Introduction: Small Town News: Gujarat in the Media and Memory of Aligarh

Name: Taran Nishat Khan
Degree Registration: MSc Development Studies
This dissertation is submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of MSc in Development Studies of the School of Oriental and African Studies (University of London)
29 September 2003

I undertake that all material presented for examination is my own work and has not been written for me, in whole or in part, by any other person(s). I also undertake that any quotation or paraphrase from the published or unpublished work of another person has been duly acknowledged in the work that I present for examination.

Word Count: 9986

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This paper owes a great deal to many people.
In London, many thanks to Dr. Subir Sinha and Dr. Jens Lerche for their help and support. My guide, Dr Kaviraj, for his patience and clarity. Prof. Peter Robb for his kindness at all times. Vidya, for books, lunches and gossip in the library. Nikita, for being the perfect tourist guide cum sounding board for nascent ideas. Manasi, my comrade on the Edge. Sophie, for being perfect. The Desis at SOAS, for the good times. Giuseppe, the long suffering, for articles, advice and snatches of song. Mala, friend from heaven. I know you must be as relieved as I am.
In India, the staff at Maulana Azad library, AMU for their help in accessing and copying material. Dr Rahat Abrar for his generosity and helpfulness. Nadim, Asad, Abbas Sb, Baba- for plodding through the pile of Urdu newspapers. Shveta, for books and being around. Anupam, for access to the innards of the Aaj Tak archives. Qamar Bhai, who charmed sundry staff into doing my bidding. Nanna, Reshma Chacchi, Anjum and Niggo Baji, for food and concern. Adil, because he’s just so cool. Samanzaarians, my family, nothing happens without your duas. My parents, for everything, always.

ABSTRACT
This paper examines reports of communal violence in local newspapers as an indication of ethnic tensions and differences in perception and construction of events across communal identities. It looks at the large-scale communal conflagration and genocide in the state of Gujarat as it was reported by vernacular newspapers in Aligarh, a small town with a sizeable minority population and fragile inter-community relations. The manner in which events were represented in the Urdu and Hindi dailies indicates the fault lines and themes around which ethnic relations were constructed in the city. This reportage is compared across time to the tone and stance of the same newspapers during the 1990 militant Hindu mobilisation around the Ayodhya issue. Patterns of continuity and change are located in this discourse and the lens of the media is used to map changes in the experience and perception of communal conflict over time. In particular, it is used to examine issues of minority self-perception, security and engagement with a society in flux.

CONTENTS
Acknowledgements……………………………………………………………………….3
Abstract…………………………………………………………………………………...4
Introduction……………………………………………………………………………….6
Section I: The Qaumi Awaz………………………………………………………………12
Section II: The Dainik Jagran……………………………………………………………...26
Section III: Image and Text……………………………………………………………….39
Conclusions……………………………………………………………………………….41
Glossary…………………………………………………………………………………...45
Appendix A (An Overview of the RJB Movement)…….…………………………………..46
Bibliography………………………………………………………………………………..47

Geographical place: India

Date of creation or issue: 2003.

Target audience: media people

Copyright: all rights reserved