Profiles in Journalism: Non-Fiction/Study

By Dr. Michael Puthenthara

The common perception regarding journalists is limited to being reporters of news and views. However, the book Profiles in Journalism goes beyond this facile understanding to elaborate their deep involvement in the in-depth analysis of issues and concerns facing the world, and suggesting practical solutions. The fact that most of them are prolific writers and authors adds credence to this perspective. And this is greatly relevant to the world today. 

Profiles in Journalism is a sourcebook that offers a rare opportunity to explore 28 journalists who made journalism exhilarating.

"There is a manifested absence of authoritative books on the Indian Newspaper World. This is a challenge which today's students of journalism face. This book is an attempt by an eminent teacher to fill the gap."

—Thomas Jacob, Former Editorial Director of Malayala Manorama

• Language: English
• Publisher: Winco Books
• Release date: Jun 22, 2021
• ISBN: 9798201585877

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Journalists who made journalism exhilarating

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Department of Communication

and Media Studies (MCMS)

Marian College Kuttikkanam (Autonomous)

First Published in English in India by Winco Books

(An Imprint of Winco Publishers)

Kottayam - 686575, Kerala, India

[e-mail]

wincoindia.com

Copyright © Reserved

First Edition 2020

All rights reserved. This book may not be reproduced in whole or in part

without the prior written permission of the publishers.

The views and opinions expressed in this book are the author’s own and the

facts are as reported by him, which have been verified to the extent possible,

and the publishers are not in any way liable for the same.

The publishers believe that the contents of the book do not violate any existing copyright/intellectual property in any manner whatsoever. However, in the event, the author has been unable to trace the copyright of any material and if any copyright has been inadvertently infringed, please notify the author/publisher in writing for corrective action. Future publications will give credit to those that are brought to

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PROFILES IN JOURNALISM

By Dr. Michael Puthenthara

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21914315120064

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Dedication



My Colleagues and Students of

Department of

Communication and Media Studies (MCMS)

Marian College, Kuttikkanam (Autonomous)



About the Author

C:\Users\windows\Desktop\5 Michael 1.JPG DR. MICHAEL Puthenthara is a welcome combination of academic knowledge and practical experience in communication. His career spans over 45 years, during which he held the positions of Senior Manager and Executive Director in high profile business organisations, a Public Relations and Advertisement Professional, Corporate Communicator, Lecturer, Translator, and Editor.

He graduated and took his masters from the University of Pune and PhD as a UGC fellow from Banaras Hindu University. He has qualifications in Business Management and Christian Theology. Besides several articles on various topics, he has authored three books (Public Relations, Advertisiing and Environment) and translated over 32 works from Malayalam to English and vice versa. The most prominent translation is of Tat Tvam Asi scripted by the late Sukumar Azhikode.

Regarding translations, he is also associated with an International Organisation, UWB, spreading over 36 countries. In connection with this, he has visited Holland, France and Switzerland a number of times. His involvement as a lecturer extends to journalism courses conducted by prominent newspaper houses, various Press Clubs and Indian Institute of Mass Communication. He was also a faculty member of Kerala Media Academy for over 20 years.

Presently, he is a professor in the Department of Communication and Media Studies, Marian College, Kuttikkanam (Autonomous).

Contents

Prologue . . . 9

Introduction by Thomas Jacob . . .  11

01. Abu Abraham . . . 14

02. B.G. Verghese . . . 23

03. Chalapathi Rao . . . 36

04. Cho Ramaswamy . . . 45

05. E.M.S. Namboodiripad . . . 54

06. Frank Moraes . . . 68

07. Herman Gundert . . . 77

08. Joseph Pulitzer . . . 85

09. Kandathil Varghese Mappilai . . . 95

10. Kesari Balakrishna Pillai . . . 104

11. K.M. Mathew . . . 112

12. K.P. Kesava Menon . . . 120

13. K. Sukumaran . . . 127

14. Kuldip Nayar . . . 137

15. Kushwant Singh . . . 146

16. P. Lankesh . . . 155

17. M.V. Kamath . . . 164

18. Melville de Mellow . . . 172

19. Nikhil Chakravarthy . . . 181

20. Parag Kumar Das . . . 186

21. Pothen Joseph . . . 194

22. R.K. Laxman . . . 204

23. R.K. Karanjia . . . 211

24. S. Sadanand . . . 219

25. Swadeshabhimani Ramakrishna Pillai . . . 227

26. T.V.R. Shenoy . . . 236

27. Walter Cronkite . . . 246

28. Walter Lippman . . . 261

Bibiliography . . . 272

Index . . . 276

Prologue

WAY BACK in the 1960s, I came across a book written by the late President of USA, John F. Kennedy when he was a young Senator. The book’s title was ‘Profiles in Courage’. And it won the coveted Pulitzer Prize for literature. I was a die-hard admirer of President Kennedy and part of that admiration got transferred to the title of the book as well. The impact of the title was such that it was buried in my subliminal consciousness. Almost fifty years later, when I was ruminating about an appropriate title for this work, ‘Profiles’ popped up in my mind, relegating to the background other titles I had thought of, such as ‘Pioneers,’ and ‘Legends.’

This is not a book of personal profiles, although personal data form part of the content. This work attempts to throw light, albeit briefly, on the socio-economic and political context which motivated each media person in this book to make his contribution, and also what those contributions were in terms of concepts and activities. In the case of some, this was abundantly clear, whereas in others it remains opaque.

The journalists chosen for profiling are now part of history in the sense that all of them gone beyond time. They are also international, national and regional. But I make no claim to be comprehensive in the matter. It has been my observation as a teacher of media studies for many years in several institutions that there is a perceptible lack of adequate knowledge of the matters related to the media among the new generation of students. This book is a small attempt to fill that gap. The primordial inspiration for writing the book came from Prof. M. Vijayakumar, Director, Department of Communication and Media Studies of Marian College, Kuttikkanam (Autonomous) acronymed as MCMS, and the selection of media persons was also partly influenced by him. My colleagues in the college, such as R.K. Pillai, Vishnu Vijayakumar, Elseena Josph, Ashwin K.V., and Eapen Alexander have chipped in their inputs to complete the script.

Mr. Thomas Jacob, former Editorial Director of Malayala Manorama, has kindly written an introduction to the work, under the title ‘The Glow of Fullness’. I am greatly obliged to him for his generous and encouraging gesture. My gratitude also goes to Fr. Soby Kannalil, accomplished graphic designer and videographer, who is also the HoD of MCMS programme, for designing a meaningful and attractive cover for the book. And to Sabin John, publisher of Winco Books, for undertaking the work of publishing and distribution.

Dr. Michael Puthenthara

 Introduction 

The Glow of Fulleness

LET ME start off with a confession: when I first came across the name Dr. Michael Puthenthara, I thought the person was either a catholic priest or a lesser known Malayali catholic bishop of the North East. Mostly they are the ones who add family name to their first name. And a doctorate degree was not scarce among them either.

Among the Catholics of Kerala, with the exception of the Malankara persuasion originating from the Jacobite tradition, all the priests and their higher ups had adopted family name as part of their formal name. That at least was the practice from the time of the first bishop following the Koonam Cross event. Thus when Father Chandy Parambil was appointed a bishop, the Papal Bull from Vatican announced his name as Alexander de Campo. Campo meant a compound or ‘paramb’! But contemporary Papal Bulls do not venture to translate family names into Latin; but transliterate the name correctly as in Malayalam.

Among the contemporary Syrian and Latin Catholics, the only bishop who does not have a family name is Dr. Susai Pakyam who hails from the Marthandom Thura where there are no formal family name for houses. This absence of a family name has given embarrassing moments for the archbishop many a time. This prompted him to find a solution in bifurcating Susaipakyam into two: Susai as the first name and Pakyam as the family name. It was more than sufficient for the doubting Thomases!

My misconceptions about Dr. Michael Puthenthara started wearing off when I learned that his doctoral degree is from Banaras Hindu University. Most of the doctoral degrees adorned by priests were from theological seminaries. Further enquiries revealed that Dr. Michael had a reputation of being a public relations professional, teaching in journalism institutions. His strength is the experience he had as a hands-on communication practitioner. Our first meeting happened nearly twenty-five years ago when he was on the faculty of Kerala Media Academy. Since then we have been close friends.

He has scripted several books and is the translator of many more. The present book is a beacon light for those who wish to know the media as well as become part of its mesmerising flow.

The author profiles media persons whom we have heard about, read about and even had personal acquaintance. There are 28 of them! When we read about persons we know, the usual thought that crosses our minds is: does the script contain information about them which we do not know. Dr. Puthenthara has devoted considerable attention to provide information not generally known. Among them are eleven Malayalis, about whom I discovered in the book many things I had not known earlier.

B.G. Varghese had fought the Lok Sabha elections as a Janata Party candidate with the support of the left, from his ancestral place, Mavelikkara. But he lost. We know that he did not pocket as several others, the leftover money from the campaign contributions, but did something unheard of. Dr. Puthenthara narrates what BGV did with that money.

It is known that Pothen Joseph in his time was the man at the helm of most number of newspapers. But how many? Dr. Puthenthara throws light on that as well. Thus how many endearing snippets revealing the personality of the people!

Abu Abraham reached England in search of opportunities. Malcolm Muggeridge who bought his first cartoon for publication also had a Kerala connection. Muggeridge, before becoming the editor of ‘Punch’ magazine and the Director General of BBC, was also a professor at U.C. College, Aluva.

Even Walter Lippman whom Dr. Puthenthara introduces as the greatest world-renowned columnist also had a Kerala connection. After the liberation struggle in Kerala, the ‘Keraladhwani’ newspaper was launched in Kottayam. Lippman was its columnist as well.

I was a bit surprised at the exclusion of C.P. Ramachandran. Possibly, there were also other names that merited entry. But when scripting a book there are many considerations such as length. Therefore, we ought to be grateful to Dr. Puthenthara for the abounding fullness of the thumbnail sketches of those included in the book.

There is a manifested absence of authoritative books on the Indian Newspaper World. This is a challenge which today’s students of journalism face. This book is an attempt by an eminent teacher to fill the gap.

Thomas Jacob

Former Editorial Director, Malayala Manorama

 01 

Abu Abraham

ATTUPURATHU MAT-HEW ABRAHAM ALIAS ABU ABRAHAM (1924 – 2002) was the only Indian political cartoonist to become famous both in his own country and in Britain. There he worked for a distinguished spell for newspapers such as Tribune, Observer and Guardian. He was known as a principled cartoonist who walked tall while some others crawled.

His strongest theme was the original vision of Mahatma Gandhi and Nehru for a wholly secular state. His style of drawing, according to Guardian (December 7, 2002), was astonishing and singular. It was utterly contemporary, but as lithe as the decorative linearity of the 16th and 17th century Mughal courts of Akbar and Jahangir, without excess at arabesque and curlicue and as expressive as the hand movements of a classical Indian dancer.

He was quiet and modest, qualities not especially noticeable around newspaper offices. As Sunday Tribune observed, Abu was a cartoonist who provoked you to think. Fellow cartoonist Kutty, with whom he worked in Shankar’s Weekly, commented, Abu started off as a dyed in the wool conservative and ended as a radical leftist. As a matter of fact, Abu was a rationalist and atheist. His pen name ‘Abu’ was adopted by him under the advice of David Astor, Editor of Observer, who thought that the name Abraham would imply a false slant of Jewishness on his cartoons, particularly in the context of Nazism in Europe, for no reason at all.

The Beginnings

Abu Abraham was born as the son of a lawyer, A.M. Mathew and Kantamma into a Syrian Catholic Christian family in Mavelikkara in Kerala on June 11, 1924. His spent his school days in the town of his birth. For his college education, he entered University College at Thiruvananthapuram, where he studied French, Mathematics and English. He was the tennis champion of the college, from which he graduated in 1945. Much before graduation, actually at the age of three, he had started drawing cartoons.

Cartoon Days

After graduation, Abraham moved to Bombay (Mumbai). He joined Bombay Chronicle and became a reporter for that journal as well as its sister publication, The Bombay Sentinel. Along with reporting, he spent his spare time drawing cartoons for Blitz and the political journal, Bharat. Seeing his cartoons, the editor of the satirical English language journal, Shankar’s Weekly, invited him to work as a cartoonist and caricaturist for his weekly. Subsequently, he moved to Delhi in 1951.

Two years later, he met political cartoonist, Fred Joss in Delhi who encouraged him to move to London, where he had better opportunities to become a professional cartoonist. Accepting Joss’s wise advice, Abraham arrived in London in 1953. Within a few days Malcolm Muggeridge, then editor of Punch magazine purchased one of his cartoons for seven Guineas. His cartoons were also bought by other journals, such as Daily Sketch, Everybody’s London Opinion, and Eastern World. In 1956, Michael Foot, future leader of the Labour Party, then the editor of the left wing weekly Tribune published two of his cartoons.

Two days later, David Astor, editor of the highly successful Observer, invited Abraham to become the first ever staff political cartoonist of the popular newspaper. The Observer with a long history, was then at the height of its influence. The newspaper also had a long list of distinguished intellectuals on its staff to which David Astor was a father figure. Few Indians, least of all political cartoonists could hope to get such a prized job at that time in British capital. Sheer talent was Abraham’s forte. He signed an agreement shortly afterwards with Observer. It was then that Astor suggested that he sign his cartoons as ‘Abu’. His signature as ‘Abu’ appeared on his first Observer cartoon on Sunday, April 8, 1956. Abu used this pseudonym for the rest of his career.

London Experience

Abu immersed himself in British culture and produced incisive political cartoons. The Guardian described him as the conscience of the Left and pea under the princess’ mattress. He also produced reportage drawings from around the world. In 1962 in Cuba, he drew Che Guevara and spent three hours in a nightclub with Fidel Castro.

Mostly, he drew cartoons or illustrations for articles of political analysis. He also detonated little squibs to accompany the column, ‘Letters to Editor.’ Occasionally, when he illustrated features from the subcontinent the spare lines evoked the taste of India.

It is a reflection of Abu’s standing among Britain’s cartoonists that one of his cartoons was high on the list of ‘Great Election Cartoons’. It was published in the Observer of September 13, 1959. It makes fun of conservative party’s huge advertisement campaign that featured a series of posters with images of prosperity and the claim Life is better with the Conservatives; don’t let Labour ruin it.

In 1966 after spending 10 years with the Observer, Abu moved to the Guardian where he spent three years. In the same period, he also contributed a weekly cartoon to the Tribune. During 1968, he edited a collection of cartoons about the Vietnam War.

A great strength of Abu’s cartoons and writings was their enduring impact. In the wake of Watergate Scandal, Abu’s cartoon showed a plaque on the White House wall that read, Richard M. Nixon lied here – 1964-1972. In 1974 during the caste-driven elections in Uttar Pradesh Abu’s pocket cartoon had its two characters before a polling box, which was kept under the banner with the words: Vote your Caste here. Any Indian newspaper could have run the cartoon again today with as much impact, on the eve of elections. Another cartoon criticising President George Bush for being recklessly unconnected to the Middle East reality was titled, Ignorance is Bush.

Return to India

In 1969, When Abu’s artistic talent was at its height, after a sojourn of 16 years in Britain, he decided to return to India. As Michael Foot recalls, it was an argument about the worldwide racist disease that prompted him to return to India. Some readers have denounced a cartoon he drew for Tribune on the subject of Israeli-Palestinian conflict as racist. Although never was the slander more ill judged, Abu returned to India with his wife and two daughters, Aysha and Janaki. Indian Express was very happy to enroll him as their staff in their New Delhi office to work as a political cartoonist.

The Emergency

According