“Only a democratic state can create a democratic civil society; only a democratic civil society can sustain a democratic state.”
- Michael Walzaer
In contemporary discourse, the function of civil society and the role of a free press in a democracy has been widely discussed and debated. Both these institutions have been universally seen as sine qua non for the functioning of democracy. It is a truism that in a democracy like India, media is the fourth pillar of the State at par with the executive, the legislative and the judiciary. Both these institutions contribute significantly in the rise of a true democracy and its socio-economic development. Not only are they imperative for the issues of democratic governance but to echo people’s struggles against social injustice and inequality, etc. Mass media and civil society can play a key role in enabling citizens to monitor the actions of incumbents and to scrutinize the State machinery.
Scholars like Amartya Sen rightly celebrate the functioning of a free press for political accountability in India. He argues that democracy is the best way to avoid famines, partly because of its ability to use a free press, and that the Indian experience since independence confirms this. “Famines are easy to prevent if there is a serious effort to do so, and a democratic government, facing elections and criticisms from opposition parties and independent newspapers, cannot help but make such an effort. Not surprisingly, while India continued to have famines under British rule right up to independence …they disappeared suddenly with the establishment of a multiparty democracy and a free press.” However, mere presence of these institutions in a democracy does not always guarantee accountability of the political class, scrutiny of the State and welfare of its citizens, as evident considering the state-of-affair of these institutions in States like Bihar.
In his critique of Amartya Sen’s thesis and Bihar famine of 1966-67, Thomas L. Myhrvold-Hanssen points out: “First, a free press can only serve as an instrumental factor in alleviating famines. Without an adequately educated population, there are no incentives to speak the poor man’s case. This is well illustrated in the case of Kerala. Second, diversity in belief sets are probably the best way a press can avoid displaying subjective knowledge. As the cases of Bihar and Sudan suggest, neither a free press nor an electoral body is sufficient for alleviating a famine if certain groups are suppressed.” In his 1986 article, P. R. Brass argues how the press “turned the Bihar Famine of 1966-67 into a political drama in which many of the principals self-consciously played their roles on the public stage.”
Bihar is a land of many paradoxes. What is true for the rest of India does not hold good for Bihar. It is true that Bihar has been a laboratory of many popular movements in pre-independence and post- independent India alike. However, when we look at the role of press, particularly in 70s and 80s’ political and agrarian movements, it largely failed the citizens of the State. Mass media invariably tried to reject farmers’ and laborers’ movement, and projected it as a ‘sedition’, a law and order problem. When we go through archives of the news reports published in those volatile periods, we hardly decipher any difference in the vision and perception of the State, police administration and ‘independent’ media. In the mid-80s, few national dailies started their local editions from Bihar, giving rise to a new breed of journalists who tried to make a firm balance between ‘mission’ and ‘profession’.
In the last decades, the State has virtually been dithering over development and governance issues. Bihar has the lowest literacy in India, while the majority of the population in the State is reeling under poverty, ignorance and superstitions. In these circumstances, the role and responsibility of the media and civil society becomes paramount. Also, to make a prosperous and equitable society, these institutions have a great stake in becoming the voice of marginalized and subaltern groups in Bihar.
The objective of this paper is to explain the significance and importance of robust civil society and dynamic media for ensuring good governance in Bihar. Also we will seek to answer what kind of role civil society is playing in the development of Bihar. What kind of relationship exists between the State and civil society? Is media playing its role as a ‘watchdog’ in true spirit? Is media and civil society conniving with the State when it comes to corruption?, and the like. In the first part of the chapter, we will delve into civil society, and then we will look at how the media operates in Bihar.
What is civil society?
Civil society has been defined in a variety of ways. Currently the most commonly used definition of civil society is “a space between the family and state where people associate across ties of kinship, aside from the market, and independent of the state” (Elliott 2003: 7-8). It includes both relatively formal organizations and informal array of friendships and networks of social life outside the family. It is the arena of community meetings and street corner activity, clubs and churches, sabhas and samaj, professional associations and unions, social movements and community action groups. Michael Walzer writes: “The words civil society name the space of uncoerced human association and also the set of relational networks-formed for the sake of family, faith, interest and ideology - that fill this space” (Elliot 2003: 64). In the view of political scientist, Gurpreet Mahajan: “In contemporary social and political theory civil society is almost always associated with democracy” (Elliot 2003: 167). Civil society comprises of various interest groups. Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are important civil society institutions. NGOs are those organizations registered under the Societies Registration Act that seek funds from corporate houses, government or foreign agencies. Then, there are foundations and trusts, which do not directly undertake issues themselves, but create a fund to support NGOs.
There might be differences regarding the definition and significance of civil society to democratic governance underlined in every debate. The question is, why is civil society significant for democratic governance in the contemporary world? In most democracies, the State does things in the preview of the policies that it makes. It is not that government cannot reach where these institutions function properly, but the services are either inaccessible or not provided at all. In such places, civil society comes as provider of basic services. Civil society is effective in places where either government policy is ineffective or there is a lack of policy to cater to the demands of the people. Thus, a lacunae or the lack of policy is one of the main reasons that civil society is needed and plays a crucial role in helping people with the basic needs. At the same time, civil society influences the perceptions, including that of the State for better development. For the present analysis, only NGOs are considered as civil society institutions.
Functions of NGOs
The Government of India has in recent Five Year Plans formally recognised civil society as important partner in development. The 11th Five Year Plan (2007-2012) counts on the collaboration of civil society organizations in areas like capacity-building, raising awareness, mobilizing social capital and implementing programmes at the grassroot level. The Plan encourages partnerships between civil society organizations and Panchayati Raj Institutions, drawing on areas for a close interaction with relevant civil society actors, such as social justice, women empowerment and the divide between societal groups and between regions in India.
The government’s recognition and decision to involve NGOs in its efforts towards development started with the 7th Five Year Plan (1985-1989). The NGOs were asked to supplement its micro level poverty alleviation and basic needs programmes. A separate subsection on “Involvement of Voluntary Agencies” was included in the Plan document under the chapter on Rural Development and Poverty Alleviation Programmes. More specifically, the role of voluntary agencies in the implementation of development programmes was mentioned as:
- To supplement government effort so as to offer the rural poor choices and alternatives. It should be possible for the voluntary agency to adopt simple, innovative, flexible and inexpensive means with its limited resources to reach a larger number with less overheads and with greater community participation.
- To activate the delivery system and to make it effective at the village level to respond to the felt needs of the poorest of the poor; to disseminate information and make communities as self-reliant as possible.
- To show how village and indigenous resources could be used, how human resources, rural skills and local knowledge, grossly underutilised at present, could be used for their own development. To mobilise financial resources from within the community with a view to making communities stand on their own feet.
- To mobilise and organise the poor and generate awareness to demand quality services and impose a community system of accountability on the performance of village-level government functionaries.
Further, voluntary agencies are essentially non-profit and non-partisan organisations. The criteria for identifying voluntary agencies for enlisting help in relation to the rural development programmes was identified as follows:
- The organisation should be a legal entity. It should be based in a rural area and be working there for a minimum of 3 years. It should have broad-based objectives serving the social and economic needs of the community as a whole and mainly the weaker sections. It must not work for profit but on ‘no-profit, no-loss basis’.
- Its activities should be open to all citizens of India, irrespective or religion, caste, creed, sex or race. It should have necessary flexibility, professional competence and organisational skills to implement programmes.
- Its office-bearers should not be elected members of any political party. It declares that it will adopt constitutional and non-violent means for rural development purposes. It is committed to secular and democratic concepts and methods of functioning.
In India, non-profit or public charitable organisations can be registered as trusts, societies, or a private limited non-profit company, under Section 25 of the Companies Act. For a national level society, at least seven persons from seven different states are needed. It can be registered in New Delhi. But the question is, why do such regulations exist to open an NGO? Does this result in better and effective civil society? Or they exist for normative reasons? For state level society or NGO, there are certain rules and State Society Acts. A very nominal fee, in case of Bihar Rs.10/-, is taken for registration of a society.
NGOs in Bihar: Mired in Corruption
The relationship between civil society and democracy is inherently political, inseparable from the nature of the State and political forces arising from society. This is evident when we look at the NGOs functioning in Bihar. Fifteen years ago, leading social scientist Arvind N. Das, while commenting on the state of Bihar wrote: “Today, a characterizing feature of society in Bihar is a violence that feeds on itself and plumbs depths of brutality and barbarism that makes a cruel mockery of the concept of ‘civil society’.” It has come full circle in the last decade. In the regime of Laloo Prasad Yadav, and later in the rule of Rabri Devi, almost everything, from law and order to basic infrastructure came to a standstill. Today Bihar is precariously situated at a position where complete overhauling of the State machinery is needed to save it from falling further. One of the paradoxes is that it is a rich State inhabited by poor people. The fertility of the soil in Bihar is comparable to that of any part of the country. It has more productive potential in terms of manpower than many countries in the world. It has a long history and has given birth to many philosophical and cultural movements, which have had an impact world over. And yet, Bihar is in a state of economic destitution, cultural backwardness and socio-political stagnation. Surely, problem lies with political will power and real governance. Given the situation, the participation of civil society in development work become paramount. In the last decade, a plethora of NGOs have cropped up in Bihar. NGOs are mainly engaged in rural development, human resource development, social justice and empowerment, health and family welfare, environment and forest, culture, youth affairs, sports, etc. These organizations are working invariably in every district of Bihar. Many of them are mired in corruption, thus they have little credibility among people for whom they are supposed to work. Rajendra Prasad Kejriwal, a resident of Jhanjharpur Bazar in Madhubani district says: “NGOs have become a money spinning machine for the people. Those who are associated with NGOs are always waiting for flood in this region so that they can siphon off money easily in the name of relief fund.” Besides, NGOs are working in tandem with corrupt administration in the State. “One can buy an NGO in Bihar in ten to fifteen thousand and if the NGO is more than three years old with FCRA (Foreign Contribution and Regulation Act) one has to pay even more (Fifteen to thirteen thousand). NGOs complain that officials in Bihar charge up to Rs.10,000 for registering a society or trust; clearance under section 80G of the Income Tax Act can cost Rs 20,000 to Rs 25,000; acceptance of audited accounts can cost even more,” writes Dr. Anant Kumar in his research article on the credibility of NGOs in Bihar.
NGOs are fast emerging as a family business. Caste too has played a very important role in the mushrooming of NGOs in Bihar. There are reports that NGOs are given as dowry in Bihar. Although it is difficult to get exact numbers, according to estimates, presently there are more than thirty thousands NGOs in Bihar. According to official sources, nearly 10,000 NGOs exists only on paper (Kumar: 2007). In a report titled ‘355 NGOs blacklisted; Bihar tops list with 113,’ which was published on 14 December 2005 (PTI), Bihar accounted for the highest amount of misutilisation, Rs.87 lakh.
In this gloomy scenario, some NGOs are working hard up to the expectation of people in Bihar. As the Member of Parliament, Ali Anwar, who has been working for Pasmanda (those who have been left behind) Muslims for many years, said in an interaction with the author: “It is really difficult to talk about downtrodden and suppressed people in Bihar. There is always threat from people who wield power.” He cited the example of Sarita and Mahesh, who have been working tirelessly among people in Gaya, but were shot dead by miscreants in 2004. He also told me that “even one of our colleagues was kidnapped and later murdered.”
Apart from corruption and the abysmal law and order situation, there is apathy associated with beauracracy in Bihar. Sanjay Kumar, who runs Deshkal Society, Delhi works for the research, documentation and promotion of culture, language and history of Mushar (Rat Eaters) community in Bihar, complains: “In Bihar administration does not know anything about governance. They have ‘ruling’ mentality. They don’t believe in participatory democracy at all.”
Media in Bihar
Patna has for long been a centre of publishing and printing industry. In pre-Independence era, the presence of newspapers like Aryavart, and in post-Independent period, Pradeep and The Searchlight have been significant in Bihar. Pradeep and The Searchlight have been incorporated in the shape of Hindustan and The Hindustan Times, and others like Aryavart, Patliputra Times and The Indian Nation slowly died away. Due to low literacy rate, accompanied by low purchasing power of the readers, the growth of newspapers has been rather slow in Bihar. In the mid 80s, Navbharat Times and The Times of India have appeared in the State, thus giving a boost to the media scene.
With globalisation and liberalisation of the Indian economy in 1991 came an information revolution which transformed Hindi Journalism in a big way. Although a large portion of population living in Bihar is deprived of the real benefits of ICT (Information and Communication Technology), the ‘digital divide’ could not deter growth of media in Bihar. Even with the lowest literacy rate (47.5%) in the country and a very low per capita income, it surprises many analysts that the circulation of newspapers in Bihar is far more than that in richer states of India like Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, etc.
Following tables show the circulation of newspapers in Bihar. Recently, Rashtriya Sahara (a Hindi daily) has launched its editions from Bihar.
Table 1: Claimed Circulation of Big Daily Newspapers in Bihar (2004-2005)
| Title | Registration Number | Language | Place of Publication | Claimed Circulation |
| Aaj | 33443 | Hindi | Patna | 151648 |
| Hindustan | 44348 | Hindi | Patna | 419043 |
| Dainik Jagran | Bihhin/2000/03097 | Hindi | Patna | 216576 |
| Prabhat khabar | 66055 | Hindi | Patna | 81582 |
| Tarun Mitra | Bihhin/2002/09030 | Hindi | Patna | 75080 |
Source: Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Gov. of India.
Table 2: Periodicity/Selected Language-Wise Circulation of Newspapers in Bihar (2004-2005)
| Language | Dailies, | Dailies, | Tri/Bi Weeklies, Number | Tri/Bi Weeklies | Weeklies, | Weeklies, | Fortnightlies, | Fortnightlies, Circulation |
| | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1000 | 1 | 43475 |
| | 1 | 38109 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 38473 | 0 | 0 |
| | 32 | 2201245 | 5 | 167608 | 22 | 530787 | 4 | 55325 |
| | 1 | 28500 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| | 13 | 661971 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 69020 | 0 | 0 |
| | 47 | 2929825 | 5 | 167608 | 27 | 639280 | 5 | 98800 |
Source: Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, Govt.of India.
Being a part of the Hindi belt of India, the data clearly shows that Hindi newspapers have wider rich in Bihar. Global technologies have opened up new vistas for Hindi Journalism to flourish in the liberalized economy. Now, facsimile transmission via satellite makes possible for newspapers to get simultaneously published from various regional centers in Bihar. Dainik Jagran and Hindustan has made inroads into the remote areas of Bihar.
With the phenomenal growth of middle class and growing purchasing power of people in rural areas, Hindi readership has grown exponentially. When the change in the political-social landscape took place in the Hindi heartland in late 80s, Hindi emerged as the foremost medium of political discourse, its journalism acquired self-confidence and its political and commercial importance grew. Now advertising is flourishing in Hindi newspapers too.
Trivialization of News
Advertising has always been crucial for the health of any newspaper. However, as far as the Hindi press was concerned, it had been largely bereft of this source of revenue. In the pre-independence era (Mahatma Gandhi was great advocate of shunning advertisement), advertisement in the local language press was prohibited. In the post-independent India, advertisement mainly came from the government organizations, of which larger chunk always went to English press. In 1990s, with substantial growth in GDP and increasing purchasing power in rural areas, accompanied by increasing literacy forced capitalists to tap the rural market. Advertisements grew more in local language press than in English press in the 1990s. This soon changed the relationship between editorial and managerial departments. Mrinal Pandey, Chief Editor, Hindustan, writes about the dwindling presence of editors: “No Hindi paper has a professional editor; the owners are editors and they have an editorial team working for them.” Young journalist Avinash (currently working with NDTV), who worked with Prabhat Khabar for ten years says: “ Harivansh is the last editor-proprietor in the Hindi heartland, who has always stood for true journalism. Now, it has become difficult to avoid the temptation of market for the proprietors.” In this case, what is true for national media is also true for media in Bihar.
To increase circulation, media houses resort to localisation of news. Trivial, sensational news are given prominence, while real news is thrown in the bin. For example, although Bihar was the first state to have the Zamindari Abolition Bill introduced in its legislature, its enactment was delayed for many years. Recently, the Nitish Kumar government took initiative and formed a committee on land reforms. Barring a few, newspapers didn’t take any interest in this news item in Bihar. Very significantly, newspapers are obsessed with reporting of the crime situation in Bihar. Management cadres and journalists make it clear to the editors that readers should have as much crime coverage as they could.
It is quite surprising that major scams in Bihar are unearthed not by the local press, but by the national press. A nexus between politicians and media houses is clear. Media analyst, Seventi Ninan, in her study of newspapers in Bihar, writes: “A number of journalists in Patna concede that even though corruption and criminalisation destroyed the economy of Bihar through the many years of Lalu Prasad’s and then his wife Rabri Devi’s chief ministership, it is because of the media that they faced no real criticism. The media carried little credibility with the electorate, or with politicians.” Naveen Joshi of Hindustan, Patna says: “The media seldom confronted the government on the issue of growing criminalisation because newspaper managements urged self censorship. The Hindustan’s and Jagran’s editorial policies were not confrontationist.”
Recommendations for Reform
In a democracy, media and civil society have a great responsibility. Modern governance is largely mediated governance. Media and civil society are an important tool in the hands of citizens. In Bihar, they can play a very positive role by monitoring the actions of the State’s incumbents. By focusing on their corrupt practices, they should play the role of a watchdog, which is expected by the people of the State. They must aspire to break the nexus between politicians and criminals. Media and civil society can play a powerful role in public education by sharing information about citizen’s rights and responsibilities. Today, Bihar is plagued by widespread poverty, illiteracy, inequality and oppression. These institutions can build a consensus and put pressure on the State for a better and equitable society and good governance. Also, they should try to highlight positive stories, which have emanated from the State with the coming into power of the new dispensation.
As far as civil society is concerned, transparency and sharing information and knowledge are the ways to build credibility among the people. Dialogue with media will help in this direction. Media can pressurize the State to take stern measures to punish corrupt officials engaged in malpractices, a very common issue in Bihar. It is important that independent regulatory and monitoring institutions are developed so that only proper NGOs and civil society organizations are encouraged. Bihar being an underdeveloped State, civil society has immense potential to make Bihar a socially and economically developed State. It is in the government’s larger interests to help make these institutions of civil society more active and vibrant in the State. They can be positively involved for development in the State as envisioned in the 11th Five Year Plan.
(Note: This paper was originally written for Bihar Citizen Handbook 2007, for Centre for Civil Society, New Delhi in collaboration with Prabhat Khabar, Patna. This article in any form should not be published prior to the permission of Blogger.)
शब्द निशब्द हो गए थे…सिर्फ़ गोलियों और धमाकों की आवाज़ आ रही थी. टेलिवीज़न प्रजेंटर के चेहरे थे लेकिन हमें तलाश उन चेहरों की थी जो मुंबई के ताज, ओबराय और नरीमन हाउस के 'कुंभीपाक' में फँसे थे.
