Mr. Ajay Upadhyay 

 Gandhi’s Printing Press
There was an event held at Gandhi Peace Foudation, Delhi on November 30, 2015 to mark the 117th anniversary of Gandhi’s Printing Press (November 29, 1898). The event was a knowledge sharing session and the speaker was Mr. Ajay Upadhyay, a senior journalist and editor. His analysis was based on Isabel Hofmeyr’s book – Gandhi’s Printing Press: Experiments in slow reading. Here is a brief report:
Mr. Ajay Upadhyay, a senior journalist and editor, was intrigued by the message of Mahatma Gandhi, when he started his career as a young lawyer in South Africa. His political philosophy was under evolution when out of the blue, he was taken in by an apparently unrelated enterprise: creating a newspaper. Gandhi’s printing press is an insight into how this idea of a newspaper, Indian Opinion, gave a course to the ideology of a world icon, which toppled a mega empire without picking up a single weapon.  An exemplary, experimental and ethical publisher cum editor—this work created a base for Gandhiji with the qualities and traits that would later become his identity.
After a hard work of three years, this printing press was established on November 29, 1898. This year, it was the 117th anniversary of Indian Opinion, the newspaper which rolled out from Durban to change the way newspapers were made and read. It was the first multi-lingual revolutionary press, where his team worked on second hand machines and hand press was used.
Mahatma Gandhi stressed on the importance of slow reading and ‘pondering’. It is very important to think about what one has read. Mr. Ajay Upadhyay quoted an example of Henry David Thoreau, a 19th century author and poet, who brought up the concept of civil disobedience and linked it with Gandhi’s work later. Due to his habit of concentrating while reading, thinking and relating, Mahatma Gandhi could use ‘Civil Disobedience’ to nation’s advantage in freedom struggle. He also quoted, ‘Don’t challenge the mind of the readers’ – keep it simple and understandable so that the reader could comprehend. Talking with reference to Gandhiji’s ideology, Mr. Ajay Upadhyay said that one must read again and again, reading must not be smooth and fast, it must be clubbed with thinking to make the most out of it.
After a few years, Mahatma Gandhiji transferred the press from Durban to Phoenix and took the sole proprietorship of the press. By this time, he started developing a relationship with the reader and newspaper became a medium of conversation with the reader. He asked readers to understand, think and memorise. He asked them to use the knowledge gained and experiment with it in related circumstances. He asked them to get involved and talk about it to others. He emphasised at ‘not a single word should be wasted’.
In Mr. Ajay Upadhyay’s words, ‘This is a non-linear age’ and everything is fast, information can be cut and fixed to give another shape altogether, sometimes opposite to what it meant actually. We are continuously surrounded by a denser electro-magnetic field with all the satellite based gadgets.  We are having many dysfunctional satellites orbiting earth. They interfere with the natural process.  Mr. Ajay Upadhyay gave example of Marshall Mcluhan who first coined the term ‘global village’. By global village he meant that the world is interconnected through an electronic nervous system. This nervous system controls the way we react to information. Nowadays, information can travel almost at the speed of electricity. There is an electrical retribalisation of west and it has its impact on east. Hence, technology motor controls our behaviour in this village!
Gandhiji wasn’t in favour of this concept and he supported the use of cool mediums for relaying information unlike the hot mediums (like television), which are more intense and leave a manipulated impact on the minds of the receivers.  As Mr. Ajay Upadhyay puts it, “We must concentrate and ponder upon. There should be objectivity, the write-up must be read and re-read in pursuit of truth (also stated the incremental theory of truth). There should be a fair approach and facts must be verified. Live coverage doesn’t have anything like this because when information travels at speed of light, it carries with it an element of mystery. It isn’t clear and only a few can do justice to it.” He supported his statement with the example of William Tussel, first war correspondent. It wasn’t that England didn’t win or tackled war before, but just because there was a public involvement, the scene became more worrisome and war ground exposure to the public was depressing.
Mr. Ajay Upadhyay beautifully explained Mahatma Gandhi’s purpose and ideology behind establishing an all-encompassing newspaper - Indian Opinion. We need to read, read slowly, re-read, concentrate, understand and ponder upon. We need to discuss and incorporate. We need to touch base with the reality. We need to think and re-think on this topic to bring about a substantial change as far as media and its readers and audience are concerned. We need to understand the meaning of journalism and media, separately, before evaluating and relating them.





Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Nations and Powers Time never stays stagnant, it keeps on moving and things keep on changing to match with its pace. There was a time when Egyptian civilization was considered the most powerful in the world. It was the time when America and England were not even identified on the map of the world. There was a time when India was considered the richest in terms of gold and precious stones. There was a time when Spain rose to power with the decline of Barbarians there, it was also known for its art and architecture. And then, there was a time when only these three places were known to exist on this planet. The world history's most ancient civilizations lived on these lands. It is evident that History and Time both change with the game of power. It always depends on who rules. They also change with revolutions to change the social and political system from time to time. Revolutions, eventually, bring reforms and hence, play a role in shifting of power to some extent. This is a ...
Read more

The great Gurus and the Cycle of Knowledge

The great Gurus and the Cycle of Knowledge (By Rajul Tiwari) If it wouldn't have been the Gurus of the great Indian Legends, their life wouldn't have reached the supreme summit and they wouldn't have fulfilled the purpose of being in this life on this earth. Concept of Gurukul in Ancient India had Rajkumars (princes) and normal (knowledge seeking) young children learning under one bower (All equal). They followed discipline as the way of life and subjected themselves to harsh environment, woke up before the dawn cracked, collected twigs, flowers and fruits in dense woods, washed and cleaned utensils, cleaned the premises, went to collect bhiksha... learnt how to read and write, learnt the way of life from Vedas and did meditation several times a day. Vedas were resource of their learning like modern guides, from Mathematics to Science to Social Science to the order of Politics (Neetis and Kootneetis) to the art of War everything was taught in Gurukul. Pupils had fun di...
Read more