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V SUNDARAM
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Here was a journalist; vital, vibrant
and vivid. Here was a person; lively, lovable and legendary. Here was a
person whose watchwords as a journalist throughout his life were courage,
fidelity and vigilance. As an editor of nearly 28 newspapers in his lifetime,
Pothan Joseph (1892-1972) had the great privilege and distinction of working
with great historical personalities like Annie Besant, Mahatma Gandhi,
Mothilal Nehru, Sarojini Naidu, Rajaji, and Jinnah. To how many journalists
in history such a unique opportunity has ever been given?
Born in Kerala in a Christian family in 1892, he started his life as a lawyer. As he did not like the legal profession, he took up the post of a lecturer in Trinity College, Kandy in Ceylon. As a lecturer in Physics, he made a mark and his students were captivated by his teaching. As he had a journalistic flair, he took to writing. In 1919 he entered the world of journalism. By the time of his death in 1972 at Bangalore, he had become a great legend in the world of Indian journalism. He joined the 'Bombay Chronicle' as joint editor in 1924. The editor was S A Brevli and assistant editor G L Mehta, who later became India's Ambassador to the United States after independence in the early 50s. Later referring to his association with Pothan Joseph in the office of 'Bombay Chronicle', G L Mehta wrote: 'Joseph made the editorial side pungent, sharp, witty and lively'. Soon thereafter, Pothan Joseph edited a number of nationalist newspapers in Bombay like the 'Voice of India', 'Indian National Herald' and 'Indian Daily Mail'. |
| Pundit Madan Mohan Malaviya invited
Pothan Joseph to take up the assignment of editor of the 'Hindustan Times'
in Delhi in 1931and he worked there till 1936. According to many well-known
journalists of national repute, he assumed his 'Vishwarupa' during this
time. To quote the words of J N Sahni, the pioneering editor of 'Hindustan
Times': 'Pothan Joseph was a great acquisition for the 'Hindustan Times'
at a time it was fast losing in circulation, as well as prestige'. In those
days the old 'Hindustan Times' office building was located on Burn Bastion
Road, Old Delhi. Several distinguished journalists of post-independent
India like Sham Lal, Durga Das, Edatata Narayanan, G V Krupanidhi, and
Chaman Lal were Pothan Joseph's colleagues in the 'Hindustan Times'.
Pothan Joseph was an outstanding leader in every sense of the word. He invited another genius called Shankar to join the 'Hindustan Times' as a cartoonist. After independence, Shankar started the 'Shankar's Weekly' which became a much sought-after journal between 1950 and 1964. |
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Times |
'Over a Cup of Tea' was the name of
Pothan Joseph's daily column for nearly 40 years, starting from his days
in the 'Hindustan Times'. It was noted for its sardonic humour and biting
irony. It was the first political diary of its kind from the capital. 'Over
a Cup of Tea' created a precedent that was followed by many other editors
and political correspondents and this great tradition is being followed
by a few columnists even today. Here is a random sample of his writing
from this column: 'Viceroy Lord Wavell cultivated the manner of pregnant
silence when matters strange to him, mostly politics, were discussed within
his hearing. Once he slipped when the editor of 'The Hindu' interviewed
him. The Viceroy thankfully hoped that the paper was well up in the matter
of war efforts and remarked that his knowledge of Urdu was limited; so
he couldn't read 'The Hindu', let alone appreciate the florid Urdu style
for which, he believed, editor Srinivasan's paper had been famous'. When
the Congressmen in Madras were shouting 'Release the Congress leaders and
ease the impasse', Pothan Joseph wrote hilariously in this column: 'Ease
the leaders and release the impasse'.
After 1942, Pothan Joseph accepted Mohammed Ali Jinnah's invitation to edit his Delhi paper 'Dawn'. When he took this decision, many people were quite annoyed and astonished for having switched over from the Congress side to Jinnah's newspaper. B Shiva Rao, another distinguished journalist and a great friend of Pothan Joseph, wrote: 'I realise that Joseph regarded his professional work in much the same way as a lawyer does, identifying himself for the time-being with his client's interests; Joseph served on the staff of many newspapers, writing with refreshing vigour, but never hitting an opponent below the belt and eschewing all personal malice'. According to another great Indian journalist of international repute, Sham Lal, Pothan Joseph was out and out a full-time professional journalist. Though he worked for Jinnah's newspaper 'Dawn' in New Delhi it should not be taken to mean that Pothan Joseph supported the cause of partition of India. In fact, when it became clear to him in 1944 that Jinnah was hell bent on creating a Muslim nation for the Muslims, as a great patriot Pothan Joseph was disillusioned and told Jinnah: 'There is a limit to which I can stretch my logic about partition'. Pothan Joseph promptly resigned from the 'Dawn'. When Pothan Joseph resigned from the 'Dawn', he was invited by government of India to join as its Principal Information Officer under Lord Wavell. Pothan Joseph resigned soon thereafter because of his independent outlook and sheer inability to fit into the official government of India hierarchy. K P S Menon, India's Ambassador to Russia, wrote about Pothan Joseph: 'It is significant that the only assignment which he left in disgust was the one in which a talented bureaucrat would have thriven'. |
| A few years after independence,
Pothan Joseph went to Bangalore to edit the new Daily called 'Deccan Herald'.
Subsequently in the evening of his life, he accepted the invitation of
Rajaji to edit 'Swarajya'. He passed away on 2 November, 1972 in Bangalore
at the age of 80.
I can see from all the contemporary writings about Pothan Joseph that he was a brilliant conversationalist. As a talker he was indeed incomparable. His wit was verbal and cumulative: His words came in short, sharp bursts of precisely aimed, concentrated fire, as image, pun, metaphor and parody, seemed spontaneously to generate one another in a succession of marvelously imaginative patterns, sometimes rising to high, wildly comical fantasy. There was nothing corrosive or decadent or embittered in his talk. His unique accent, idiom, voice and the structure of his sentences became a magnetic model which affected the style of speech, writing, and perhaps feeling of many who came under its spell. As a journalist, he was a major liberating force. His disregard of accepted rules, his passionate praise of friends and unbridled denunciation of enemies, produced an intoxicating effect upon all who came into contact with him. |
the round-table conference at London in 1931. |
Mathew Arnold wrote that journalism is literature written in a hurry. He had great journalists like Pothan Joseph in mind when he wrote this beautiful line of lasting wisdom and relevance.
As a journalist, his enthusiasm was Himalayan and his humility unique. He still tells us much that is worthwhile to hear and nothing more worthwhile to ponder over than this. I cannot help recalling what he told my old and beloved friend T Sadasivam of Kalki in 1961: 'The more I work and write as a journalist, the less appears to be the knowledge I have of it and at the end of nearly half a century, I am conscious of my greater ignorance of it than I was at the biginning'.
Yes. He was indeed an outstanding journalist.
(The writer is a retired IAS officer)