Media and Religions in India

The Media and Religions in India

            Secular India actually means a country that respects all the diversities of its culture, as pluralism is its fundamental quality. In this context, the religious faith of the people is relevant to every aspect of Indian life. It is religion that has the greater influence on every private and public institution in India. The media deals with the real life of the people in a society. It cannot ignore whatever is essential to society and whatever interests the people as a community. Though the media and religion are independent of each other, in reality they converge at certain points in which the media appeals to the religious credentials of the people in different conflicts and crises in the society. “The media can use conversations with the people on the essential obligations towards religious values and morals, which in turn will help the people to live up to the message of love and peace of religious founders.”[1]

Every religion can use the media to propagate and communicate with believers and non-believers. This is another point of convergence between the media and religion. Our question is not of this convergence but is about the attitude of a pro-active media in the conflicting situation of religious violence and tensions. Actually as a pioneer of all progressive movements, it was the press that discovered the spirit of unity in diversity in the Indian cultural milieu. The press, from its beginning, tried to promote a national out-look among the people of diverse religions.[2] Of course the national newspapers and almost all the newspapers have columns and pages dedicated to religion in India. But there is a clear majoritarianism. In a context where fundamentalist vandalism questions the very basis of a religiously tolerant nation, the constitutional responsibility of the press is very important.  In our present context the media has to be the conscience keeper of the nation to uphold secularist traditions and values. The media, which is sometimes described as ‘the poor man’s university’ has to enlighten the people about the narrowness of being fanatic about one’s own religion.

The spirit of every religion is of harmony and mutual love. It has to give the right interpretation of religious symbols counteracting the propaganda of the false interpretation of religious symbols by the communal parties and fundamentalist groups. Communalism of any kind, Hindu or Muslim, is anti-democratic and against the principles of a secular Press.[3]  Unfortunately the media often fails to offer such a tolerant language and tone in their reporting. The press has to take a very critical view of every religious fanatic group. The journalists have to report the wordings of the politically motivated persons and of the religious leaders carefully. The standard of reporting should not be up to any majority or minority religion but to the truth that will ultimately serve the peace and harmony of the country. The press has to behave within an expectation of the majority public of India who wishes to live peacefully. No press is supposed to yield itself to sensationalism during any communal riots.[4] The sense of mission of today’s Indian media has to be that of a crusader for secularism, which is fundamental to the Constitution of India.

 

Religion in the Public Discourse

The media is interested no matter what enters into the public discourse. It identifies itself with the public to which it is oriented. In that context the media cannot ignore religion, as it is a voluble element of contemporary life. Since the press penetrates the daily life of individuals and connects them with the powerful institutions of society, religion, having a major influence on every human institution, becomes an inevitable element of its attention. “It interconnects personal life and public activities and shapes our consciousness.”[5] In a context where the interaction of religion and politics is evident, the press engagement in a right way of religion coverage can impart the right moral power to the political institutions. Tocqueville considered religion as an important public discourse.

First, he saw religion as having clear and necessary political implications. The spheres of religion and politics were not separate; instead, religion had a specific value and moral claims that could and should suffuse the political environment. Second, he saw that various religious perspectives had unique claims they could make and that the religious sphere could provide alternative ontology that would enliven and enrich the democratic discourse. Third, he saw that religion could serve as an “intermediate institution” between the people and the state.[6] 

What he meant was that religion gives moral power in a democratic system. Religion can mediate between the individual and the governing system becoming an independent moral voice between them.[7] So the press has the moral responsibility to cover religion genuinely by way of selecting, shaping and bringing out what is important and interesting about religion other than merely reporting religious events.

The coverage on religion is to be motivated from the viewpoint of educating the people on religious values and messages, and also to challenge politics or any system that tries to make use of religious sentiments for their own vested interests. In a pluralistic country like India, a conscientious press has to critically watch the political development in which religion is used as an instrument for political power. In this situation, the press has to point out that the greatness of every religion is basically respecting the human person. It has to bring out the essential spirit of amity and harmony that is found in the life-pattern of the people at the grassroots.[8]

Indian democracy is not that of a small group of influential politicians or of the fanatic religious fundamentalists who are vitiating the political atmosphere with their own degenerated intentions. It is basically that of millions of people who belong to different religious and ethnic groups who are living peacefully, respecting each other’s culture and identity. The press has to favour these millions instead of concentrating on any group, which is detrimental to the religious harmony and integrity of the nation. To be with and to work for the millions of peace-loving Indians, the press has to bring religious values fully to the public discourse as “the basic vocabularies of public life depend upon the fundamental ideas and values rooted in religion.”[9]

Religion Reporting and Religious Identity

In the Indian context secularism means equal respect for all religions. So the national press, which is trying to be a secularist media, has the tendency to distance itself from religions. But this distance is not that healthy as the majority of India lacks a correct understanding of the religion of one’s own neighbour.

In a study conducted from the year 1849 to 1860 in the United States of America, where there were different religions and religious denominations, Kenneth Nordin proved that a generalised and standard form of religion reporting helped the nation to maintain an American consensus.[10] Right information about religion helps the people to dispel the false notion of other religions. This knowledge enables them to respect other communities and avoid unnecessary religious violence. After all, religions offer a moral power to the society. All kinds of ethics have, in fact, their basis in the religious concept of human beings. They offer traditional, personal and family values. One of the ways of religion reporting taking form is by writing about the transgression of traditional family values. The newspapers write against abortion, homosexuality and other modern vices of society. But they speak on such subjects from the viewpoint of religions.[11]

Out of the fear of being stamped as unsecular, Indian journalists keep a distance from religions. But this idea would have no basis, had the national newspapers considered writing about each and every religion for a real religious dialogue. Religion has to be treated like any other kind of news content. To put it in the words of A.J Philip, former senior Editor of The Indian Express: “India is a multi-religious country. In such a country every newspaper has to go on a secular path. That makes the paper keep equally distant from all the religions. It does not mean anti-religion but it is to be fair to all religions.”[12] At the outbreak of any conflict and social confusion, the moral values of a true religion can inspire the people to respect and love one’s fellow human being. In anything that involves human dignity, the element of religion comes to the forefront.

The topos of religion need not be restricted to every religion but any other themes which really bring a person to reflect on his proper being, which is ultimately open to a Supreme being. So like any other topos, which requires the accepted standards of fairness and objectivity, religion should be considered in our newspapers.[13] If religion is a very important theme in the daily life of the people, and if the newspapers cannot wink at its influence in its public, religion reporting becomes a necessity. In a multi-religious context a wrong word or a misconception of a religion can fire up controversy and then conflict, therefore, journalists should be trained to make a proper study of each religion. The media needs journalists who are well equipped to report on religions. For a fair reporting on religion without error and ignorance they need to study the religions.[14] Ours is a significant time where religion really matters in various forms, and terrorism in the name of religion is increasing on an alarming scale. In this context specialization in religion reporting will help the press to educate the people to overcome the complex of religious violence.

Regarding religion reporting there is no special policy on the part either of the government or of the newspapers. In the context of communal violence major newspapers in all languages especially in the English language try to safeguard the secular nature of our country as far as possible. Ajit Bhattacharja, President of the Press Institute of India says:

“The newspapers in India are trying to give space for all news of a secular nature. Sometimes they suppress the news, which, they think, will spark out communal violence in different parts of the country. As regards religion reporting, almost all the major newspapers give ample space for spiritual reflections, which will help the reader to come out of modern stress and troubles.”[15]

By nature Indians are very sensitive about their religion. The name, the way of dressing, even the language will betray the religious identity of a person in India. As for any ordinary Indian, caste and religion have a powerful influence on journalists too.[16] Like any one he will have his prejudices about other religions. This prejudice may affect his reporting and writings. If he wants to avoid this prejudice to be a responsible journalist in Indian pluralism, he has to make personal effort to learn about other religions.

The real aim of the media journalists should be truth, which is the basic virtue of all religions. Journalists have to be seekers of truth. The secular sense of the Indian press is so high that sometimes at the fear of being unsecular they keep away from the truth. The Hindu, Muslim and Christian identity of the Indian newspapers sometimes becomes a hindrance in producing an objective journalism in India

So it is not the religious identity of the media or the journalists that has to be taken into account in the social mission but the affiliation of the press and of the journalists to the truth, which permeates every difference but looks only at that truth which will fortify Indian citizens to live in peace and inspire them to fight for human rights. Since religion is not a trivial subject, there is a need for a serious dialogue between the religions and the press in India.

The initiative for this dialogue can be on the part of religious leaders. In the background of a religious conflict, the religious leaders have to find means to reach out to the media to clarify the religious significance and relevance of a particular event or issue at the proper time. Such dialogue may help the press to avoid some factual errors in their reporting of events of a religious nature. Religions need to have a dialogue with the press so that the media may distance itself from sensationalism in the name of religion, on the other hand, the media can undertake journalism with its responsibility towards Indian pluralism.

Journalism for Peace Option an Alternative to the Political instrumentalization of Religion

In every corner of our world there is communal tension and violence. The same message of peace, left by the great religious founders, is being misinterpreted by a few to direct the people into war in the name of God. The greatest contradiction of our history is that the religion, which is to cure violence and conflicts, itself becomes the base of violence and terrorism among the people.[17] It is not religion that is to be blamed for this violence but certain groups of narrow-minded people who use religion as a powerful instrument to achieve their unreligious and sometimes inhuman motives.

Mostly all forms of religious violence are product of the unholy handling of religious adherence for political power. Political parties take religion not in its spiritual sense but as a weapon to be used for power. Peace can be achieved only through a reduction in religious violence and through the acknowledgement of religion’s power to give moral and spiritual values to public life. In other words, the cure of religious violence lies in a renewed appreciation of religion itself.[18] Who has to uphold this message of peace and the renewed spirit of religions in our community but the media and the media, which reach everyday into our hands and homes? The media should refrain from exaggerating and restraining news, views and comments while publishing incidents of communal and religious disputes or clashes. News should be published after proper verification of facts and presented with due caution so as to create peace. At the same time, sensational, provocative and alarming headlines are to be avoided.[19] The real solution during a conflict is not classification of the victims and enemies, and sympathising with the victims while demonising the enemies. Journalism for peace is much more than this. There is no alternative to peace. The only way of practising religion in a pluralistic society is to cling to the peace process between different communities. Peace in pluralism means simply a respect for human person and universal human rights.

In the path of peace process in today’s context, there is a new way of doing peace or conflict journalism. Peace journalists may use the situation of conflicts to transform the society by focusing on all the sides of the conflicts without being partial to any party. They have to consider the situation for human progress and orient themselves to the proactive role to prevent such conflicts in the future. This peace journalism can be done in four dimensions: Peace/Conflict oriented with a general win/win orientation, Truth-oriented, People-oriented, Solution-oriented: Peace is a crossing of non-violence and creativity. Here the peace initiatives are given importance to prevent future violence and conflict. The characteristics of the structure of a peaceful society are described. Ultimately peace journalism focuses on resolution, reconstruction and reconciliation.[20]

 Peace journalists seek to save the news from clutches of power to speak for the powerless in society. In the Indian context this type of peace journalism is all the more the need of the time since the cynical political leaders tries to use the media, distorting the religious symbols in their arguments to create enmity amidst different communities. Journalists have to distance themselves from the conscious attempt of the politicians to instrumentalize religions for their parties. They have to provide matters for the public to discuss the real significance of every religion in the proper culture.

The media has to avoid all kinds of sensationalism regarding the religions but has to provide enough materials to educate the people on the values of love, peace, mercy and justice which are really related to every known religion in the world. Peace journalism is to be rooted in the truth. The media should not hurt any religious sentiments but being truthful does not mean hurting the sentiments of any one group. The media has to honestly pursue its task of a fact finder. Peace journalism is journalism biased in favour of truth. It is a social commitment of the journalists for a better world of religious harmony. It mobilises the people against any political corruption and any fundamentalism. It provides matters for discussion both to the government and to the public for the peace and prosperity of the country.[21]

Conclusion

As all the founders of religions are the mediators between heaven and the Earth, and the media is the connecting link between the people of different cultures and nations. Media has a greater power and participation in modern society. Marshal McLuhan says that it is the Central nervous system of our Society. If so, it has to be the watchdog of the society for unity, peace and co-existence, the basic values of a pluralistic society. It is the best instrument to inculcate a culture of love in these days of a culture of death.

Rev. Dr. Kuriakose Mundadan

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[1] Upendra Vajpeyi (2000): ‘Media and Religion: Convergence and Distinctions’ in Hussain Zahid, Ray Vanita (eds) (2000): Media Communications in the Third World. New Delhi: Kanishka Publishers, pp.121-124.

[2] Subir Ghosh (2000): ‘Media and Religion: A post-Ayodhya Analysis’ in Hussain Zahid & Ray Vanita (eds) (2000): Media Communications in the Third World. New Delhi: Kanishka Publishers, pp.125-136.

[3] Ghosh : Media and Religion, op. cit., p.134.

[4] Rahim, Abdul (1993): ‘Vested Interest’,  in AMIC (1993): Role of the Media in a National Crisis. Singapore: Asian Mass Communication Research and Information Centre, pp.27-33.

[5] Michael R. Real (1989): Super Media: A Cultural Studies Approach. Newbury Park: Sage Publications, p.15.

[6] Stewart M. Hoover (1998): Religion in the News. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications, p.11.

[7] Stephen Carter (1993): The Culture of Disbelief. New York: Basic Books, p.36.

[8] Ghosh: ‘Media and Religion: A Post-Ayodhya Analysis’, op. cit, p.135.

[9] Hoover, Stewart M. (1998): Religion in the News.Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications, p.211.

[10] Mark Silk (1995): Unsecular Media Making News of Religion in America. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, p.29.

[11] Ibid.,pp.141-149

[12]  Interview with A. J Philip, senior editor of The Indian Express, New Delhi.

[13] Judith M. Buddenbaum (1998): Reporting News about Religion. Ames: Iowa State University Press, p.92.

[14] Gaitano Norberto Gonzales (2001): ‘Evangelizzazione con i mass media in Studi Cattolici, Roma, pp.404-412.

[15] Interview with Ajit Bhattacharjya, the Director of the Press Council of India, New Delhi, March 25, 2001.

[16] Singh, S. Nihal: ‘Painful Splits’ in AMIC, op. cit., p.25.

“We look at the event or issues from all the angles possible and try to present the facts for the readers to judge. When the issue is concerned with RSS or of any other communal groups we do our best to get into the pulse of the event but it is not always easy. The reporter is always biased by his own personality and to be detached from the fact of his/her religion, cultural background and to be neutral is not that easy.” Interview with Jose Kavi, Editor for India of UCAN (Union of Catholic Asian News), New Delhi, April 3, 2000.

[17] Mark Juergensmeyer (2000): Terror in the Mind of God. Berkeley: University of California Press, p.236.

[18] Ibid., p.243.

[19] Jayaswal Sudhanshu (1997): ‘Press Council new Guidelines Masses’ in Vidura, Press Institute of India’s Mass Media Magazine, vol.34, no.4, Oct-Dec 1997, pp.29-30.

[20] http//www.themediachannel-file\pjotext.htm

[21] Andrew Belsey, & Ruth Chadwick, (1992): Ethical Issues in Journalism and Media. London: Routledge, p.3.

റോമാ സെമിനാര്‍

Church communication in non-Christian cultures

Church communication in non-Christian cultures is a relevant theme for discussion in the very life situation of continents like Asia and Africa. In the Universal Church, communication in the pluralistic cultures is functioning effectively. Of course, its roots are in the very Logos, the Incarnated Word in the human history. By inserting Himself into the Jewish context and in the Levitical rituals, Jesus communicated new ways of the Kingdom of God to their culture. He transformed the time and place by His earthly presence. So, any communication of the Church in the non-Christian cultures has to begin from the incarnated communication formula of Jesus, the Super Communicator.
At the outset, let me clarify the word ‘culture.’ Culture as the ideal, is the embodiment of perfect and universal values. Culture, as documentary, is that which human thought, language form convention and experience are recorded. Culture, as social way of life, already expresses the structure of feeling of a social group. Cultural pluralism is grounded in differentiations of consciousness and stages of meaning and values constituting a culture. Culture, as superstructure, functions to provide control of meaning, norms, and conditions for social infrastructure. Culture itself is within the higher context of religious value. In a Christian culture, there is the value system that is built up, form the Christian faith and morals. Cardinal Georges Cottier says that in the concept of Christendom, ‘when a society is composed of a majority of Christians, in such circumstances, it happens that the faith will inspire also the temporal order, namely the sphere of culture and the legal and political forms.’ In this context he says that evangelization in multi-religious context need not be confused with Western Christendom. In different cultural context and various social and civil situations, the diversity and specificity can be very positive. So the Church can speak of Indian, African or Chinese Christendom. Cardinal says, “the documents of Vatican II express simple openness to multi-faceted reality and the factors that shape it in the current historical phase: the context of a global and plural world, that entails coexistence between communities and people having the most diverse cultural and religious identities. But this openness towards earthly orderings is the distinctive trait that has marked the Christian presence in different societies in sui generic fashion and people having the most diverse cultural and religious identities.”
In India where the soul factor is in the very root of the soil, culture itself is defined within the higher context of religious values. As common to all human subjects trans-cultural, invariant across all peoples, the structure of human conscious intentionality grounds (1) the concept of communication, (2) the transcendental method by which all cultures are made, monitored, disciplined, developed, (3) hence the possibility of intercultural communication. The very basis of our communication is presenting to our fellow beings the true Christian image of everything we speak and act. The fact is that there is only one Church and the Church of Christ remains the same for today and for eternity. But in a multi-religious culture, the Church communicators should not stick to only one fixed way of expressing the image of Christ by using exclusive language that alienates others from us. We should not give the impression that Christianity is the prerogative of the few. But our communication system and style should open all the windows and doors for other people to enter into. Fr. Roderick Vanhogen, the founder of the Star Quest Production Network (www. Sqpn.com) comments the possibility of Catholic New Media: ‘Just like God piqued the curiosity of the Magi by showing them the Star, which eventually put them on a quest that ended in Bethlehem, we try to make people that don’t share our religious culture curious about the Catholic Faith, not by forcing it upon them, but by highlighting the Christian elements in popular books and movies, like The Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, even Star Wars of the Pirates of the Caribbean.’ Church media can also very prudently make use of other religion’s sacred books and epics to fight against the aggression, terrorism and other evils. In a non-Christian culture, there is always a space for convergence in humane values and human rights.
“The role of the Church has long been to inform the meaning of human life and to uphold the moral fabric of society. The Church does this by providing an interpretation of human life which becomes an explanation that individuals depend upon to cope with life issues that are difficult to comprehend or accept.” As the chief editor of Sathyadeepam (True Light), a vernacular weekly started in the year 1927 and the most circulated Catholic weekly in India, I can show many examples in which the secular media have taken up many moral and social issues which we published in the Christian context. Recently, an article published in Sathyadeepam about the extravaganza in parish feasts (which sometimes becomes scandalous) by Bp. Thomas Chakiath, the auxiliary bishop of Ernakulam - Angamaly, was taken up by the secular media. First, it was taken up by Malayala Manorama, the largest circulated newspaper in the territory with a circulation of 1.5 million. They made this a news item and then it was taken up by Mathrubhumi, second largest circulated newspaper with more than a million copies. His question was: “Can belief really be authentic when it is popularized like the latest consumer products of fashions?” He was speaking the same language of Dietrich Bonhoefer who said the popularization method in devotions as “cheap Grace”. His message of simplicity in celebrating parish feasts was taken up even by Hindu newspapers in order to rectify the perverted ways of celebrating temple feasts in a bombastic style by spending millions of Indian rupees. The Bishop proposed that the real devotion is to consider the poor and the marginalized, and make use of the money, whether of the Church or of the temple, for their wellbeing. The real message was very biblical that human person is to be considered in the image of God.
The Church communications can be done through different humanitarian projects that the dioceses or any Christian groups undertake. For Example, Ernakulam Archdiocese (Kerala, India), some years back, took up a great project of getting the names registered for eye donation after one’s death. The project was successfully taken up in many of the parishes that there were thousands who were ready to donate their eyes. All the newspapers gave enough coverage for this humanitarian aspect of the Catholics, and some of the major newspapers wrote even editorial on the generosity of the people. This became a model for other communities, and also the message was spread out that the Christians are not only preaching gospel but they are also really living it., Finally this message was very well carried out to the other non-Christian religious communities. This is a best symbol that refers to a range of meanings of Christianity and Christian way of life to others.
In our modern information era, all the communities, races and religions have understood very well the power of media. In any pluralistic society, there are communication centers for each group or religion. In the Indian context almost every section of religions has its own T.V channel or newspaper or other means of communication. The communication systems are maximized by the empowerment of multiple centers of communication with the various levels of the society. They are using these channels in order to put the issues based on their community. At the same time, in order to catch up other sections they also keep a very positive approach in dealing with other religious programs and stories. Except some newspapers and channels which are directly or indirectly under the control of extreme Hindu groups and explicitly show a kind of antagonism towards the minority religious groups such as Christians and Muslims, the majority take up the other religion based issues. For example, the death and burial of Pope John Paul II was very high - lighted in all the channels and newspapers. The beatification of Mother Teresa was a live telecast in many of Indian channels. In the South of India where there the Christians are only 19 percentage of the population, when any Christian channel or newspaper makes main story on a Christian event, naturally the other channels are pressurized to highlight it, in order to survive in a much competitive media world. So, the presence of powerful newspapers, weeklies and T.V channels in non-Christian context is very important. The whole Church has to see to make earnest efforts towards that goal in order to give the presence of Church in such countries.
In non-Christian cultures, the Church media has to bring up with real persons who are living the Christian message in their very life and activities. For example, the Kerala-based Indian English weekly “The Week” selected Father Christudas of Bettiah diocese for its 2009 recognition as the Man of the year. In this Year for priests, this was a better way of Church communication than the words written or images in the TV shows. The 71-year-old priest of Little Flower Centre in Sunderpur village in Raxaul town on the India-Nepal border, committed his life for an area known for large number of colonies for the socially segregated leprosy people. He restored the life of about 50,000 leprosy patients through his relentless efforts. Another priest from Trichur Archdiocese, Kerala Fr. Davis Chiramel became a media star in almost all the newspapers and visual media through his act of donating a kidney to a Hindu patient. His Charitable Foundation for kidney donation became a secular language to speak about the mercy of God.
The more the world is globalized, the greater is the tension in every part of the globe. Any message that is to be carried out in the present context we need a holistic approach towards the art of communication. The Church has to make use of different methods of communication such as cinema, television and other modern electronic media. A Hindi film on AIDS “Aisa Kyon Hota Hai” directed by Fr. Dominic Emmanuel was well appreciated by the secular media world. Such efforts also enable the Christians to have proper link with the secular fabric of pluralistic culture. The words of Frances Trumpiets are very relevant in this context. He says, ‘the imaginative, affective dimension of religious belief, once nurtured and sustained by arts, was for the most part, neglected. The church needs to address the question of how it might rectify this imbalance and use a more holistic approach to communicating religious belief in modern times. It needs to once again support the arts and to challenge artists to give expression to religious belief through new artistic forms that both reflect and inspire contemporary culture.’ The Church has to make use of all the means of communication effectively for her mission of transmitting the values of Christ to the living culture of our time.

“The Indian press is not equal to India’s social needs as it is in the hands of people who have no social commitment and whose major interests are profit making and business ventures. The Indian press is more attuned to making superficial report of governmental and political news based mostly on official actions of ministers and others than to any kind of investigative reporting of development projects, problems and perspectives which touch upon the lives of ordinary people.” The best way of communicating the Christian culture of ‘Caritas in Veritate’ is possible only by concentrating the peace and development reporting in the Church media. In Indian context the secular media is always hijacked by the business tycoons, politicians and multinational corporates. Many times, the real problems and issues of the majority of the common people are not heard in the main stream media. One of the best ways of evangelizing the culture is bringing out the pain and sufferings of the ordinary and marginalized people of the Country. This is the very positive approach of the Church towards the human culture of peace and development. Underlining the words of St Irenaeus ‘The man fully alive is the glory of God’, the Church communicators through developmental media efforts really preach the good news to the poor and through such effort we also challenge other media persons to involve peace building mission which is truly Christian in its very core. The real involvement of the Church media in the social and political problems of the society is also welcomed. In the Kerala context many a time the political editorials of Sathyadeepam were very much highlighted by the secular media. Whenever the Church stands for truth and for the people oriented issues, secular media also act out as a response. An impacting communication depends upon the principle of relevance. The Church communicators have to be very keen in searching the real issues where the people are confused and struggling. Many a time the communicators scratch people where they do not itch. In social problems like abortion, drugs and alcohol addiction, road accidents, sexual perversions, illiteracy, gender discrimination etc. the people look for a way out. It is not relevant which religious allegiance but every body look for a solution. The Church communicators are obliged to involve actively in such social issues.
Communication in non-Christian context is really constructing symbols and icons of Christian values such as love, truth, unity etc. In the above few examples we see that those who have led a life witness to the Christian message are real icon makers. They themselves become the message. The value based transmission of news, reports and articles by the Church media in non-Christian culture is the best way of communication. In articulating the message the Church communicators must be authentic and significant for the readers or viewers. The message has to be conveyed in languages, images and symbols that are appealing and illuminating to the secular spectrum. Let me conclude with the words of Pope Benedict XVI "I would say that usually it is creative minorities who determine the future, and in this regard the Catholic Church must understand that she is a creative minority who has a heritage of values that are not things of the past, but a very lively and relevant reality. The Church must modernize; she must be present in the public debate, in our struggle for a true concept of freedom and peace." It is true that we are considered in the non-Christian culture as minority but our responsibility to communicate Christian values to the very cultural milieu of the Land we live is exactly what Jesus calls us to become “the salt of the earth and Light of the world.”
Rev. Dr. Kuriakose Mundadan
Chief Editor, Sathyadeepam

Communicating Church in the Technological era

Media and technology have changed the culture and society. This is a hidden power which naturally creates both challenges and opportunities in forming the people of God. The Pope Paul VI said that we will be guilty before God, if we do not use the modern means of communication for the proclamation. Pope John Paul second was known as media savvy Pope who was a powerful media person during his life-time and even after his death. He wrote in his apostolic letter Rapid Development, “Many challenges face the new evangelization in a world rich with communicative potential like our own. Because of this, I wanted to underline in the Encyclical Redemptoris Missio that the first Areopagus of modern times is the world of communications, which is capable of unifying humanity and transforming it into – as it is commonly referred to – “a global village”. The communications media have acquired such importance as to be the principal means of guidance and inspiration for many people in their personal, familial, and social behavior. We are dealing with a complex problem, because the culture itself, prescinding from its content, arises from the very existence of new ways to communicate with hitherto unknown techniques and vocabulary.” (Rapid Development 3)

It is high time for the church to use the media in proper ways for the process of evangelization. It is the central nervous system of our society. (Marshal MacLuhan). Not that we have to be negative or allergic to modern media but we have to be keen to learn modern media language and technology to present ourselves to the public. The church has to understand the secular technological language to give a moral and ethical consciousness to the media. For the Church, the human person and his dignity is the prime concern as the human is created in the image of God. The modern Popes encourages the Faithful to use the internet, e-mail, SMS, Orkut, Facebook, Twitter and all other modern media techniques to spread the Good News.

In general media is always neutral; it is neither good nor bad. “By exposing their secrets and powers, we restore our ability to predict and perceive the often unintended consequences of using new media and new methods. This understanding of media is crucial to forming God’s people with discernment, authenticity and faithfulness to the gospel.” (Shane Hipps: The Hidden power electronic culture)

Media’s hostility on Catholic church: When reporters do cover matters of faith, no institution is more frequently reviled than the Roman Catholic Church. During 1994, it drew the most evening news stories (103), and the hostility communicated in these stories was obvious to viewers. When the U.N. Population conference was convened in Cairo to promote worldwide contraception, abortion, and sexual liberties for adolescents, the news media openly attacked the Catholic Church for its justifiable opposition to this agenda. Typical of the media’s disgust was this reports from ABC’s Jim Bitterman: "Vatican representatives at the population conference were today being cast in the role of spoiler, their stubborn style angering fellow delegates…Thousands of activists who came here to push causes from the environment to women’s rights have been ignored as the representatives from 182 nations spend their time and energy on the abortion issue."
The Role of the Church Media
The church media has the role of formation, participation and dialogue. Formation of consciousness in truth, goodness and unity is the fundamental duty of the church media. Its major role can be said in the active participation in the problems in society (in its cultural, economical and political dimensions). The church media cannot be indifferent to the human right problems in the community or society. In a global village context and in the pluralistic milieu the church media should promote dialogue: Dialogue within the community and between the religions.
Media is called the watch dog of the society and it is the fourth estate in the democratic political system. But today it is not merely a democratic institution but also profit making industry. In making profit their interest is to entertain the people. That’s why Malcolm Muggeridge said that media is interested in “infotainment” (information and entertainment), Recently another similar word “obituotainment’(obituary and entertainment) is coined in the media after the television event of the burial of Michael Jackson, the King of the pope-music. Victor Navasky says, “No supplicated student of the press believes that objective journalism is possible. The best one can hope for is fairness, balance, neutrality, detachment.”
What the Church expects from the media is clear from the words of Pope John Paul II, “The mass media can and must promote justice and solidarity according to an organic and correct vision of human development, by reporting events accurately and truthfully, analyzing situations and problems completely, and providing a forum for different opinions. An authentically ethical approach to using the powerful communication media must be situated within the context of a mature exercise of freedom and responsibility, founded upon the supreme criteria of truth and justice.”
In the information era where we breathe with technology the Church people have to learn to listen to the media, to deal with the media and utilize them properly. The church media has to use a secular language with an open mind and inculcate our faith in given context without the modern temptation of being indifferent to the problems of the society or becoming fundamentalist. Solidarity and integral development of human person and society are our prime motifs. As I have highlighted the case of United States where the media treat the Catholic Church with rivalry, here in Kerala the Church faces almost the same problem. The language and image that the secular media use are sometimes tarnishing the good image of the Church. And it creates confusion in the mind of the viewers and readers. What we need is to either to have our own news channels and newspapers to deal professionally the allegations or to get our people trained in the media professionalism to be employed in secular media system. And above all the Church leaders should develop media consciousness.

Religious Tolerance and the Role of the Press (2002): Edizioni universita della Santa Croce, Roma

Visudha Kurbanayude Snehajwalayil (2005) (Malayalam) : Mar Louis Press, Ernakulam

Rashtriya Vicharathile Sathyadarshanam (2009) (Malayalam): Mar Louis Press, Ernakulam

Vazhithettunna Viswasam (2009) (Malayalam): S.H League, Aluva (A Book which made a history with 30000 copies withing three months of its first publication)

Law

Mixed reaction to proposals



Justice Krishna Iyer receiving Law Minister M Vijayakumar at his residence in Kochi on WednesdayE xpress News Service First Published : 08 Jan 2009 01:12:00 AM ISTLast Updated : 08 Jan 2009 10:18:01 AM ISTKOCHI: Having completed the task assigned to him as the chairman of the Kerala Law Reforms Commission, Justice Krishna Iyer now waits for the public to discuss and react to the recommendations, which will be formally submitted to the state government on January 24.


“We have already been getting reactions to the earlier proposals,” Justice Iyer told to The New Indian Express.

“Law Minister M Vijayakumar who met me this morning said that the government will form an adhoc committee to look into the report in detail before deciding on its implementation,” said Justice Iyer.

Meanwhile, explosive topics like allowing euthanasia and doing away with polygamy, tur ning Christian Church assets transparent among others on which Justice Iyer proposed, have set the experts talking about.

The proposal supporting re-marriage, provided warranting the need for it, has raised widespread objection in the legal circle and among the religious bodies as well.

According to the recommendation, a person can marry with the consent of the present spouse provided if he or she can furnish the reasonable need for it.

“These recommendations go totally against our code of canons for marriage in our religion, which are in tune with the existing civil laws,” says Fr Kuriakose Mundadan, chief editor of the weekly, ‘Sathyadeepam’.

Legalising euthanasia or mercy killing is a proposal that has quite a few supporters.

As per the proposal, euthanasia should be allowed to the deserving patients if his/ her daughter, son or spouse and a three-member panel of doctors find it agreeable.

“Life is horrible for some patients who undergo terrible pain,” said Dr Abraham K Paul, president, Indian Medical Association (IMA).

“If the relatives agree and the person cannot recover completely, then mercy killing is fine,” he said.

On the other hand, the Bill to constitute Christian Charitable Trusts and Trust Committees at Parish, Diocese/ Revenue District and statelevels ‘for controlling the resources and finances and for the management of the properties of the churches rattled a hornet’s nest.

KCBC spokesperson Fr Stephen Alathara said that the attempt to thrust upon a legislation to constitute trusts under governmentcontrol to manage the Church properties and assets was not acceptable to the Church.The Muslim community in Kerala will oppose the attempt to ban polygamy by law, Sunni leader Kanthapuram A P Aboobacker Musaliyar has said in Kozhikode.

“We have already said that we will support any effort to restrict polygamy only if it conforms with the directions of the Shariat law,” said Kanthapuram.

Reacting to the recommendations regarding polygamy, he said: “Last month, the Kerala High Court said children born to couples not legally married are also legal heirs to patriarchal property.

We are doubtful about the intentions of the directions by the Law Reforms Commission and the court,” he said.

He said the “community would legally confront it once the recommendation of the Law Reforms Commission is authorised as a law by the government”.

Historical consciousness and Mathoma Traditions in Kerala

Almost all the historical books on India undoubtedly speak of Christianity, positively or negatively, in this country is of the first century A.D.[1] In the words of Jawaharlal Nehru, the first prime minister of India who wrote ‘Discovery of India’, “by story but invisible threads.. About her there is the elusive quality of a legend of long ago; some enhancement sees to have held her mind. She is a myth and an idea, a dream and a vision, and yet very real and present and pervasive. If you take any religion in India you have to rely more on the myths and traditions which the people consider more than history in their religious consciousness. In Hinduism you can have enough mythological figures and places which are considered to be the part of history. The expression of historical consciousness comes from historical writings. But there are embedded history in the myths and traditions. Traditions cannot be devalued in the pre-historical consciousness of a community. In the history of early Christianity where the existence of different churches is mentioned; India is also notified. The first Church was among the Jews and the Semitic people and the second Church was the Church in Jerusalem and of the different churches in Syria, Mesopotamia and in India[2].
If you take history from the view point of culture, then also we cannot deny the beliefs and customs of a community. Raymond Williams writes about three important ways of thinking about culture. They are culture as the ideal, culture as ‘documentary’ and culture as social, as way of life. He writes about the second form. “culture as documentary, in which human thought, language, form, convention and experience are recorded, in part as a descriptive act but also one of clarification where they are valued through comparison with the ideal, thought reference to the qualities of the text in question or through the traditions and the societies in which they appear so that valuations tied to some criteria for establishing its authenticity”.[3] If you take the life of a particular community in any historical situation, the structure of feeling of a social group is to be analyzed and clarified and valued. In that way the culture and customs of Marthoma community before the Synod of Diamper (1599) has to be valued as the part of the history which has its roots in the coming of St. Thomas in the Mussiris port.
The recent history writers of India tend to depict the history of the minority communities as baseless in order to boost their nationalistic history. “The nationalist historians concerned themselves with those ideas which were necessary to nationalist polemics. They questioned individual items of historical interpretation, rather than examining the validity of a theory as a total pattern of interpretations”.[4]Every community has the trend to reconstruct history seeking to project a unified community stance in all historical situations. If the history of religions in India is seen as the articulation not only of ideas and rituals but also the perceptions and motivations of social groups, the perspective which would follow might be different from those with which we are familiar.
The financially flourishing Ramayana Archeology even though without any tangible results, continues to be discussed seriously in some archeological and historical circles, despite the near absurdity of the idea.[5] The historical consciousness of the Marthoma Christians though they are divided, and they practise their faith in different rites as denominations, all of them are proud of claiming that their forefathers are baptized by the Apostle St. Thomas. They have never doubted this birth mark. They lived it even though they had, in course of time, to accept many foreign yokes as inevitable developments of the history. Benedict Vadekkekara writes, “Though the cross with pali writings were of later origin, the Marthoma Christians even made stories to make its form Marthoma, the Apostle”.[6] The Marthoma Margam is the proof that for the historical consciousness of this community in Kerala. There is a historically written tradition about the coming of St. Thomas in Western India (Acts of ST. Thomas). But there is an unwritten tradition which affirms that St. Thomas came to south India who preached in the name of Jesus Christ and the Nazrani community claimed that they received the fatith from ST. Thomas. And they named their sons ‘thomas’, ‘thoma’ after their father in faith. The business traditions give strong proof that there were trade links between the Romans with Southern coast of India more than with the Northern coast of India.[7] So any attempt from any corner of the historical world and from any historian to deny the first century origin of the Marthoma Chrsitians in South India will be futile. If Marthoma traditions are imaginative many of the Hinduistic claims of historical evidences are to be called to question.

Rev. Dr. Kuriakose Mundadan
Sathyadeepam

(A critique on Cultural Hisotry of Kerala Vol.1, by Rajan Gurukkal and M.R. Raghava Varier, published by the department of Cultural Publications, Government of Kerala, 1999)
[1] Dalmia Vasudha Heinrich von Stietencron (ed.) (1995): Representing Hinduism: The Constructions of Religious Traditions and National Identity, Sage Publications: New Delhi
[2] G. Chediath (2005): The Catholicos of the East, M.S Publications: Trivandrum.
[3] William, R (1961): The Long Revolution, Chatto and Windus: London, 41-71
[4] Thapar, Romila (1992): Interpreting Early India, Oxford University Press: New Delhi
[5] E.W. Hopkins (1901): The great Epic of India: Its Character and Origin, New York
[6] Vadakkekara, Benedict (1998): The Origin of Marthoma Christians, a Historical Search. Media House: New Delhi
[7] Tisserant, Cardinal Eugine: Eastern Christianity in India. LRC Publications: Kochi

Publications

Karunayude Kedavilaku: vikariachante Ormakal (malyayalam
Vazhithettunna Viswasam (malayalam) (Ed.) (2009), S. H League, Aluva
Rashtriyavicharathile Sathyadharsanam (mal.)(2009) Mar Louis Publications Erankulam
Divyakarunyathinte Snehajwalayil (2006) (malayalam) (Ed.)Mar Louis Publications
Religious Tolerance and The Role of the Press (2002) (english) Santa Croce, Rome