A post card from Shri K R Malkani saying “Good report, keep it up” was the first encouragement I received to pursue journalism
P Narayanan
Kerala Correspondent
(1980-2000)
I was a member of the Organiser family during 1980’s and 1990’s, i.e. for almost 20 years as the Kerala correspondent. But I started reading the weekly in 1953 while studying in the University College Thiruvananthapuram. We Swayamsevaks used to circulate Organiser among students, there was common reading also. Report about the demise of Dr S. P Mukherjee is still fresh in mind. “Death or Medical Murder? We need answer” was the banner headline, followed by a comprehensive description.
My first report published in Organiser was in 1956. It was about the fall in number of Hindu shrines in Travancore State from 1821 to 1941, according to the Travancore State Manual. The decline was more than 20,000 to 9,000, whereas the increase in the number of churches was from a few hundred to about 7,000. The headline given was “Thanks to Missionaries”. A post card sent to me by Shri K R Malkani stating “Good report, keep it up” was the first encouragement I received to pursue journalism.
As Sangh Prachark, Organiser was eagerly awaited to know and understand the real national siituation as it developed or deteriorated. Writings of Bhai Mahaveer, Deendayalji’s Political Diary, Prof. Balraj Madhok’s criticism of Pundit Nehru, P Mahadevan’s thought provoking expositions and the letter from the editor were interesting. During the Kerala liberation struggle against the first Communist Government of Com. EMS Namboothiripad by the Congress League, PSP combination led by the Catholic Church and NSS Leader Mannathu Padmanabbhan, a thread bare analysis of the cause and psychology behind the struggle by senior Pracharak P Madhavan was published in Organiser, in two parts. He predicted the future trends that would infect Kerala which proved to be exactly the same as we experience at present.
As the Organising Secretary of Kerala Pradesh Jan Sangh, I was instructed by P Parameswaran to send reports of important incidents to Organiser and the first report to be published was a detailed report of Naxalite attacks on both Thalassery Police Station and Police Wireless Communication Station at Pulpally, deep in the forest of Wayanad in 1967.
After the Emergency was withdrawn and the Janata experiment started its rule, we in Kerala started a Malayalam Daily Janmabhumi from Kochi, and eventually I was given the charge of it. P Parameswaran was the Director of Deendayal Research Institute in New Delhi and he suggested my name to be the Kerala correspondent of Organiser to K R Malkani. For more than 20 years I sent my copies accordingly. During that period, it seems there was a proposal to start a South India edition either from Banglore or Chennai. Had it materialised and the weekly adopted modern technologies, I think Organiser could have become a better sought after journal.
Even half a century ago Organiser had much wider reach and influence among the legal,
academic, press circles though out Kerala. We Sangh workers used to regularly approach and enlist people of significance and started agents in almost all Taluk places. Most of the editors and leader writers found the opinion and content of Organiser extremely valuable.
Shri Shankar Shastry, Senior Pracharak from Nagpur who was in charge of Malabar region for more than 15 year was also in charge of Organiser, for the South was mainly responsible for the popularity of it. There is an urgent need to increase the circulation of Organiser in Kerala. n
