Media and regional movements: an examination of the role of print media in the hill politics since the emergence of Gorkha Jana Mukti Morcha Movement in Darjeeling

Abstract

Media and politics are at the edge of relationship in a functioning democracy. Despite their divergent missions, it is a symbiotic correlation. Political forces turn to the public to motivate their actions, to campaign for their ideas and to win people's trust. Media, in turn, have to inform people about politics and to exercise control over politicians when the latter perform their duties. The present study is an attempt to explore the role of the media in the movement for a separate state under the Gorkha Jana MuktiMorcha (GJMM) in the hills of Darjeeling and for the purpose of making the study more penetrating; the focus has been restricted only to print media. The study was conducted to focus the issue of the role of the print media in a regional movement. One may notice divergent views expressed and positions taken by different publications. While some of these favoured the movement, others opposed it. There is a section which has taken a kind of 'neutral' position, neither opposing nor supporting the course of action of the movement. The overall impact of this movement on the national, state and sub-state level politics has been highlighted in the media. The study elaborately historicizes the movement since its inception and points out that there have been significant contributions from scholars with regard to its historical, psychological, political, economic, ethnic and other dimensions, however, no systematic study have been made to address the role of print media in the context of the political movements in the hills of Darjeeling.The study proposes to highlight the role of the media, specifically the print media, in shaping and constructing people's perspectives on the movement. The study further elaborates the roots of political movements in the hills of Darjeeling. It highlights the significance and the emergence of major political parties in the hills, and tries to establish their role in exploring and exploiting the media in the context of the movement. The study proposes to establish that in case of the Gorkhaland movement, print media, along with other media forms was mobilized by the leadership since the inception of the movement, that is, from the colonial period in the 1920s to the 1980s and the post 2007. In the recent times, however, controversies surrounding the politics over the media itself have taken ground, with strong voices of the necessity of democratizing the media itself. These owe to multiplicity of factors like market forces, unethical turn in journalism, ideological differences, role of the state, interest of the dominant group, depleting resources, among others. Yet, media in general and print media in particular has significantly shaped the Gorkhaland movement since its inception, validating it, accelerating it and empowering it at times; and weakening it, relegating it and uprooting it at the other, thereby determining its life, course, content and contours.