Pro. Kumar Ratnam said, it is necessary to bring to the fore the anonymous faces of the freedom movement
New Delhi. Addressing the concluding session of the two-day national seminar organized under the joint aegis of Indian Institute of Mass Communication and Indian Council of Historical Research on the occasion of the Amrit Festival of Independence, Member Secretary, Indian Council of Historical Research, Prof. Kumar Ratnam said that India’s independence movement is not a hundred-two hundred years old, but it started on the same day when foreign invasions started on India. There are many such faces, whose names are not recorded in history, who were martyred in the retribution of those attacks and awakening of self. Information about such faces is present in every part of the country. Media should play an active role in bringing such anonymous faces to the fore during the Amrit Mahotsav of Azadi. In this effort, the media should also make the country aware of the efforts of those anonymous journalists, who played an important role in the awakening of independence during the freedom movement. On this occasion senior journalist Shri Umesh Upadhyay, Director General of Indian Institute of Mass Communication Prof. Sanjay Dwivedi and Additional Director General Shri Ashish Goyal were also present.
Pro. Ratnam said that today there is a need to end the voids and distortions of history. When we look at the history of the freedom movement, it seems that only one family or one organization fought for independence, while more than two-and-a-half hundred organizations were banned during that time. By removing such topics, when we celebrate the hundred years of independence in the form of nectar, then this void of history should end.
He said that some thinkers tried to create a discourse that India did not have a sense of history, while India had a rich tradition of history writing. Not only the word history is mentioned in the Puranas and epics of India, but the definition of history has also been given. Information about another book like Kalhan’s ‘Rajatarangini’ is not available in the world. Still, to say that India does not have a sense of history is completely wrong.
Senior Journalist Shri Umesh Upadhyay stressed on the need of Western countries to understand the colonial nature of media. He said that Western media has grown up in the same imperialist, colonialist and expansionist mindset as imperialism and colonialism. Even though ‘content’ has been democratized after the advent of social media, the increasing centralization of dissemination and distribution of content is very dangerous for democracy.
On this occasion, the Director General of IIMC, Prof. Sanjay Dwivedi said that the Indian Institute of Mass Communication will conduct research on various aspects related to media during the Amrit period. He said that there is a need to re-read history and bring it to the fore with accuracy. Along with this, work should also be done on the anonymous warriors associated with the freedom movement. Pro. According to Dwivedi, the country runs on the basis of facts and it is the responsibility of the media to take care of the factuality.
Convener of the seminar and Dean Student Welfare at IIMC Prof. Pramod Kumar said that more than 100 researchers presented research papers in the seminar and more than two dozen experts shared their views. Earlier, in the technical session of the seminar, Dr. Subodh Kumar, coordinator of the Department of Journalism at Vardhman Mahaveer Open University, Kota, on the topic ‘Science communicator during the freedom struggle’ and senior journalist and author Dr. Ravindra Agarwal spoke on ‘News agencies in the freedom struggle’. expressed his views on the role of Dr. Amrita Shilpi, Assistant Professor in Laxmibai College of Delhi University presented thoughts on the topic ‘Women, Media and Struggle for Swaraj’.
In another session, the President of Center for Historical Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Prof. Hiraman Tiwari, Dr. Jaiprakash Singh, Assistant Professor, Center for Kashmir Studies, Central University of Himachal Pradesh, and Dr. Shahid Ali, Head of the Department of Journalism and Mass Communication, Kushabhau Thakre University of Journalism and Mass Communication, Raipur, shared their views on the colonial discourses that were formed during the British rule. expressed.
One session in the symposium focused on ‘Press and the Partition of India’. The session was inaugurated by Prof. Dean, School of Journalism and Mass Communication, Maulana Azad National Urdu University, Hyderabad. Ehtesham Ahmed Khan and Director, National Sindhi Language Promotion Council, Prof. Ravi Tekchandani addressed the gathering.
