Perennial periphery

There are centres within centres and peripheries outside of peripheries. The Western press has always regarded Southasia as a periphery to be included in the news line-up, usually when another 100,000 people have been killed in a cyclone in Bangladesh; if there is another coup in Pakistan; when the casualty level is higher than 100 in a battle in Jaffna, or if the royal family is massacred in Nepal. Otherwise, Southasia is the three hours of darkness that one flies over on a flight from Southeast Asia to Europe – it tends to always fall into the cracks. But even within Southasia, it is the immense gravitational pull of India that dominates media coverage, and this often eclipses the smaller countries in its orbit. Correspondents based in New Delhi cover a region that has about one-fifth of the world's population. And these days, Southasia is said to include Afghanistan, so reporters spend half their time shuttling to Islamabad and Kabul from New Delhi. This means there is even less time for other Southasian countries.

There was, of course, a time when there was no 'South Asia.' It was all British India, except for Nepal. Journalists based in New Delhi, mainly for the British and American press, covered Independence and Partition, but within a decade they had set up a reporters' club, and called it the Foreign Correspondents' Association of South Asia. That they called it 'South Asia' meant that they may have been way ahead of their time. But in 1991 they regressed, and re-named it the bland Foreign Correspondents' Club (FCC).