Pathbreaking Christian

The associate editor of India's second largest English newspaper discussed her 25-year career as a pioneering Christian journalist in her predominantly Hindu country. Seline Augustine, one of very few Christian journalists in India, spent several days visiting communication classes at Andrews University this week.

According to Augustine, Christians make up only 2.4 percent of India's population. "God put me at The Hindu," she said of her 17 years with The Hindu, a national newspaper with a circulation of more than one million, where she is in charge of features for the Sunday Magazine, Friday Review, and the Children's World sections.

Prior to joining The Hindu, Augustine spent ten years as a reporter at The Indian Express, a local newspaper with a circulation of 300,000. 
Augustine entered journalism at a time when she said the expected careers for women in India were nursing, telephone operators, and teaching elementary school.

With two major strikes against her, being a minority within a minority group, Augustine defied the norm to become a journalist in India where journalism was, and still is, a male career, although things are changing, according to Augustine.

Augustine credits her achievements to God.

"I never thought I would make it. I don't deserve it. It is the Lord who brought me to experience this great profession," she said.

Augustine lectured on "Gender Roles in India,"  "Democracy and Intercultural Communication," "Intercultural Communication and the Press in India," "Journalists in a Non-Christian Context," and "Current Journalism Issues in India" March 4-5 at Andrews University's Communication Department's annual lecture series. Augustine's host for her American trip, Dr. Melchizedek Ponniah, a professor in the Communication Department, has known Augustine and her family since he was the Seventh-day Adventist pastor in her hometown.

A Methodist, born and raised in a Christian family, Augustine's dream was to be a teacher. She told Andrews University students she earned a master's degree in English literature. Because it was a tradition for the graduate with the highest grades to join the English faculty, Augustine eagerly applied.
However, she was rejected. She was a woman.

Disappointed, she sought employment with the Indian Express newspaper as a reporter. She describes the unfolding of her career as "divine appointment."
It is not the norm for Christian events to be covered or publicized in the media in India. However, Augustine prayerfully looked for opportunities to cover Christian events. She approached the editors and publishers with pitches for articles on Christian crusades, the death of a prominent evangelist's daughter, concerts and seminars. Because Augustine is also a reviewer, she covered many concerts that are held in churches, simply because that is the venue for concerts in her locale.

"When you are on the staff of a newspaper and you are a Christian, you feel strongly about being a Christian and you can do many things," Augustine told a class of advanced media writers. "It is the small things I do. I don't want to give the impression that I am doing big things."

At an evening public lecture, Augustine said she is often chided and challenged by her colleagues for trying to cover Christian news. However, she told the audience she is a journalist who believes in journalistic tenets of objectivity and fairness. She also covers Hindu society as part of her job, she said, as a professional journalist.

Augustine has made sure that Easter and Christmas and other Christian high points and events have received prominent coverage in The Hindu.
One challenge she reflected on was the weekly Hindu practice of Puja, showing reverence to a god or spirit through prayers, rituals and offerings of food. Augustine said she was expected to partake of food offered to the gods in this ritual, but she refused politely.

She emphasized the importance of being polite and not obnoxious in these types of circumstances.

Augustine says things are changing throughout Indian culture. More female journalists work in Indian newspapers. According to Augustine, the government is helping to create opportunities for women to enter positions predominantly occupied by men, including CEO's, police commissioners, the Post Master General, and other media positions.

Globalization, according to Augustine, has also been a triggering factor for empowering women in India.

Even though her dream was to be a teacher, "God had other plans," she told her audience. "God gave me the best of both worlds. Coming to Andrews is the high point of this opportunity."