Name of Fellow: Almas Ansari
Genre: Journalism
Area of Work: Sitapur, Uttar Pradesh
Almas Ansari is vernacular journalist based out of Sitapur, Uttar Pradesh. Ansari was born in a family which was involved in publication of newspaper called Nishan Akhbar. He was influenced to pursue journalism from his childhood.
His political understandings developed from his interaction with various writers who would contribute to his father’s newspaper—published both in Hindi and Urdu— and from his family’s affiliation to left ideology.
As a young journalist, Ansari is concerned about how truth gets submerged in big statements of politicians and how media concentrates on those speeches of political figures. He envisages to find the realities existing beyond those speeches concerning the general public.
He believes that creating awareness among the community member is crucial for public to decide on matters of social issues. Highlighting the issues of minority Muslims and giving space to people from the community who are positively contributing to society are necessary to this end.
Being associated with a small and regional publication, he tries to bring in local leadership to the fore and portray the work they are doing in their regions.
His reportage includes political issues, social issues, tracking political developments and rights violations. He is presently publishing Nishan Akhbar in Sitapur in Eastern Uttar Pradesh.
He has also worked with various regional Urdu newspaper and with a Hindi daily national before devoting fulltime for Nishan publication. He is behind the series on discussion on Constitution called Vimarsh Shrinkhala on the Nishan AKhbar’s online channel.
Almas has a base in the minority community with his newspaper, Nishan of circulation of around 50000 copies, which is helpful to highlight the issues of secularism, minority rights, concepts of equality and justice among other. Almas wishes to work create awarness among the minorities about the constitutional values.
He has been working towards this end through social media and online platforms. He creates memes having content of Constitutional values. He is also organizing talk shows where eminent social workers take part and discuss issue of communalism and communal harmony. He also orgnised a talk show on the importance and role of Urdu journalism in Indian nation building and highlighting the social issues of the society.