….. says the DNA – not in so many words, but that is more or less the take away. Some excerpts:
Come December 6, residents of Shivaji Park in Central Dadar press the panic button. Many alter their work and daily schedules, beef up security in buildings, inform schools that their children will remain absent, and literally barricade themselves inside their homes with heavy-duty locks.
Why. are the Dalits going to break in to the homes and do to the people in homes what is being done to them in their homes?
Post-Khairlanji and the subsequent riots throughout Maharashtra, this year’s gathering is expected to attract over 20 lakh Dalits from all over the country.
As the numbers swell, heart beats of Shivaji Park residents will also quicken in anticipation of the “gross” inconvenience caused during the following days.
what is gross? And why is it in quotes – is it gross because you think that the people have no right to gather or celebrate. or is it something else?
Unlike previous years, this time too a huge shamiana has been erected at the Shivaji Park grounds to house the teeming lakhs. Colleges and other places have been rented to accommodate the devotees, says Bhadant Sanghpal, in-charge of Chaityabhoomi.
Was the Shamiana erected in earlier years or is it just this year. Unlike other years what is different?
A majority of hotels and restaurants have decided to down shutters on December 6. According to a hotel manager, “The crowd is unruly. We expect more trouble this year as the situation is explosive. We will shut down the hotel that day.”
That also makes for complete business sense -20 lakh visitors land up in your neighbourhood – and you shut down operations. HOw many hotels is this – every single one in the Shivaji Park neighbourhood or only one.
Neeta Godbole, who lives close to the venue, is one of the “worst affected”. As proprietor of Neeta Godbole Classes, she decries the noise and air pollution. “There is loud music at night, people barge into buildings and dirty them, bathe in the open on the footpaths, throw food around and make life miserable for us. We cannot go out or take our cars out for fear of hitting someone. We are under house arrest all day.” According to Godbole, parents of her pupils hound her to suspend classes during this time. “We are really tired of the whole thing,” she says. “Why can’t they do something about it?”
You know the funny thing is that Mumbai is a city of celebrations & gatherings. Come December last week – the roads will be jammed with cars and people trying to get to parties. Come January it is wedding season – the roads will be jammed with people and cars trying to get to weddings. Then there is the Urs in Mahim, Ganpati, Navratri, Chatt Pooja and the big baap of all cluttered events – Holi. And, I am not even including political rallies, bandhs and other forms of spontaneous expression. I haven't really seen articles that are this patronising or one sided when it comes to their reportage. Yet, when it comes to [tag]Dalits[/tag] congregating once a year to mark the anniversary of [tag]Babasaheb Ambedkar[/tag] – they become the teeming masses that 'gross' out the neighbourhood.
I read the DNA regularly. I quite like it. But, this is a bad and biased piece of journalism – possibly influenced by the writer's own prejudices. Having said that, in this case it is not just an issue with one sided writing. I think that the editor or the sub have not really done their job in making sure that the piece is not so prejudicial.
Or does this kind of reportage reflect the values of the paper?
Mumbai Mirror ran a similar story this morning – Leave & let live
hi akshay
checked out the mumbai mirror. i didn’t find it quite as biased. it has multiple points of view including that of those inconvinienced, those who had no issues, the arrangements made by the BMC, And also residents talking about both the crowds and the lack of ammenities.
residents have a concern about anything that happens in their back yard or inconviniences them. but, most good news stories end up carrying multiple perspectives. what was lacking in the DNA story was that, along with a bad use of extremely prejudicial adjectives.
The DNA had another story – which looked at the motivation of all those who turn up from far and near to be here on that day. maybe a combination of the two stories would have ended up giving a balanced view. but this particular story was just castiest crap!
Well, apart from the appalling grammar, the article is sure to piss a lot of people off and I loved the way you took it apart
I think you are misreading the piece. It seems to me to be a report of local (midle class?) opinion. You could argue that the Shivaji Park residents are biased and I would probably agree, but why blame DNA for reporting local opinions?
This is probably just an example of bad grammar. I parsed that as : A huge shamiana has been erected … in addition to the arrangements made last year.
The opinions expressed are just typical middle class sentiments you hear everywhere, with the usual pejoratives thrown in, and DNA is just reporting these views.
To be honest, there is something to be said for these sentiments as well. Rallies of all sorts are disruptive of life, particularly in India where local authorities, by and large, fail miserably in ensuring orderly conduct. So what would, in any other country, be a season of joy for local merchants, ends up being a series of minor and major inconveniences and low grade law-less-ness.
Whats wrong in expressing the concerns, Seems like you have never been inconvenienced by such a huge rally, Please fight this urge to always be politically correct
hi jayadev
one of the things that i do like about the DNA is its use of Indlish as opposed to the queen’s english. What bugged me was the one sided write up!
Hi Corporate Serf
i think that it was the first paragraph and the use of some adjectives that really got to me. A ‘good’ journalistic piece /report aims at providing information not opinion. I really would not have an issue with this article as a blog post or under an opinion column. When you start passing off opinion and innuendo as news – then there is a problem.
teeming masses, ‘gross’ inconvinience …. devotees (there is a difference between devotees and followers),
imagine the hue and cry if a newspaper or a channel put out something that said
– a ‘horde’ of muslims descended on cross maidan or – ‘rabid’ hindutvadis brandished their swords ….
Possibly a middle class point of view – but the mirror article deals with the same issue without being so obviously prejudiced.
Rallies get to me. So do weddings. And parties. And Garba. Especially given the fact that i live in a neighbourhood that specialises in all! I was woken up throughout november with crackers going off at 4 am for Gurunanak Jayanti. Prior to that it was Diwali, before that there was Navratri. And most people like to break the law on the ‘no loudspeakers or crackers after 10.30 pm ‘.
I have been stuck in traffic with shiv sena rallies, the rally of the left and Muslim groups against George Bush, in Ganapati traffic, and on ‘special’ days like sankashta chaturthi. It is maddness.
In an average week Monday’s and Wednesday’s are the only days that i don’t get stuck in traffic because of someone’s faith or right to express.The rest of the week is madness 🙂
On rallies – i have been travelling into town – from andheri – for more or less the last 10 years. December 6th comes and goes every year. One of the few times that you see organisers controlling crowds effectively – making sure that vehicular traffic is not completely paralyzed. And this is a 3 day event – 4th through to the 6th.
I have ended up in worse crawls when there is a wedding in the place opposite Shivaji park – and cars just stop, unload passangers and park just about anywhere.
Hi Spiff
nothing wrong in expressing the concerns. They are valid. But, there is a way of expressing concerns and there is a way of causing panic – this article IMHO is the latter. You obviously have the right to disagree!
Do i have to be PC all the time – i really don’t think that i am PC at all – but then that is just my POV !
I would have thought grand aggregation of people in a city is good for the city’s economic health. Otherwise why would cities bid actively to attract the Olympics? Isn’t the tone of the article seem to imply that “certain” kind of people are not welcome here?
Nice fisking.
Hi Gargi,
I agree that the tone/singling out this rally was probably indicative of bias, but arguably, not bias against dalits per se, but any group of “unwashed masses”/”sons of the soil” and the like. For example, if in Calcutta there was a rally of Bihari rikshaw-wallahs, I can quite imagine the “khoTTa” comments from daily commuters. I am not convinced that the attitudes displayed here are any different. (I grant you, this is a matter of interpretation, plus I have been to Bombay exactly twice and a long time ago, so I don’t have a sense of the local sentiments)
I would imagine people complain about all the rallies/pujas/pandals etc, but DNA chose to highlight this and I would agree that probably arose out of either bias in DNA or perceived bias (on the part of DNA) in DNA-readership.
I did not put too much weight on the quotes around the word gross; it used to be that newspapers would put quotes around specific words or phrases, simply to indicate that someone actually said that. I assumed this was the case here. After all the other interpretation of quotes in popular usage is an implied negation and that scarcely squares with your allegation of bias.
I agree that far too many newspapers have started mixing opinions with news. My favourite paper is the statesman, and even that is not immune from the disease.
On many issues, though, where most of the reporters and most of the readership come from the same class, it is really hard to separate the two: what you consider opinion, is what the reporter considers background knowledge. Which is probably why you see a disjointness in the set of people reading only English papers and (say) only Bengali papers, though both sets can read and write both languages perfectly well.
The lost economic opportunity really gets me, though.
Hi Patrix
nice to see you here after a long time.
complete missed opportunity for local economics. Insurance guys, people who specialise in rural marketing, education tools sellers, restraunts etal should have really capitalised on this.
It is not as though there is no disposable income for this group – I have seen dalit and tribal self help welfare schemes and most of them are based not on charity but on entreprenuership.
I have friends in Shivaji Park area. they are nice, good and tolerant people. the article makes a whole bunch of Shivaji Park residents seem like a bunch of bigots. which they aren’t.
Let’s see.
The report is on an opinion. Can you please explain how it can be factual? All newspapers use anecdotes as evidence. Dilip even bases his theories on them.
That being the case, writing that some residents are wary about the huge gathering from the same set of people who recently turned violent is hardly any worse. It is bad — but just as bad as every other report in the media.
Your argument that the other groups have also turned violent in the past is besides the point. The community is free to decide which group demands being cautious. They may be wrong, but it’s their decision.
hello nilu
everyone has a right to object – that seems to be the only right that we have any more 🙂
my issue is not with residents objecting. If a mass rally was in my back yard – i would probably also crib.
My issue is with the reportage – basic journalism requires a balanced perspective and a lack of adjectives. Do you know that there are Dalits who live in the area – and put up visitors from far and near. There are whole food stalls in khau galli that see a boom in trade, a whole bunch of souvinier guys who sell little takeaways. And there are a whole set of other locals who – while they may not open their homes to these strangers – are fairly tolerant of their backyard being used for all sorts of rallies. The problem with the report is a completely one sided point of view.
As i said, if it was an opinion coloumn or a blog – i wouldn’t even have bothered blogging about it. IT is when it is passed of as ‘journalism’ that i start having issues!
Hi Gargi,
Yes. But the report is not about a sector specific index in a stock exchange. It is about perceptions in a community. It cannot not be opinionated. If such a report is written, there will be a bias. I am just trying to say, this report is no worse than say, a report on NYC after 9/11. Sure the scale is different — but the premise remains the same unquantifiable perception.
Hi Nilu
you are right. i suppose that the need for a report like this would come from some sort of bias or the other. I suppose if everyone behaved like pollyanna – there would be no news!
I feel, if a similar one sided article was written about nuisance that a crowd of people(esp well do to) create when they gather to celebrate a wedding or any ‘non-religious’ function, none of us would even notice that it was bad journalism……..
We would simply shake our head about how people in India will never improve no matter how educated they are………….. no one will insist on asking the rich why ‘cars just stop, unload passengers and park just about anywhere’
It is only when an article is written about any specific caste or community when we expect high standards in journalism…………… I agree with nilu that the report you just loved to rip apart ‘was just as bad as every other report in the media’. i dont think it portays the residents of Shivaji Park as bigots. It just voices the problems they face every year and how they deal with it. As for the lost economic opportunity – hoteliers are businessmen; if they are ready to forego profit then it is definitely for very strong reasons (beyond caste politics for sure).
Hi Shwetha
when that one sided article about the well to do causing public inconviniece by their congregation is written in similar tones – i will possibly do a similar line by line analysis.
And honestly, I don’t think that newspapers will piss off their advertisers and their primary consumers by taking a similar tone to their behaviour!
i will give you a simple example. in andheri west – there is a mall called infinity which also is home to a multiplex. The place has paid parking which costs Rs.20. This is non refundable. The Government has spent huge amounts of tax payers money in repairing and concretizing the road that leads to the mall – andheri link road – this is 3 lanes on each side. Yet as aam janta – i get less than 1.5 lanes of driving space. Why? because most people who use the mall and spend decent amounts of money there would rather let their drivers double park and save rs.20. Shops instead of taking their tempos to basement parking and unloading – do this in the middle of the street. If at all you see an article on this – it will be on rickshawallas – not on the middle class behaving badly. As a person who works and lives in the area – does this inconvinience me – yes. trips that should take 20 minutes can end up taking 40. cars pulling out from where they shouldn’t even be parked causes traffic hazards – and of course the road is chocobloc. Imagine an article that starts by saying
What i am doing with this statement is biasing the reader – ‘conspicious consumers’ ‘don’t mind spending thousands’ ‘encourage illegal behaviour’ all all loaded value lines that reflect my possible views. It is ok for a blog – but shouldn’t have a place in a well edited newspaper.
as bad as every other report in the media does not really cut ice.
We as consumers shouldn’t be accepting mediocre/bad service from anything that we purchase. news is no exception! As a reader if something pisses you off -complain. You will be surprised – newspaper have fairly nice pepole who will possibly take your complaint on board.
I have lived at Shivaji Park for 25 of my 27 years, and I see nothing wrong with the report, at least as far as the sentiment of the content is concerned. And are you seriously equating the processions during Ganpati, Navratri, etc. with what transpires on Dec 6? Admittedly, I am not a major fan of either, but frankly, one has to stay away from Shivaji Park for at least 2-3 days after the 6th. It is filthy, stinky and completely off-putting.
Also, about the restaurants, I can vouch for the accuracy. On the 6th of Dec, many restaurants at Shivaji Park and on Ranade Road stay closed or at least close by afternoon. The reason is that, apparently, and I paraphrase the owner of a Bhelpuri place on Ranade Road, a lot of the guys who come in on the 6th believe that it is their right to barge in into these places and demand water and food. Perhaps this view is a little cynical, especially considering the last 5-6 years, where the incoming crowds have been far better organized and better behaved than in the past, but as can be gauged from the Bhelpuri guy’s opinion, the bitter aftertaste remains.
And people, let’s not delude ourselves and use words like bigotry for what is simply an expression of disgust at the filth and the mess that defaces Shivaji Park every year; it has nothing to do with who is celebrating their festivals there. I don’t care if it was f*****g God celebrating something there, if he was that filthy, I would tell him to f**k off as well.
My mom said that she heard that some people in Shivaji Park go off to Lonavla around dec 6 cos it just becomes one big stinky dump during and after the day.
hi sriram
my parents try to move out of mumbai during diwali – coz my dad can’t breathe here during that time. air pollution. how is this any different?
if it becomes a stinky dump – then the solution is to provide more ammenities, which i gather are provided every year.
About the article the bias is very obvious but i doubt the writer even realizes it. The diff between this event and diwali, ganpati is that here everyone felt like, damn 20 lac people are gonna come here and create a ruckus, while during ganpati we are creating our own ruckus (not considering the the insiders who don’t like the ruckus and abusing them for being a spoil sport). so i think it is obvious that the feeling around this event was that we werent welcoming them 20 lac dalits. with the police commissioner saying, “don’t leave ur home” and the riots of last week, it really was “Hide! The dalits are coming”. no doubt in my mind.
hello saurabh
i don’t have an issue with the seniment expressed by the locals.they have every right to express and see their expression in print.
my issue was as far as the tone of the reportage. and as sriram points out i doubt if either the writer even realises that there is bias.