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Article: India's Majority Lower Castes Are Minor Voice in Newspapers; Few Journalists, Periodicals Advocate Interests of the Underclass
- Article from:
- The Washington Post
- Article date:
- September 5, 1996
- Author:
CopyrightThis material is published under license from the Washington Post. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Washington Post. (Hide copyright information)
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India's 4,000 daily newspapers publish in nearly 100
languages, but one voice is largely absent in the press of the
world's largest democracy: that of the lower castes, which account
for more than 70 percent of the country's 934 million people.
Not one daily newspaper has made speaking on their behalf its
role. Few daily newspaper reporters come from lower castes, and none
of the nation's prominent columnists does.
Before "pundit" came to mean a political commentator, it was
the Sanskrit word for a learned Brahman, and today those educated
members of the upper castes predominate on the staffs of major
Indian newspapers. The caste composition of the nation's newsrooms
resembles the ...