Seline Augustine's career is anything but typical for a Christian woman in India--especially since she first ventured into journalism 25 years ago when Indian women had few career options beyond nursing, telephone operating and elementary school teaching.
Seline Augustine’s career is anything but typical for a Christian woman in India—especially since she first ventured into journalism 25 years ago when Indian women had few career options beyond nursing, telephone operating and elementary school teaching.
Speaking to a group of communication students at Seventh-day Adventist-owned Andrews University, Augustine shared her experience as a pioneering Christian journalist in a predominantly Hindu country. Christians make up a mere 2.4 percent of India’s population, and Augustine says her colleagues often challenge her for covering Christian news, especially around Christian holidays such as Christmas and Easter.
However, Augustine says she holds fast to the journalistic tenets of objectivity and fairness, and that means covering all aspects of Indian society, including Christian events and issues. “When you are on the staff of a newspaper and you are a Christian, you feel strongly about [your Christian identity] and can [make an impact],” even if only in the “small things,” Augustine told the students.
“I don’t want to give the impression that I am doing big things,” she was quick to add, crediting all her achievements to God. “I never thought I would make it [this far] ... It is the Lord who brought me [here].”
Before Augustine got into the news business, she completed a university degree in English literature and applied to join the English faculty but was rejected because teaching higher education was considered a man’s career. So was journalism. But Augustine snagged a job as a reporter with The Indian Express, a regional newspaper with a circulation of 300,000. “It was a divine appointment,” she says, and one that launched her career.
A decade later, “God put me at The Hindu,” Augustine said, where she has spent 17 years as associate editor, running the nationally circulated newspaper’s Sunday Magazine, Friday Review and Children’s World sections, read by more than a million Indians.
Augustine says she is encouraged by recent signs of progress in India. She says more women are working as journalists—as well as CEOs, police and other traditionally male-dominated fields—thanks to recent equal-opportunity government initiatives and the empowering force of globalization.
Even though she didn’t become a teacher as she originally planned, “God had other plans. [He] gave me the best of both worlds,” Augustine told students.
While at Andrews, Augustine lectured on several topics, including gender roles in India, democracy and intercultural communication, and the Christian journalist’s role in secular society. Augustine visited the university as part of Andrews’ annual lecture series. Dr. Melchizedek Ponniah, a communication professor at Andrews who used to pastor the Adventist church in Augustine’s Indian hometown, hosted her visit.