For all of 70 years, Thayil Jacob Sony George spoke truth to power, in recent years at risk of being labeled ‘anti-national.’ One of the most accomplished editors in the country, George’s was a life well spent in newsrooms and J-schools across South India.
Published Oct 09, 2025 | 12:13 PM ⚊ Updated Oct 09, 2025 | 2:07 PM
Thayil Jacob Sony George (7 May 1928 - 3 October 2025)
Synopsis: For proprietors of media, columnists like TJS served a purpose. Writings like his provide the “mask” that help them claim being fearless, washing away the sins committed by otherwise being pro-establishment. But, times have changed. From the 1970s to the early part of this century, when newspapers did what was expected of them, to the beginning of the BJP rule when they managed to wear the mask, it did not take media houses too long to realise that the surrender had to be total.
The face reflected a sense of calm, peace, and serenity. There was a reason for it.
Thayil Jacob Sony George, known to us readers as TJS for years, talked the talk and walked the walk throughout his long life, and he had no reason for any regret: it was a life well lived, in its truest sense. All of 97 years.
Among the few journalists whose mortal remains deserve to be draped in the tri-colour, TJS will be right at the top of such a list. As a journalist for over 70 years, starting soon after he graduated from Madras Christian College, he always thought of the nation, for the nation, and for the good of its people. He had no other consideration – as a full-time editor, teacher of journalism, or as a columnist in the later part of his life.
But all good things must come to an end, as TJS wrote in his last column that appeared in The New Indian Express, on 12 June 2022. It is important to recollect a paragraph from his last column.
“Some of us feel that we should not criticise our own country. Some feel exactly the other way – that a big country like ours needs to be cautioned all the way about pitfalls. All arguments have their own supporters and their own critics, their own validities and their own drawbacks. But, there is something not right if a country and its rulers start feeling that they should not be criticised at all – and especially by newspaperwallahs,” he wrote.
Full of grace, TJS said it as subtly as he could. He did not forget to acknowledge that he could not have written for over 25 years but for the tradition of the Express to rise to its readers’ expectations.
But times have changed. The readiness to be critical of the establishment, once considered a fundamental quality for a journalist, now leads to being called an “anti-national” in the new language we are all getting used to.
A front-page tribute in The New Indian Express, a day after TJS’ death on 3 October 2025, said he laid his pen to rest in June 2022, after penning 1,300 columns. The truth is: he was asked to.
It was the fag end of my days as editor of that newspaper. I refused to convey the message that he should stop. If I did, I would have carried the guilt of stopping his column till my death. Eventually, the message reached him.
Months later, he was conferred the prestigious RedInk National Award for “Lifetime achievement” by the Mumbai Press Club.
As someone who never craved publicity, TJS patted himself on the back, writing that it was a proud achievement to keep the discourse going for really long years with discerning citizens of this great country. “It is now time for others to carry on. The fight must go on.” Opposed to the BJP, primarily for its “hegemonic” approach, he was, however, conscious of reality. Soon after BJP’s victory a second time in 2019, he would say in conversations that none would be able to stop the party from being in power until at least 2029. He said as much in his columns.
For proprietors of media, columnists like TJS served a purpose. Writings like his provide the “mask” that help them claim being fearless, washing away the sins committed by otherwise being pro-establishment. But, times have changed. From the 1970s to the early part of this century, when newspapers did what was expected of them, to the beginning of the BJP rule when they managed to wear the mask, it did not take media houses too long to realise that the surrender had to be total.
A famous proprietor-editor of a big media group said recently that the problem of “balance-sheets” that are dependent on government doles made them lose their independence. It is more of a self-censorship, not the one imposed openly during the days of Indira Gandhi. That could be fought. This cannot be fought. TJS also wrote for one such newspaper. It worked as long as it did but no more. Another leading Malayalam newspaper, though, had the courage to publish his writings occasionally even after he stopped writing in the Express.
We now live in an era where newspapers and channels have more than one editor – the one who is visible and known to all of us, and the editors who are “invisible.” It’s the “invisible” editors who decide which story to highlight, which ones to ignore, and the “stance” that needs to be taken. The “visible” editors are compelled to oblige.
If you look at it, the “rulers” are not wrong in their belief that the narrative needs to be controlled, for which the likes of TJS, a Dhruv Rathee, Parakala Prabhakar, Mohammed Zubair and Ravish Kumar have to be reined in. One needs to only look at how narrowly the BJP escaped a major cut from the people’s sword in 2024, to understand why those in power are fearful of the “fearless”. They need to be silenced.
A day after his death, the Prime Minister’s Office reached out to convey that the Prime Minister intends to send a condolence message to the family. As a fellow journalist put it, the grace and learning with which TJS disagreed made it hard for even the Prime Minister not to pen a tribute.
Transactional as we have become, it was not difficult to notice those missing at the funeral of TJS, even as a large number of admirers from the media fraternity turned up at the Hebbal crematorium in Bengaluru to pay their respects. As a non-believer, that was how TJS wanted it to be. He may have been reduced to ashes but those embers will keep burning and hopefully the “fight” that he put up will be carried on.
