Prominent Indian Journalists
Girilal Jain – Times of India
Girilal Jain, journalist: born Sonepat, north India 1922; editor-in-chief Times of India 1978-88; died New Delhi 19 July 1993.
GIRILAL JAIN was a well-known, albeit controversial, Indian newspaper editor who espoused a strong, almost Fascist-like federal authority in India to help maintain its standing as the world's largest democracy.
As leader writer and later editor-in-chief from 1978 to 1988 of the influential and widely circulated Times of India, Jain firmly believed a weak central government was responsible for India's diminishing international status and saw the then prime minister, Indira Gandhi, as its preserver.
Towards this he vehemently supported Mrs Gandhi when, faced with a countrywide uprising against her misrule, she imposed an internal emergency in the mid-Seventies during which all civil liberties were suspended. After the emergency, opposition leaders, hounded and persecuted by Mrs Gandhi during the 21 months it lasted, criticised the Times of India's editorial policy for 'choosing to crawl' even though Mrs Gandhi had merely ordered them to 'bend'.
Jain, often accused of confusing between the state and the government of the day due to his fascination with power equations, was an ardent and unashamed admirer of Mrs Gandhi's power politics. And, in a front-page editorial, went to the extent of condoning the pogrom against Sikhs in New Delhi after she was assassinated by her Sikh bodyguards in 1984.
Jain's support for Rajiv Gandhi, Mrs Gandhi's son and successor, however, waned after Rajiv Gandhi was allegedly implicated in a defence kickback scandal and his political fortunes seemed to be on the decline. Jain then turned his pen to supporting Gandhi's detractors. And, more recently, realising the increasing popularity of the Hindu fundamentalist Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP), Jain became an ardent supporter of Hindutva or Hindu hegemony in his avidly read and, as always, well-argued syndicated columns.
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Girilal Jain, journalist: born Sonepat, north India 1922; editor-in-chief Times of India 1978-88; died New Delhi 19 July 1993.
GIRILAL JAIN was a well-known, albeit controversial, Indian newspaper editor who espoused a strong, almost Fascist-like federal authority in India to help maintain its standing as the world's largest democracy.
As leader writer and later editor-in-chief from 1978 to 1988 of the influential and widely circulated Times of India, Jain firmly believed a weak central government was responsible for India's diminishing international status and saw the then prime minister, Indira Gandhi, as its preserver.
Towards this he vehemently supported Mrs Gandhi when, faced with a countrywide uprising against her misrule, she imposed an internal emergency in the mid-Seventies during which all civil liberties were suspended. After the emergency, opposition leaders, hounded and persecuted by Mrs Gandhi during the 21 months it lasted, criticised the Times of India's editorial policy for 'choosing to crawl' even though Mrs Gandhi had merely ordered them to 'bend'.
Jain, often accused of confusing between the state and the government of the day due to his fascination with power equations, was an ardent and unashamed admirer of Mrs Gandhi's power politics. And, in a front-page editorial, went to the extent of condoning the pogrom against Sikhs in New Delhi after she was assassinated by her Sikh bodyguards in 1984.
Jain's support for Rajiv Gandhi, Mrs Gandhi's son and successor, however, waned after Rajiv Gandhi was allegedly implicated in a defence kickback scandal and his political fortunes seemed to be on the decline. Jain then turned his pen to supporting Gandhi's detractors. And, more recently, realising the increasing popularity of the Hindu fundamentalist Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP), Jain became an ardent supporter of Hindutva or Hindu hegemony in his avidly read and, as always, well-argued syndicated columns.
But