The 1961 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Journalism, Literature and Creative Communication Arts

CITATION for Amitabha Chowdhury

Ramon Magsaysay Award Presentation Ceremonies
31 August 1961, Manila, Philippines

AMITABHA CHOWDHURY has been in the vanguard of a new journalism in the Bengali press. He sees the modern Indian intellectual as the heir to an ethical system and a philosophical culture, who, whether he is a politician or government official, is judged by his honesty, self-sacrifice and the urge he shows to public service. It is to this tradition that AMITABHA CHOWDHURY has courageously responded.

Now Assistant Editor of Jugantar, an influential Calcutta daily newspaper in Bengali, his crusading sensitivity to the problems of his fellowmen was demonstrated soon after he joined the staff 12 years ago. Assigned to report on the great movement of refugees in Bengal following the partition of India and Pakistan, he introduced a humanized style of writing in the Bengali press and established his newspaper as a champion of the cause of the refugees.

As a Parliamentary Reporter, he next chronicled the actions of officials and the political forces that influence them. The rapid expansion of government bureaus, the corruption, inflation and the loss of pride in official morality all were portrayed with concern for the reason as well as the fact. He was dismayed to find that much of the press, reared in a tradition of protest against foreign rule, was largely apathetic to this drama of what leaders of Bengal were making of India's independence.

Taking up the challenge in 1956, he began a weekly column entitled Nepathya Darshan, or "Scenes Behind the Curtain," which gave the angry and dissatisfied Bengali intellectuals and poor men alike their first effective means of voicing legitimate grievances. Instilling hope in an atmosphere of deepening frustration, he meticulously documented and exposed more than 250 cases of abuse of power in high levels of government. The result was the dismissal, demotion or initiation of legal action against some 50 delinquent officials. The column also aroused constructive public debate of social maladies by its examination in depth of causes and possible remedies.

An Indian leader in the use of this journalistic skill, his reporting bespeaks a deep concern for human welfare. With uncompromising integrity and rare boldness he has upheld high ethical standards for his profession as a guardian of the public conscience.

In electing AMITABHA CHOWDHURY to receive the 1961 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Journalism and Literature, the Board of Trustees recognizes his scrupulous and probing investigative reporting in protection of individual rights and community interests.