The spirited scribe

Died: Shahnaz Anklesaria Aiyar, 64, veteran journalist whose byline in leading Indian dailies reflected her commitment to the cause of developmental issues; on July 4, 2015 in Washington, DC following a 12-year struggle with cancer.
Commending Anklesaria’s "out of the ordinary capacity for painstaking investigation covering a wide variety of social concerns,” the Media Foundation 1983 Chameli Devi Award for an outstanding journalist conferred on her further acknowledged, "She has strengthened a dimension of contemporary journalism in India by making such topics news and mobilizing opinion for constructive change.” The plucky reporter was then working as feature writer and main legal correspondent of The Statesman.
As Anklesaria had conveyed to Parsiana (see "Best woman journalist,” Events and Personalities, October 1984), "I began journalism, working with an English language public affairs magazine called Himmat. That was from 1977 to 1982 — in which year I was its editor. I was attracted to the magazine because I appreciated the gutsy stand it took during the Emergency when it defied press censorship and a series of other repressive measures by the government and refused to publish distorted versions of the truth.”

Kalpana Sharma who was editor of Himmat prior to Shahnaz noted in a tribute to her colleague, "What I remember best from those days was the vigor with which Shahnaz threw herself into the job, the passion she had for issues, particularly those that affected the poor. She was willing to travel with very little money to unearth some of these stories and wrote them with remarkable insight and feeling.” In her column on rediff.com India News, Sharma further wrote, "Her reporting stood out for its thoroughness.”
When Himmat closed at the end of 1982 after running into financial difficulties, Anklesaria joined The Statesman in Delhi. Reminisced another contemporary Neerja Chowdhury in The Indian Express, "We joined The Statesman at about the same time and sat facing each other in a little space carved out of what used to be the sports room, which hardly endeared us to the sports editors of the time!
"What stands out in my mind is our visit to Punjab in 1984 in the hours after Indira Gandhi ordered Operation Blue Star, with the army storming the Golden Temple. The border had been sealed and a curfew imposed. Shahnaz and I set out from Delhi towards Punjab. There were buses and trucks lined up, not allowed to enter the state. We somehow managed to get across the border, sweet talking our way in… Shahnaz even charmed the gun-toting army officials into telling us something about what was going on. I was trepidatious that they would bundle us out if they knew how we had smuggled ourselves in. We had been assigned to do an ‘atmosphere piece’ as also a series on Punjab in the days that followed. She would tell me, ‘NC you let me do the final copy,’ and after some argument I would reluctantly agree for Shahnaz was a better writer than I.
"During those years we were rivals, collaborators, confidantes, all rolled into one. It was a period when our sensitivity to gender issues — and a sense of our rights as women — grew. It was also the time when Swaminathan Aiyar (popular columnist and an editor of The Times of India group) was courting her, and many in the office smiled knowingly when he would amble in at lunch time. When they married, she made him change his name to Swaminathan Anklesaria Aiyar just as she took his surname.
"We wrote about bonded labor, child labor, undertrials languishing in jails, and were educated about the complexities of the caste system in Bihar. This ‘Parsi Princess,’ as a friend liked to call her, gave a voice to those who did not have one.”
Yet another honor to come her way was the 1984 Journalism for Human Rights Award, conferred by the People’s Union for Civil Liberty — India Today. As commented columnist-author Sanjoy Hazarika on rediff.com, "Her work won awards and recognition for its quality, campaigning style and incisiveness, free of the verbiage that drapes the work of our present day pundits of print and broadcast.”
After marriage to Swaminathan, the couple moved to Washington, DC where Aiyar worked with the World Bank and Anklesaria joined The Indian Express as its Washington correspondent for a couple of years. On their return to India for a brief spell Anklesaria continued with the Express whilst devoting time to their adopted son Rustam.
Sherene Vakil who worked with Shahnaz on the Express recalls, "She was fun to be with. Her columns were hard-hitting and exposed the prevalent double standards over gender issues. She was very family oriented whilst being a feminist in the truest sense. No nonsense would be tolerated.” Shahnaz subsequently worked with India Today.
Although well established in her career, mid stream she decided to do her Masters in special education in the US for she believed that those with learning difficulties needed trained personnel to help them realize their potential. She taught at the reputed Lab School in Washington. The only child of Burjor and Mani Anklesaria, Shahnaz’s early education was at Loreto School and College in Calcutta, mentions her childhood friend Jeroo Antia. She subsequently did her Masters in political science from the Bombay University.
An avowed feminist, Anklesaria had written to Parsiana, "Feminism, to me, is an alternative ideology to patriarchy… I do believe that Parsi law as it stands is anti-woman… There is nothing worth commenting on the ridiculous custom which lays down that the child of a Parsi mother married to a non-Parsi has no right to belong to the religion of his mother. Something so patently sexist must be challenged.”
Having enjoyed her hospitality and friendship in Washington, Hazarika wrote, "She loved entertaining people and lavished love and companionship on her friends; she’d cook large and delicious meals during those visits… She was constantly creating new spaces in their home for their amazing collection of sculptures and handicrafts from across the world.”
As manging trustee of the Centre for North East Studies and Policy Research, Hazarika further appreciated that "Shahnaz and Swami have a very special link with Assam and the health work we do on the Brahmaputra with the boat clinics, reaching the poor and marginalized with health care in Assam, the state with the worst maternal mortality ratio in India. They sponsored the construction of several boats and in 2008 came to inaugurate the one which is running in Tinsukia, the SB Swaminathan. But the first boat from their generosity was SB Shahnaz, which like the person who gave it its name, was graceful, beauteous and supportive… Shahnaz the boat has been damaged extensively but we are determined to rebuild it. That was a decision taken some time back and reaffirmed on July 6 as across Assam in 15 boat clinics in the offices of our organization, at the stroke of 11 a.m. doctors nurses, organizers, boat crew and staff rose to observe a minute’s silence to honor her…”
The feisty crusader is survived by her husband Swaminathan Anklesaria Aiyar and son Rustam.