– the road taken by Tamil journalism

(Continued from last fortnight)

A history of Tamil Journalism by Mrinal Chatterjee

The path shown by Dina Thanthi has been followed by many other Tamil dailies. The most common features have been: a) wide coverage of political warfare in Tamil Nadu; b) dominance of crime, sex and cinema; c) multiple editions.

Dinakaran followed this path and added more good investigative stories. It is published from multiple centres. Unlike Dina Thanthi, it has an editorial. It has a good circulation and one reason for its popularity is said to be its anti-establishment posture.

Another daily which has made its mark is Dinamalar, established by T.V. Ramasubba Aiyer, a Congressman of Tirunelveli. It was started in 1951 in Trivandrum and played an active role in the agitation for the merger of Tamil areas in Travancore with Tamil Nadu and was very popular for that reason. At one stage, the paper’s office was raided by the police and its copies were seized. This happened when Pattom Thanu Pillai was the Cheif Minister of the State.

After the success of the agitation and when Nagercoil and Kanniyakumari were merged with Tamil Nadu, Ramasubha Aiyer moved to Tirunelveli where Dinamalar in 1960 concentrated on the problems of the local people and in getting the people’s grievances redressed. Its circulation went up and an edition was started in Tiruchi in 1966 followed by one in Madras in 1979 and in Erode in 1984. Dinamalar introduced offset printing in 1981 and adopted other modern techniques of printing. A feature of the paper is its photographic coverage which gives it a unique place in Tamil journalism. During the Pope’s visit to Madras in 1986, it came out with a four-page photo feature of the Pope’s engagements in the city.

A Tamil daily which was the result of cooperative efforts is Makkal Kural, which appeared in Madras in 1973. It came to life on the ashes of Navamani, founded by a cooperative society, which got into trouble with the DMK Government and had finally to close down. One of its leading journalists, Shanmuga Vel, floated the Newsmen Associates in 1972 and the Makkal Kural came into being the next year. It had an able and experienced editor in T.R. Ramaswami, who was formerly connected with Patriot and Link of New Delhi and with the Federation of Working Journalists. TRR, as he was known to his readers, had a powerful pen and a head for facts and figures. In 1982, he started an evening English daily, News Today.

By end-2012, Dina Thanthi was the largest-read daily in Tamil Nadu. According to the Indian Readership Survey Q-4 2012, it occupies the seventh position in the top ten publications of the country. Hindi daily Dainik Jagran tops the list. Dina Thanthi is followed by Dinakaran and Dinamalar. Among the Tamil magazines, Kumudam is the largest circulated. It occupies sixth position in the list of top ten language magazines in the country. Malayalam periodical Vanitha tops the list.

Newspapers across the country and languages have had political leanings, some overtly and some covertly. But an interesting feature of Tamil journalism is that it has had distinct in-your-face political leanings. Several newspapers were open and vocal about their leanings. In the pre-Independence era, it could be divided into three groups: the Dravidian Press, the Nationalist Press, the Muslim Press. Post-Independence, the trend continues; albeit with different rallying points.

Outside India

Tamil language newspapers have been published from outside the country from the pre-Independence era. There was a Tamil newspaper titled Tamil Nesan founded in Kuala Lumpur, Malaya, in 1924. It was the lone Tamil newspaper in Malaysia till Tamil Osai was launched in 1981. Later it was rechristened Makkal Osai, which in English means ‘People’s voice’. Thamizhavel G. Sarangapani launched Tamil Murasu in Singapore in 1935. By mid-2012, it was the only Tamil language newspaper in Singapore.

Several Tamil language newspapers have been published from Sri Lanka, the best known being Virakesari. It was first published on August 6, 1930 by P.P.R. Subramanian, an entrepreneur and journalist from Avanipatti village in Tamil Nadu. Subramanian guided the publication for over 20 years, during which the publication focussed on the rights and grievances of the plantation workers, capturing the attention of the Tamil-speaking population. By mid-2012, it was the most widely circulated and read newspaper by the entire Tamil-speaking population in Sri Lanka. In 2005 Virakesari’s e-paper was launched, which it claimed was the world’s first Tamil e-paper.

Among other Tamil language newspapers published from Sri Lanka were Eelamurasu, Eelanadu and Uthayan (all the three papers were published from Jaffna, a Tamil majority area). Uthayan was founded in 1985 by journalist Nadesapillai Vithyatharan. Thinakkural was founded by Pon Rajagobal, former editor of Virakesari, in 1997, and Sudar Oli was founded in Colombo on September 10, 2000 as a weekly newspaper. It became a daily newspaper on October 29, 2001. Nadesapillai Vithyatharan bacame the paper’s editor in 2002. Almost all Tamil language newspapers in Sri Lanka suffered heavily during the conflict beginning with the early 1980s. Besides Sri Lanka and Malaysia, Tamil newspapers are also published in countries like UK, Canada, Australia and several countries in West Asia.

Other media

Radio: Radio broadcasting was pioneered in India by the Madras Presidency Radio Club in 1924. The Club ran a broadcasting service for three years, but owing to financial difficulties gave it up in 1927. That same year, some enterprising businessmen in Bombay started the Indian Broadcasting Company with stations in Bombay and Calcutta. This company failed in 1930; in 1932 the Government of India took over broadcasting. A separate department known as Indian Broadcasting Service was opened.

The service was later designated All India Radio (AIR) and was placed under a separate ministry – the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. AIR is controlled by a Director General, who is assisted by several deputy directors and a chief engineer. The first FM braodcasting in India began in 1977 in Madras. By mid-2011, Tamil Nadu had two AM and ten FM radio stations, operated by All India Radio and private broadcasters. Chennai-based Anna University has the distinction of running India’s first campus community radio station, which was launched on Febrary 1, 2004.

Television: TV broadcasting in Tamil Nadu began in 1974 after Doordarshan set up its Madras station the same year. Currently, the public broadcaster runs three terrestrial television channels in Tamil Nadu – DD Chennai (DD-1), DD News (DD-2) and DD Podhigai, and one satellite television channel, Podhigai TV, from its Chennai centre. Tamil Nadu has witnessed tremendous growth of private TV channels after 1991. Major private TV networks operating in the State are Sun TV, Raj TV, Star Vijay, Jaya TV, Makkal TV, Kalaignar TV, Thamizhan TV. Chennai is the first city in India to have implemented the conditional access system for cable television.

New media: Tamil Nadu was at the forefront of new media revolution. The Hindu, which has its headquarters in Chennai, was the first newspaper in India to go online in 1995. Regional newspapers made their online presence by the late 1990s. By early 2013, almost all major newspapers and periodicals had their presence in the cyber world with several having e-papers. There are hundreds of Tamil-speaking population-focussed news sites and subject-specific websites. (Courtesy: Vidura, published by the Press Institute of India)

(Concluded)