Times Of India Group Goes For A Christian Magazine FN
It’s like an Examiner or The New Leader packed with glossy adverts and printed in full colour. It has articles from pockets of Christian India. And it has some prominent names of journalists of a Christian background splattered across its pages. Meet the Christian in India. Published recently by the publishing giant Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd., the magazine’s first issue hit the stands this summer (in April 2009) and is packaging itself as a monthly meant to focus on the “community and microcosm”. Its first issue, 88-pages thick and entirely in colour, came out in April 2009. It was available in newsstands in diverse parts of the country around May 2009. Apart from a range of adverts, obviously targeting members of the Christian community who would make up its primary readership – dealing with real estate, consumer items and clothes, health products, cakes, safes, silverware, education, furniture, mobile phones etc., -- the magazine also focuses on a range of issues pertaining to the Christian community. Editor Carol Andrade argues that there is a “revitalised ecumenism that the country is witnessing as Christian groups turn towards each other in the essentials of their faith in Jesus Christ”. She asks whether this is “a kind of knee-jerk reaction to the present climate of uncertainty, with recorded attacks upon the community being reported from many states in India”. But the article also offers counter views, which say this is “not really” the case. In another article, Man Booker Award winner for 2008, Aravind Adiga, narrates what he learnt in the Christian schools he studied in – Don Bosco’s in Chennai, and St. Aloysius in Mangalore. The magazine cites him saying they “are as much ‘temples of modern India’ as Pandit Nehru’s awesome industrial edifices”. Adiga, author of The White Tiger, writes: “Catholic institutions – particularly those run by the Jesuit order – have also historically emphasised the need to expand social and educational services to the poor and the downtrodden. “Certainly, at St. Aloysius College, some of the Jesuit priests who were my teachers tried hard to convince their students that education in India, a country plagued by illiteracy, was a privilege; and that those who received this privilege had an obligation to speak for others less fortunate.” In its pages, another interview talks to the Kolkata-based “quiz master, entrepreneur, trail-blazing businessman” Derek O’Brien. He is credited by the magazine with having “kind of broken the stereotypes of Anglo-Indians when he used knowledge as the base for wealth creation”. Margaret da Costa asks herself the question “that lots of Christian mothers are debating among themselves” in an article titled “Why don’t our children go to church?” One youth, Goldwin Fonseca, is quoted as saying that in his parish in suburban Mumbai, the church goers, as soon as they stepped out of the church, disintegrated into factions of regional identities being East-Indian, Mangalorean and Goan. Mumbai’s longtime Catholic magazine, The Examiner editor, Father Anthony Charangat asks why “talented and competent Christians (are) so low-profiled in the world of business and politics”. He writes: “Either we put up or we shut up. In other words, either join the mainstream or quit complaining.” Charangat comments: “It must be admitted there are Christians in industry, administrative services, finance, politics, education, medicine, science, engineering and sports who have done the community proud.” In this context, he cites the name of Mother Teresa; P.C. Alexander, former Governor of Maharashtra; Dr. Ernest Borges, cancer specialist; Dr. Luzito D’Souza, father of the hospice movement in Mumbai; super cop Julio Ribeiro; Johnny Joseph, chief secretary of the Maharashtra government; Raphael Donald and several Catholics in the IAS cadre; Michael Pinto, vice-president of the national Minority Commission; Thomas Kuruvilla, income tax commissioner; Michael Ferreira, world billiards champion; Leander Paes in Tennis; Walter D’Souza in hockey; the Saldanhas of pharma giant Glenmark among others. There are other themes too that would obviously interest the community. Sandeep Mishra reports on the communal violence that hit Christians in the Kandhamal region of Orissa, while Monarose Sheila Pereira writes about how “service is practically a part of the Christian DNA”. It’s pointed out that while Christians form 2.3 percent of India’s one-billion plus population, they account for around 20 per cent of the primary education in India, 30% of the care of the physically and mentally challenged and leprosy and HIV/AIDS patients. “This they do irrespective of caste, gender, creed or political and social affiliation of those they serve,” notes the magazine. In another article, Carol Andrade reports on a group of Christian entrepreneurs and businessmen who have come together to “create wealth, pool resources and encourage the timorous to get out there”. Dimensions, the network of Christian entrepreneurs and professionals, can be contacted via dimensionsdirect.com or [email protected]. (Its website says: “It became a question being asked by Freddy Mendonca: ‘Why is the Christian community individually rich but collectively poor?’”) The faith-and-business interaction is also discussed by Rajeev Menon, a “successful business who has applied his faith and beliefs to the way he runs his company”. The magazine also looks at the lives of politician-turned governor S.C. Jamir, and other themes. “The last three months have been both (an) eye-opener and (a) roller coaster ride, as I set out to put together what is the first magazine for the Christian community from the Times Group, home of the largest English (language) daily in the world,” wrote editor Carol Andrade in the editorial. She commented: “The idea was to provide a platform and a showcase at one and the same time – a platform for the community to meet across denominations, faith rituals, social levels and issues, as well a showcase from which to present itself to people of other faiths in the unity of their fundamental belief.”
