.

I wonder today what those children made of theMumbai terror attack. Would they have seen anything, oronly the photographs in the next day's newspapers shown

28

to them by their teachers? The rest would be left to theirimagination and the folklore emanating from stories relayedthrough relatives and friends with a contact in the big city.

Perhaps they would hear from relatives or friends ofthose who were injured or killed at CST. Many of thosecaught in the terror attack were people waiting to takelong-distance trains. On any given day, the people yousee on the platforms of CST represent a mini-India. So itwould not be surprising if the children in this school hadsome fairly direct source of information. But it is unlikelythat they would have seen the 60-hour terror drama ontelevision.

In contrast, children going to municipal schools inMumbai, where also the standard of learning is not of ahigh order, are exposed to "learning" from many othermedia, including television. In most slum homes, exceptthe very poorest, there is a TV set and a cable connection.Even if your home does not have it, your neighbour does.

And the night of November 26 and thereafter, manychildren would have watched the on-going terror show forthat night and the next day and night and day and night.

Since the end of the terror attack, there have beenseveral reports in the newspapers about childrencomplaining of nightmares, of being afraid of any loudsound. Most such reports are about children of the middleclass or the elite. No one has bothered to speak to thechildren of the urban poor. Yet, all children have fears. Butwhen their fears become part of a reality show on television,how do they deal with it?

Violence is also a part of the lives of people, particularlythe poor. Children grow up seeing this violence all aroundthem. Yet, seeing it on TV gives it another dimension.

In India, not much work has been done on the impactof violence on children. But with the rapid growth oftelevision, and the fact that news channels are now beamingimages of terror, of conflict and of death right into our livingrooms, it is important that we do assess the impact onyoung minds.

29

Here I would like to quote Dr N. Bhaskar Rao3 on thissubject:

"More than half of television viewers in India today arechildren of below 15 years. And yet there is hardlyany sensitivity about the relevance and impact of whatis dished out by various television channels. All of themare operating in a competitive mode for one upmanshipin the race for viewership. In this order channels areconcerned more about 'what interests or attracts' ratherthan what is 'in the interest' of children. Neither theGovernment nor the parents or the teachers seems tobe concerned about this situation. For the generationnext and the civil society of the country is shaped andmolded by what they are exposed to today on the 'idiot-box' day in and day out."The National Institute of Media and the Family, a US-

based organisation that studies the impact of televisionon children, makes some interesting points about theimpact of violence on TV on children.4 It points out:

• Children are affected at any age, but young children aremost vulnerable to the effects of media violence(Bushman, 2001). Young children are more easilyimpressionable. They have a harder time distinguishingbetween fantasy and reality. They cannot easily discernmotives for violence. They learn by observing andimitating.

• Young children who see media violence have a greaterchance of exhibiting violent and aggressive behaviourlater in life, than children who have not seen violentmedia (Congressional Public Health Summit, 2000).

Of course, the incidents of terror are not the only imagesof violence that children see. There is much more of it infilms and even serials. But violence on the news possiblyhas a greater impact on young minds, particularly whenthey watch it happening in real time. Seeing images of thosesmartly dressed young men, walking around jauntily withan AK-47 after killing over 50 people at CST, is chilling. Itcould also result in a kind of admiration, of a fascinationwith the audacity that they display.

3. Dr. Bhaskara Rao, is founder and Chairman of independent Centre for MediaStudies (CMS), New Delhi

4. Website: http;//www.mediafamily.org/about/index.shtml

30

Some of the violence depicted over those 60 hours wasimagined through the sound and the fires but not actuallyseen. For instance, the bombardment of Nariman House,the landing of commandos on that building, the excitementin the voices of the anchors and reporters, made the entireoperation look like a war movie. If a survey is taken ofwhat children thought about that, I would not be surprisedif some of them found it "exciting". When the context ofviolence is removed from its depiction, people begin to lookat it as an "event" to watch rather than something that isaffecting all our lives and more specifically the lives of thosecaught in the middle of it. We know now that all six of thehostages at Nariman House were killed including the Rabbiand his six-months pregnant wife.

To conclude, the Mumbai terror attack should makethe media as a whole, but the electronic media in particular,pause and consider the direction in which it is going. Doesit have a responsibility towards its viewers, how is itshaping perceptions, is it more concerned about accuracyor about popularity, and how can it ensure that at timesof crisis it acts as a conveyor of information and not panic.

At the same time, the media must consider the impactof the depiction of violent events on young minds.

I end with the hope that out of tragedy comes somegood, or at least some good sense. The electronic media inIndia has grown exponentially. And in many ways thishas been a good thing for our democracy. It has forcedgreater transparency. It has allowed many more voices tobe heard. It has exposed inefficiencies and corruption. Ithas put leaders and politicians on the spot. But with allthis must also come responsibility.

The best way some of these issues can be addressedis by internal guidelines developed by the media with thehelp of civil society representatives � including parents andteachers � as has happened in many other countries. Wecertainly do not need censorship or government control.But we do need to develop the tools of sensitivity andsobriety along with the awareness of the power we have toinfluence young minds.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Ms. Kalpana Sharma

Kalpana Sharma is an independent journalist, columnistand media consultant based in Mumbai. Her fortnightlycolumn in The Hindu titled "The Other Half", whichcomments on contemporary issues from a genderperspective, also appears in Hindi in Hindustan, in Marathiin Saptahik Sakal, and on the websitewww.indiatogether.org In addition, she writes a monthlycolumn on urban issues for the websitewww.infochangeindia.org She also writes for several otherIndian publications and for some outside India.

Kalpana Sharma was, until recently, Deputy Editorand Chief of Bureau of The Hindu in Mumbai. In over threedecades as a full-time journalist, she has held seniorpositions in Himmat Weekly, Indian Express and Timesof India. Her special areas of interest are environmentaland developmental issues and in 1982 she worked withAnil Agarwal of the Centre for Science and Environment toedit the first Citizens' Report on the State of theEnvironment. During her years in The Hindu, she wasresponsible for the annual Survey of the Environmentpublished by The Hindu, a collection of articles oncontemporary environmental issues that appeared in theform of a separate priced publication.

For her fortnightly column that currently appears inThe Hindu's Sunday Magazine section but began withIndian Express in 1985, she received the Chameli DeviJain Award for an Outstanding Woman Journalist in 1987.In 2006, she received the Laadli Award for gender sensitivewriting for her body of work.

Kalpana Sharma follows and comments on urbanissues, especially in the context of Mumbai's development.She is the author of "Rediscovering Dharavi: Stories fromAsia's Largest Slum" (Penguin 2000).

She has co-edited with Ammu Joseph "Whose News?The Media and Women's Issues" (Sage 1994, 2006) and

32

"Terror Counter-Terror: Women Speak Out" (Kali forWomen, 2003). She has contributed chapters to severalbooks on media and on women.

Kalpana Sharma is one of the founding members ofthe Network of Women in Media, which now includeswomen journalists from all over India(www.nwmindia.org). She is also on the boards of SPARC(Society for Area Resource Centres), which works with theurban poor, and Panos South Asia, whose focus is mediaand development.

33

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