This presentation was made at the Refresher Course of HRDC, Gauhati University on 17 October, 2019 on the topic Journalism and Indian Literature.

1. Journalism and Indian Literature
ANKURAN DUTTA
Associate Prof. & Head, DCJ, Gauhati University
Managing Trustee, Dr Anamika Ray Memorial Trust

2. This presentation is dedicated to
Dr. Anamika Ray

3. Journalism and Literature
© ARMT 2015-2019 [CC-BY-SA]
 “The difference between
literature and journalism is that
journalism is unreadable, and
literature is not read.”
– Oscar Wilde (1891)

4. Journalism: News Structure- I.P.
© ARMT 2015-2019 [CC-BY-SA]
 “I still believe that if your aim is
to change the world, journalism
is a more immediate short-term
weapon.”–
– Tom Stoppard
 In the inverted pyramid, the
information is arranged in
descending order of importance.

5. Journalism: News Structure- Narrative
© ARMT 2015-2019 [CC-BY-SA]
 One alternative to the inverted
pyramid is narration or story telling.
 Narration uses scenes, anecdotes
and dialogue to build to a climax.
 People are prominent in the story,
and they are responsible for the
action. The story has a beginning,
middle and end.
 Quotations sound like real speech.
The words and actions of the
characters reveal motives.
 Anna Shorina

6. Journalism: News Structure- Hourglass
© ARMT 2015-2019 [CC-BY-SA]
 Combining Facts and Storytelling
 This structure involves both the
inverted-pyramid and the
narrative structure
 The first part of the article
focuses on the facts of the story
and compliments the facts by
giving a narrative version in the
second part.
 This story structure is well suited
to news items that require a
chronological narrative such as
crime articles.

7. Literary or Narrative Journalism
© ARMT 2015-2019 [CC-BY-SA]
 The term literary journalism refers to a form of writing that combines factual reporting with
fiction writing techniques.
 In traditional journalism, the goal of the reporter is to outline 5W and 1H.
 A traditional journalist expresses the facts of the whole story without utilizing a point of view.
 Literary journalists immerse themselves in a story and create complicated structures,
symbolism, voice and character development as strategies to convey a point of view.
 The other terms that have been used to describe this genre are "new journalism" and
"creative nonfiction". - Tanni Haas
 Narrative journalism, also referred to as literary journalism, is defined as creative nonfiction
that contains accurate, well-researched information.

8. Indian Journalism and Literature
© ARMT 2015-2019 [CC-BY-SA]
 Hicky's Bengal Gazette was known
for its sarcastic and provocative
writing style.
 Unlike many newspapers of its time,
the newspaper discussed taboo
topics like female masturbation, and
proto-class consciousness, arguing
for the rights of the poor and the
right to taxation with representation.
 It was strongly anti-war and anti-
colonial and routinely ridiculed East
India Company leadership for their
expansionist and imperialist
objectives
 Andrew Otis

9. Indian Journalism, Literature & Activism
© ARMT 2015-2019 [CC-BY-SA]
 Bengali weekly Samvad Kaumudi was the
most important journal that Raja Ram
Mohan Roy published.
 The Atmiya Sabha published an English
weekly called the Bengal Gazette and a
Persian newspaper called Miratul-Akbar.
 Through these papers he tried to
communicate his political and social views
to the educated elite according to their
needs.

10. Indian Journalism, Literature & the Mission
© ARMT 2015-2019 [CC-BY-SA]
 “The sole aim of journalism is service”
 “One of the objects of a newspaper,” said
Gandhiji
 is to understand the popular feeling and give
expression to it
 another to arouse among the people certain
desirable sentiments and
 the third is fearlessly to express popular
defects.”
The Indian Opinion in South Africa, and the Young
India, Navajivan and the Harijan in India.

11. Orunodoi: Contributions to Assamese Literature
© ARMT 2015-2019 [CC-BY-SA]
 This magazine created a new era in the world of
Assamese literature
 Gave birth to notable authors such as Anandaram
Dhekial Phukan, Hemchandra Barua, Gunabhiram
Barua, and Nidhi Levi Farwell.
 The magazine took the initiative of innovating the then
Assamese dialect instead of borrowing words from
other languages.
 The Assamese people got to know about the western
world only through this magazine, which opened the
gate to the modern literacy in Assam.
 It mainly included various news related to current
affairs, Science, astrology, history and also trivia
although Christianity was its main aim.

12. Contribution of
Indian
Journalists to
the Indian
Literature
© ARMT 2015-2019 [CC-BY-SA]

13. Kuldeep Nayar
© ARMT 2015-2019 [CC-BY-SA]
 Nayar was initially an Urdu press reporter. He
was editor of the Delhi edition of the English
newspaper The Statesman
 Nayar is the author of at least 15 books
 He wrote syndicated columns and op-eds that
were published in over 80 newspapers in 14
languages

14. Khushwant Singh
© ARMT 2015-2019 [CC-BY-SA]
 In 1951 he joined the All India Radio as a
journalist.
 He founded and edited Yojana, an Indian
government journal in 1951 -1953; The
Illustrated Weekly of India, a newsweekly; and
two major Indian newspapers, The National
Herald and the Hindustan Times.
 Khushwant Singh’s work included both fiction
and nonfiction.
 Among his major books included Train To
Pakistan which won him international acclaim
and Groove Press Award in 1954.
 His second major work included Essays on
India's Emergency by the name Why I
Supported the Emergency.
 His third major work was Delhi: A Novel.
 The Portrait of a Lady: Collected Stories was in
the form of short story collection.

15. Qurratulain Hyder
© ARMT 2015-2019 [CC-BY-SA]
 An influential Indian Urdu novelist and short story
writer, an academic, and a journalist.
 One of the most outstanding literary names in Urdu
literature, she is best known for her magnum opus,
Aag Ka Darya (River of Fire), a novel first
published in Urdu in 1959, from Lahore, Pakistan,
that stretches from the 4th century BC to post
partition of India
 She was Managing Editor of the magazine Imprint,
Bombay (1964–68), and a member of the editorial
staff of the Illustrated Weekly of India (1968–75).

16. B G Verghese
© ARMT 2015-2019 [CC-BY-SA]
 A veteran Indian journalist, who was editor of leading
newspapers the Hindustan Times (1969–75) and The
Indian Express (1982–86).
 In 1975, he received the Ramon Magsaysay award
for outstanding contribution to journalism.
 His books Waters of hope (1990) and Winning the
Future (1994) discuss managing the Himalayan
watershed.
 Design for tomorrow (1965), India's North East
resurgent and Reorienting India: Rage, reconciliation
and security (2008) are other books with a
progressive theme. He also authored Warrior of the
Fourth Estate (2005
 In 2010, he published his autobiography First Draft:
Witness to Making of Modern India.

17. P Sainath
© ARMT 2015-2019 [CC-BY-SA]
 Sainath’s book Everybody Loves a Good
Drought (Penguin India, 1996) has remained
a non-fiction bestseller by an Indian author
for years and was declared a Penguin
Classic in 2012.
 Sainath — the former Rural Editor of the
Hindu –– has won over 40 global and
national awards for his reporting

18. Amitav Ghosh
© ARMT 2015-2019 [CC-BY-SA]
 His first job was at the Indian Express newspaper in
New Delhi.
 Ghosh is the author of
 The Circle of Reason (his 1986 debut novel),
 The Shadow Lines (1988),
 The Calcutta Chromosome (1995),
 The Glass Palace (2000),
 The Hungry Tide (2004), and
 Sea of Poppies (2008),

19. Homen Borgohain
© ARMT 2015-2019 [CC-BY-SA]
 Founder Editor of ‘Saptahik Nilachal’, a trend-
setting political news magazine (1968-77).
 Founder Editor of ‘Nagarik”, a political news
magazine (1977-1983).
 Special representative & political Columnist of
‘Aajkaal’ , a Bengalee daily newspaper published
from Kolkata (1981-1991).
 Editor of ‘Asom Bani’, the oldest Assames weekly
news magazine (1992-1996).
 Founder Editor of ‘Amar Asom’, the most influential
daily newspaper (1996-2015).
 Currently the Chief Editor of ‘Niyamiya Barta’ (2015-
…)
 Authored more than ninety books which include
short stories, novels, poetry, literary criticism and
personal essays.