Namita Waikar

Labani Jangi

Illustration

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She was helping little Sonu
complete a painting for a drawing competition organized in her office for the
young children of employees. Today was the last day to submit entries for “The
India of my dreams.&#39;&#39; Sonu was about to complete her painting. “Ma, come, sit
with me, please.” If it were not for her daughter’s relentless requests…she was
in no mood for colours this morning. She was in fact hooked on to the news,
while pretending to work. Reluctantly, however, she moved closer to her little
one. A warm smile flashed across
her daughter’s face as she took the child in her lap. “Look!” said Sonu excitedly
pointing at her drawing. On the television, a woman clad in saffron attire was
spewing hatred in her ears. The clip from the Dharm Sansad had gone viral. She
did not know which out of the two she was doing absent-mindedly – listening to
the woman or looking at her daughter’s painting. In the latter, six or seven
human figures stood out against a beautiful backdrop. Men, women, children, against
fields that glittered emerald green under the melting orange of an evening sky.Were the colours too warm or
the words too violent, she did not know. But she struggled to keep her moist
eyes focused on these tiny, all white human figures, unmistakably consumed by
their respective religious identities – a skull cap, a headscarf, a shiny cross
around the neck, a sindoor-filled parting, a turban... Each with the most
innocent smile and outstretched hands holding those of an unknown other on
either side. The orange and the green and the white all seemed a bit smudged
then as she let a tear well up her eyes and slide...

The India of my dreams

ମୋ ସ୍ୱପ୍ନର ଭାରତ

মোৰ সপোনৰ ভাৰত

ভারত, সে আমার স্বপ্নের দেশ

મારા સપનાનું ભારત

میرے خوابوں کا بھارت

जिस हिंदुस्तान का ख़्वाब देखा था

ನನ್ನ ಕನಸಿನ ಭಾರತ

Pune

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India is bigger than New Delhi. And people need to know more about the rest of this vast nation.


Younger, media-saturated generations are growing up knowing little about their country, but a lot about the elites of a few metros and towns. For a narrowly-owned, commercially-driven media, the dumbing down of a nation is part of standard operating procedure. The last available data of the Centre for Media Studies (CMS, Delhi) show us that reports from New Delhi account for 66 per cent of news on the front pages of major dailies. The CMS data also found that just about 0.24 per cent of front page news came out of rural India. The TV channels are not much better.PARI exists to change that.We are a non-profit organisation. We publish under creative commons, and do not charge readers a subscription fee or put-up advertisements. Nothing is behind a paywall and we are completely free-to-access by anyone. We guard our independence and receive no direct grants from governments and corporations, nor any funding that could dictate our content. So, we are dependent on volunteer labour, donations from individuals, foundations and institutions that see value in independent and free media.PARI is changing the way Indian journalism reports and documents the rural.India is more than the elite of a few metros and towns. We report on rural lives and livelihoods, languages, communities, migrants and more. We need your help to pull off this most ambitious of Indian journalistic endeavours. The scale of this effort costs money. Donate generously - and spread the word about PARI.&nbsp;

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The India of my dreams

A writer is moved to strong emotions and poetry as the air fills with words of violence and hatred in the country she loves and calls home

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