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From: kumar@hplabsc.UUCP (Arvind Kumar)
Newsgroups: net.nlang.india
Subject: Re: India and the Media
Message-ID: <2458@hplabsc.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 7-Mar-85 17:53:06 EST
Article-I.D.: hplabsc.2458
Posted: Thu Mar  7 17:53:06 1985
Date-Received: Fri, 8-Mar-85 11:23:46 EST
Organization: Hewlett Packard Labs, Palo Alto CA
Lines: 52

What can I say?  I agree with many of the things that people are
saying.  The question that I want to pose is, so what can one do,
short of talking about it.  Yes, India is a long way from being
where it ought to be, but surely the right kind of media coverage
in the most powerful nation of the world, and my adopted country,
the U S, can help India get there.  And when I say India, I mean
the country, not the government.  And yes, "India" can easily be
replaced with most other third world countries as far as this
discussion goes.

Here is a letter from an American-born professor who was in India
at the time of the last elections.  You all might find it of interest.

------------------------------------------------------------------
India and the U S

Sir, - As a political scientist - with the University of Washington -
on my first visit to India, I have been amazed to witness at first
hand, the virility and maturity of Indian democracy in the general
elections.  This is so particular (sic) because my overall impression
of India from the U S media was that of a thinly-veiled dynastic
form of government.

Those of us in the United States who glibly uphold democratic values
should rejoice that the world's largest democracy is not a cliche
but a living reality.  The elections have been a vibrant assertion
of the fact that democracy is preferable to dictatorship, and viable
even when tried on a scale never before attempted in human history.

Mr Inder Malhotra's incisive article on Indo-U S relations unfortunately
misses a crucial dimension, namely, the need for imaginative and
innovative Indian public relations efforts in the U S.  To overcome
media-induced bias and ignorance, one must go beyond newsletters,
bulletins, and even video-cassesttes, that cater in any case solely to
the Indians in the U S - a microscopic 0.25 per cent of the population.

I wish your government would follow up for example on the illuminating
television interviews given by the Sri Lankan Professor Ralph Buultjens
after Mrs Gandhi's murder that made such a wide impact, and finally
prodded me to see India for myself.  Could it not also produce material
on the lines of the brilliant but short-lived journal of your Consulate
in New York, that a few years ago sought to provide a refreshingly
non-bureaucratic point of view and insight ("Darshan," I believe it
was called) into all aspects of Indian life?

These are stray examples of what could be a new trend that would
reflect the image of a new government of a country that certainly
needs to be known better in the world, and in the U S in particular.

                            Prof. Laird Andersen

(Reprinted from the Times of India, sometime in December 1984, w/o permission)