![Sample our Arts journals, sign in here to start your access, latest two volumes FREE to you for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/110799/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Arts.jpg"})
Abstract
During the years before India's independence, the Times of London published news stories that were derisive and skeptical of Mahatma Gandhi, reflecting a national policy to diminish his power in the process to “quit India.” The Times was respectful of the untouchables' leader Bhimrao Ambedkar and his civil rights movement for untouchables, perhaps to further distract from Gandhi's popularity. The New York Times lavished positive attention on Gandhi and largely ignored Ambedkar altogether. The American newspaper framed a hero of colonial independence and never his oppression of untouchables, adhering to news policy during the Jim Crow era of racial persecution. Implications add context to news coverage of international leaders, global policy, and public opinion.
Notes
1 Judith M. Brown and Anthony Parel, The Cambridge Companion to Gandhi (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2011), 4.
2 Harold Coward, Indian Critiques of Gandhi (Albany: State University of New York, 2003), 12.
3 N. C. Fleming, “The Press, Empire, and Historical Time: The Times and Indian Self-government, c1911–47,” Media History 16, no. 2 (2010): 183–198; Chandrika Kaul, Communications, Media, and the Imperial Experience (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014); and Lee Becker, “Foreign Policy and Press Performance,” Journalism Quarterly 54, no. 2 (1977): 364–68.
4 Cleo J. Allen and John M. Hamilton, “Normalcy and Foreign News,” Journalism Studies 11, no. 5 (2010): 646.
5 Gail Omvedt, Dalits and the Democratic Revolution: Dr. Ambedkar and the Dalit Movement in Colonial India (New Delhi: Sage, 1994), 14, 23, 50.
6 Nicholas B. Dirks, Castes of Mind: Colonialism and the Making of Modern India (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2001), 48.
7 Joseph Lelyveld, Great Soul: Mahatma Gandhi and His Struggle with India (New York: Knopf, 2011), 220.
8 Bernard C. Cohen, The Press and Foreign Policy (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1963).
9 Tsan-Kuo Chang, The Press and China Policy: The Illusion of Sino–American Relations 1950–1984 (Norwood: Ablex, 1993), xx.
10 Tim J. Groeling and Matthew A. Baum, “Journalists' Incentives and Media Coverage of Elite Foreign Policy Evaluations,” Conflict Management and Peace Science 26, no. 1 (2009): 442; Giovanna Dell'Orto, American Journalism and International Relations: Foreign Correspondence from the Early Republic to the Digital Era (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2013).
11 James W. Tankard Jr., “The Empirical Approach to the Study of Media Framing,” in Framing Public Life: Perspectives on Media and Our Understanding of the Social World, ed. Stephen Reese, Oscar Gandy, and August Grant (Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. 2001), 95–105.
12 James W. Markham, “Foreign News in the United States and South American Press,” Public Opinion Quarterly 25, no. 2 (1961): 246–62; Becker, 364–68; Jurgen Wilke, “Foreign News Coverage and International News Flow over Three Centuries,” Gazette 39 (1987): 147–80; Betty H. Winfield, Barbara Friedman, and Vivara Trisnadi, “History as the Metaphor through Which the Current World Is Viewed: British and American Newspapers' Uses of History Following the 11 September 2001 Terrorist Attacks,” Journalism Studies 3, no. 2 (2002): 289–300; Kaul, Communications, Media and the Imperial Experience; Allen and Hamilton, 637.
13 D. C. Ahir, Gandhi and Ambedkar: A Comparative Study (New Delhi: Blumoon Books, 1999), 37, 44.
14 Brown and Parel, 312.
15 Dirks, 101.
16 Coward, 14.
17 Arthur L. Basham, A Cultural History of India (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1975), 55.
18 Omvedt, Dalits and the Democratic Revolution, 133; Eleanor Zelliot, From Untouchable to Dalit: Essays on the Ambedkar Movement (New Delhi: Manohar Publishers, 1996).
19 Zelliott, From Untouchable to Dalit; Dirks, Castes of Mind.
20 Omvedt, Dalits and the Democratic Revolution.
21 Guolin Yi, “The New York Times and Washington Post on Sino–American Rapprochement, 1963–1972,” American Journalism 32, no. 4 (2015): 458.
22 Giovanna Dell'Orto, American Journalism and International Relations.
23 The search terms “Gandhi” and “Ambedkar” were used in the two newspapers between 1920 and 1948. The search included news, editorials. and opinion columns. During the twenty-nine-year period, the Times (London) carried 171 stories about Ambedkar and 4,009 stories that featured Gandhi. The Gandhi stories were randomly selected and narrowed down to 400 for closer examination. During this same period, the New York Times ran nine stories about Ambedkar and 362 stories about Gandhi. The content of every article was examined, using an inductive approach to identify patterns and themes. Samples are included here that reflect these subjective issues and affective tones that emerged.
24 Ahir, Gandhi and Ambedkar: A Comparative Study.
25 Partha Chatterjee, Empire and Nation: Selected Essays (New York: Columbia University Press, 2010).
26 Burton Stein, A History of India (Malden, MA: Blackwell, 1998).
27 Omvedt, Dalits and the Democratic Revolution.
28 Zelliott, From Untouchable to Dalit.
29 Ibid., 40.
30 T. S. Rukmani, “Tagore and Gandhi,” in Indian Critiques of Gandhi, ed. Harold Coward (Albany: State University of New York, 2003), 107–129.
31 Christophe Jaffrelot, Dr. Ambedkar and Untouchability: Fighting the Indian Caste System (New York: Columbia University Press, 2005).
32 Dilip M. Menon, “The Blindness of Insight: Why Communalism in India Is about Caste,” in Indian Political Thought: A Reader, ed. A. Singh and S. Mohapatra (New York: Routledge, 2010), 123–135.
33 C. Selden, “Prince and Outcast at Dinner in London End Age-old Barrier,” New York Times, November 30, 1930.
34 Ahir, Gandhi and Ambedkar: A Comparative Study, 18.
35 Jaffrelot, Dr. Ambedkar and Untouchability; Omvedt, Dalits and the Democratic Revolution.
36 Ahir, Gandhi and Ambedkar: A Comparative Study; Omvedt, Dalits and the Democratic Revolution.
37 Times (London), August 4, 1920.
38 Times (London), October 27, 1920, unsigned opinion column.
39 Times (London), January 3, 1921.
40 Judith M. Brown, Modern India: The Origins of an Asian Democracy (Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 1985).
41 Edward Said, Orientalism, New York: Vintage, 1979.
42 Said, 204.
43 Said, 222.
44 Fleming, 183, 186, 189.
45 Kaul, 22.
46 Ibid., 46.
47 Ibid., 83, 84.
48 Ibid., 186, 87.
49 Dell'Orto, 73.
50 Kaul, 92.
51 Gary Klein, “When the News Doesn't Fit: The New York Times and Hitler's First Two Months in Office, February/March 1933,” Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly 78, no. 1 (2001): 127–49.
52 New York Times, March 11, 13, 1922.
53 Brown, Modern India.
54 Omvedt, Dalits and the Democratic Revolution, 169.
55 Times (London), August 11, 1930.
56 Times (London), October 13, 1931.
57 New York Times, November 21, 1930.
58 New York Times, September 21, 1930; June 4, 1931.
59 Ahir, 52.
60 Brown, Modern India.
61 Mahatma Gandhi, Selected Letters (September 22, 1932), https://www.mkgandhi.org/Selected%20Letters/letter.htm.
62 Coward, Indian Critiques of Gandhi.
63 Gail Omvedt, “A Part That Parted,” in Outlook India, August 20, 2012, www.outlookindia.com.
64 Times (London), September 17, 1932.
65 Jaffrelot, Dr. Ambedkar and Untouchability.
66 B. R. Ambedkar, “Untouchables or the Children of India's Ghetto,” in Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Writings and Speeches, comp. by Vasant Moon (Bombay: Government of Maharastra, 1989), 5:18–26.
67 Times (London), August 29, 1938; January 8, 1942.
68 Stein, A History of India.
69 As recorded by Gandhi's personal secretary, Mahadev Desai, The Diary of Mahadev Desai, Vol. 1 (1953): 301. Taken from https://archive.org/stream/internet.dli.2015.101333/2015.101333.The-Dairy-Of-Mahadev-Desai-Vol-1#page/n313/mode.
70 Omvedt, Dalits and the Democratic Revolution.
71 Said, 204.
72 Stein, A History of India.
73 New York Times, April 24, 1938; March 8, 1939; February 11, 1943.
74 Coward, 14.
75 Omvedt, “A Part That Parted.”
76 Jaffrelot, Dr. Ambedkar and Untouchability.
77 Omvedt, “A Part That Parted.”
78 Dell'Orto, 40.
79 Hemant Shah, “Race, Nation, and Citizenship: Asian Indians and the Idea of Whiteness in the US Press, 1906–1923,” Howard Journal of Communications 10 (1999): 255.
80 New York Times, December 13, 1936.
81 Omvedt, Dalits and the Democratic Revolution, 212.
82 Ibid., 221.
83 Coward, Indian Critiques of Gandhi.
84 Ambedkar, Writings and Speeches.
85 Ahir, Gandhi and Ambedkar: A Comparative Study.
86 New York Times, August 7, 1938; March 8, 1939; April 7, 1940.
87 Stein, A History of India.
88 Raghavan Iyer, The Moral and Political Thought of Mahatma Gandhi (New York: Oxford University Press, 1973).
89 New York Times, March 24, 1940; June 16, 1942; February 11, 1943.
90 New York Times, March 18, 1943, byline Herbert L. Matthews.
91 New York Times, February 11, 1943.
92 New York Times, March 18, 1943.
93 Omvedt, Dalits and the Democratic Revolution.
94 Jaffrelot, Dr. Ambedkar and Untouchability.
95 Zelliott, From Untouchable to Dalit.
96 Ibid.
97 New York Times, May 31, 1946.
98 Ibid.
99 Omvedt, Dalits and the Democratic Revolution.
100 Omvedt, “A Part That Parted.”
101 Zelliott, From Untouchable to Dalit; Ahir, Gandhi and Ambedkar: A Comparative Study.
102 Iyer, The Moral and Political Thought of Mahatma Gandhi.
103 Ahir, 70.
104 Robert D. Baird, “The Convergence of Distinct Worlds: Nehru and Gandhi,” in Indian Critiques of Gandhi, ed. Harold Coward (Albany: State University of New York, 2003), 19–40.
105 Times (London), November 17, 1942.
106 Times (London), August 1, 1942.
107 Times (London), September 1, 1942.
108 Stein, A History of India.
109 Omvedt, Dalits and the Democratic Revolution.
110 Chatterjee, Empire and Nation.
111 Times (London), July 15, 1947.
112 Ahir, Gandhi and Ambedkar: A Comparative Study.
113 New York Times, September 23; October 3, 1946.
114 New York Times, July 22, 1946.
115 Coward, Indian Critiques of Gandhi.
116 Omvedt, Dalits and the Democratic Revolution.
117 Zelliott, From Untouchable to Dalit.
118 Jaffrelot, Dr. Ambedkar and Untouchability.
119 Coward, Indian Critiques of Gandhi; Lelyveld, Great Soul: Mahatma Gandhi and His Struggle with India.
120 J. Zong and J. Batalova, “Indian Immigrants to the United States.” Migration Policy Institute (2015), http://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/indian-immigrants-united-states.
121 Coward, Indian Critiques of Gandhi.