BY SACHIN KUMAR
DOHA: Kashif-ul-Huda, a US-based scientist, is on a mission to lend voice to Muslims and marginalised communities in India through his English news website.
His website — TwoCircles.net — is breaking the stereotype coverage of Muslims in Indian media and raising issues of dalits, tribals and women.
In a freewheeling conversation with The Peninsula during his recent trip to Doha, the forty-year-old spoke about his website, its focus and plans.
The name of the website is reflective of the dilemma Indian Muslims face.
“Muslims in India have to face a question whether they are Muslim first or Indian first. I think this question is wrong,” said Kashif.
“The name of our website clarifies my stand on the issue. The name is derived from the quote of freedom fighter Maulana Muhammad Ali Jauhar who once said ‘I belong to two circles of equal size, but which are not concentric. One is India, and the other is the Muslim world’. So for a Muslim in India, both identities are equally important,” he said.
Kashif graduated with a degree in biochemistry and cell biology from University of California, San Diego, and is working for a pharmaceutical company in the US.
Lack of proper space to the problems of Muslims and biased news coverage became the main trigger to launch the website.
“Muslims are facing problems because of many reasons but stereotyping of Muslims is an important factor. Witch-hunting of Muslims was going on in the Indian media by many media houses. Muslims’ voices were getting filtered. Also Muslims were not very articulate about their viewpoints. That is how it started,” he said.
The soft-spoken biochemist started the website alone in 2006 but now has a team of 10 reporters working across Indian states, including Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Jammu and Kashmir.
He wants to increase the presence of reporters in other states but is constrained by resources.
In the overcrowded Indian media industry, he does not want to compete or aim to replace big brands. “I cannot compete with big media houses but I can show them, hey look, this is another angle of this story and they have started following up a lot of our stories,” he said.
The website came to light when in June 2010 an advertisement put out by the Gujarat government, projecting happy and prosperous Muslims in the state, was revealed as a picture from Azamgarh, Uttar Pradesh, lifted from TwoCircles.net.
Kashif clarified that the website initially focused on Muslim issues but now its attention has widened and covers stories and features on dalits, tribals and women.
“It is not focused on Muslims anymore. Out tagline is ‘mainstream news of the marginalised’.
“I started with Muslims but then realised the focus has to be broadened. Take, for instance, the issue of encounters.
“Before Muslims, many Sikhs suffered it. Now dalits and tribals are suffering. So I realised that many struggles were same and we had to join forces.
“We concluded that we needed to tell other stories too. Now many dalit writers have started writing for us,” he added.
Kashif said the Indian media calls itself mainstream but does not give space to dalits, Muslims, farmers and poor, while women’s voices get filtered.
The website is not funded by any government or its agencies. It is helped by individuals and organisations, who support it financially, with resources, and time. the peninsula
