Pakistani Urdu media: Illiberal, biased and provocative attitude

By Ghazala Afaque Quazi

14 Aug. 2011

If you study the Urdu newspapers of Pakistan you can’t believe they are from the same country. The same provocative attitude is evident in the news, columns and letters published in the Urdu newspapers. Even in the columns and letters in these newspapers, the same biased and illiberal attitude is evident. On the other hand, the English newspapers publish content on the rights of women and minorities as also independent criticism on the elements that are hell bent on making religious bias a part of the state of Pakistan. Such articles are rare in Urdu media. This is true about Urdu TV programmes too. Whenever there is a discussion on another country or its foreign policy in the electronic media, the people of that country are very freely likened to animals and the lifestyle of the women and men especially their sexual issues are openly criticised. In such a situation, it is difficult to understand the cause of the anger of the writer. I have even read such columns in popular Urdu newspapers in which the writer has used such expressions as ‘the rascal should be killed and stuffed’ or ‘if the particular woman existed in our country she would have been stoned to death.’ Even on the death of someone, it was said that ‘who jahannam raseed ho gaya’ (he was doomed to hell).

In the English media, you can even find a debate on the positive and negative aspects of the Islamic history and Indian history. But the Urdu media publishes critical content on very few issues. You will rarely find any article on the positive aspects of our neighbouring country India. Even if someone writes such articles, he is branded anti-Pakistan. Similarly, if someone speaks in favour of following the good aspects of the West , he is  silenced by branding him West-infected. If someone advocates fair treatment to the religious minorities, he is declared anti-Islam and words like infidel and apostate are openly used to describe him.

The issue of fatwas of kufr has now reached the TV studios from the mosques. But it is seen mostly in Urud media. Zameer Jafri’s couplet expresses this phenomenon aptly:

Jo insan nauw-e-insani ka jab qattaal karte hai

Nehayat mazhabi alfaz istemaal karte hain

(When people slaughter human beings, they use very religious expressions for it.)

The biased and provocative attitude has got intensified in the Urdu media of today though this tradition of narrow-mindedness is very old. If you study the English and Urdu writings of Iqbal, you can see how easily Iqbal criticised the religious scholars of India in his English articles. The way he praised the reforms in Turkey and the reform leading to the discarding of the Arabic language and adopting Turkish language perhaps could not have done in Urdu. The truth is that among the Muslim countries, it is Turkey that has wriggled itself out of the rigid radical beliefs and got to its goal of self-consciousness. Though Iqbal has criticised the narrow-mindedness of Muslims in his poetry, whatever he wrote in the abovementioned book in English did not write in Urdu prose. It is interesting that in Punjabi classical poetry too, the narrow mindedness based on religion has been protested. Urdu poetry or fiction also expresses its opposition against it tongue in cheek, but it is not boldly opposed as is done in the Punjabi poetry. I am not acquainted with the Baloch, Sindhi and Pashto literature, so I cannot express my point of view on that. It is a matter of thought why the articles that are published in English media cannot be published in the Urdu media. Are the authorities of the Urdu media concerned about the fact that if they talk of peace and harmony and liberalism, their TV channels or newspapers will not survive? Or do they think that on writing or telecasting such content, the so-called contractors of religion or the nation will target their media business? Or are they of the view that the Urdu readers do not want to live in a society free of prejudices and based on liberalism? The majority of the Urdu readers are products of Urdu medium schools where hardly any book other than the text books are available to them. In those schools those who raise questions are punished and are discouraged to have out of box thinking. They are forced to learn by rot instead of explaining them the meaning of words. It is regrettable that majority of the students of this country study in such schools. And the Urdu media does the rest of the work by putting the stamp of narrow-mindedness on their thought. They are provided with a particular thought whose final destination is narrow-mindedness.

Keeping in view all the facts, one question can be raised. Who is responsible for the bias and narrow-mindedness in the society? If they talk of beheading their opponents on petty issues, who has given them the training? The limitation of the media that they can raise only a few issues can be understood but at least they can refrain from making provocative statements for cheap popularity and adopt a soft stand. They should set a standard of their newspapers that instead of provoking the sentiments of anger and grief, they express their opinions with seriousness. If this has not been the tradition with the Urdu media, it is time to adopt it now so that Urdu media too can become a part of the civilised and cultured society and provide cure to the its  ills.

URL: https://newageislam.com/islam-media/pakistani-urdu-media-illiberal,-biased/d/5285