India Radio 35

all india radio 35 All India Radio India presents huge challenges to any broadcasting institution with having the name of the organization changed to All India that aspires to serve the whole nation. All India Radio (AIR), Radio and for laying the foundations for public service broad- the state-run monopoly, was expected to take these challenges casting with the goal of providing information and education. on and help build a modern nation state with an egalitarian He returned to England in 1940. By 1947, the year of India’s social democracy. More than a billion people, nearly half of independence, the AIR network had grown to 11 stations with them living below the poverty line, are spread over a land mass 248,000 radio licenses. of 1.27 million square miles. Although urbanization and industrialization are the hallmarks of postcolonial India, nearly 75 percent of the population still lives in 55,000 vil- AIR Today lages, eking out a living from farming. About 10 percent are employed in industries in urban areas. India’s religious, cul- AIR’s growth and reach have been phenomenal in the last 50 tural, and regional diversity is striking, with 83 percent of the years. There are 333 transmitters today, including 146 population claiming Hinduism as their religion and Muslims, medium wave, 54 shortwave, and 133 FM. Some 210 radio Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists, and Jains accounting for the rest. stations cover 90 percent of India and reach 98 percent of the Fourteen officially recognized languages and hundreds of dia- population. AIR claims a listenership of approximately 284 lects coexist with English. Hindi, the official language of mod- million who tune in on 111 million radio sets. Although con- ern India, is slowly gaining a foothold with the masses. Uneven trolled by the central government, AIR introduced advertis- development characterizes India; cities such as Bangalore claim ing in 1967 and earns 808 million rupees a year (US$1 = 48 a place in the global computer industry as the “Silicon Valley rupees). The government makes up any deficit in its operating of India,” whereas villages have extremely bad roads and lack expenses. clean drinking water, medical facilities, and schools. Significant AIR broadcasts in 24 languages and 146 dialects for domes- advances have been made in literacy rates since independence tic audiences and in 24 languages for international audiences. in 1947, but a mere 52 percent are functionally literate. Social Approximately 303 news bulletins are aired daily, of which 93 inequity such as caste, class, and gender inequality can be are intended for national listeners, whereas regional stations found in urban and rural parts of the country. Untouchability originate 135 news bulletins daily. In addition, there are special is still practiced against nearly 170 million people who are cast bulletins on sports, youth, and other major events, such as the aside in near-apartheid conditions. annual Haj to Mecca by Muslims or the Kumbh Mela in Alla- habad. More than 80 stations in the AIR network broadcast radio dramas in various languages. Forty percent of the broad- Origins cast time, however, is set aside for classical, light, folk, and film music. The External Service, set up to act as a cultural ambas- Enthusiasts in India’s big cities pioneered radio by organizing sador, airs 65 news bulletins in 16 foreign and eight Indian lan- amateur radio clubs in the early 1920s. Their efforts, and the guages. In addition, magazine programs on sports and successful growth of radio in Europe and the United States, literature; talk shows on sociopolitical-economic issues; and gave impetus to a group of Indian entrepreneurs who estab- classical, folk, and modern Indian music from different regions lished the Indian Broadcasting Company on 23 July 1927. of the country are broadcast. Nevertheless, by 1930 their pioneering effort to launch pri- AIR employs well over 16,000 persons. Approximately vately owned radio ran into trouble because of lack of reve- 13,000 are regular government servants; the rest are contract nues. Broadcasting from their two stations, located in Bombay employees. They are transferable every three years, and so and Calcutta, they catered to the small European community these employees seldom come to know the community in and Westernized Indians while ignoring the masses. The colo- which they work. Such a huge organization cannot escape a nial government was faced with the rising tide of anti-imperial- hierarchical structure and the formal nature of appointments, ist sentiment in the country; being interested in the propaganda promotions, retirements, and codes of conduct. Instead of potential of broadcasting, it bought the assets of the Indian demanding commitment to listeners, the organization requires Broadcasting Company and renamed it the Indian State Broad- its employees to adhere to the rules and procedures of a large casting Service (ISBS). government department. Because the employees have very little In 1935 the colonial government took another decisive step functional freedom, creativity and innovation are sacrificed. by inviting the BBC to help develop radio; one of the BBC’s Lethargy, apathy, and favoritism unfortunately permeate the senior producers, Lionel Fielden, was sent. Fielden is credited organization. 36 all india radio Regulation and Autonomy the national emergency exemplified the extent to which the executive branch of the government could misuse its power Broadcasting is a regulated monopoly of the central govern- over the media. ment. The Indian Telegraph Act of 1885 was later amended to The debate on autonomy for broadcasting has finally vest the exclusive right to “establish, maintain and work” resulted in Parliament passing the Prasar Bharati Act of 1990, wireless apparatus in the Government of India. Consequently, which seeks to free radio and television from the direct control AIR has functioned as an arm of the central government ever of the government and place it in the hands of an autonomous since its inception. The Ministry of Information and Broad- corporation that would be managed by a board. That board casting is the policy-making body for the entire broadcasting would be required under the law to be accountable to a broad- system. Generalist officers drawn from the civil service manage casting council and in turn to a statutory parliamentary com- the ministry. The director general heads the AIR and executes mittee with various powers reserved to the government. The policy. The government has held that any member of the elite act has not been implemented, however. Indian Administrative Services can function as head of AIR with equal disinterest. Hence the director general is a bureau- Promises Versus Reality crat who may or may not be interested or qualified in radio. National television grew under the umbrella of AIR and in AIR’s heavily bureaucratic ways have been the major impedi- 1976 was given a separate structure called Doordarshan, liter- ment to innovation and creativity. In a highly pluralistic society ally meaning viewing from a distance. As one would view a with incredible linguistic, caste, and class differences, AIR has deity in a temple, TV audiences regularly gain a glimpse of the attempted not to offend any group. Controversial social and political establishment via Doordarshan’s newscasts. With a community welfare issues take a back seat while popular film mandate similar to radio’s, television has also seen remarkable music dominates. Regional language radio stations beam pro- expansion and reach in the country in the last three decades. grams to the whole state in a formal dialect, which renders it With the rise of privately controlled satellite delivery services, stiff and official. As a consequence, most people find AIR bor- India now has a mixed system of public and private enterprises ing. Radio, as a mass medium, is particularly suited to commu- in television, whereas radio has clearly remained a government nicate in the local dialect and idiom, thereby establishing a monopoly. personal connection between the broadcaster and the listener. The credibility of AIR news has always been in question, That has not, however, been achieved in India because of the however, not only because it is a government department but bureaucratic stranglehold on radio. also because of well-reported instances of interference by the The model of a centralized national radio service with many prime minister’s office, irrespective of who is in power. There regional and local stations intended to achieve the vision of has been considerable pressure from private and public institu- unifying the nation was well intentioned but expensive and dif- tions as well as from intellectuals in the country to create an ficult to deliver. For development purposes, more localized arms-length relationship between the government and the micro radio operations based in community and educational broadcast institutions ever since the National Emergency in institutions would have been more cost efficient and credible 1975. Suspending certain articles of the constitution, the prime with audiences. The distance between the program creators minister unleashed a reign of terror, which lasted almost 19 and listeners would have been reduced, which in turn would months. To silence dissent, the government engaged in mass have enhanced radio’s credibility with the rural masses. Per- arrests of prominent political leaders, trade unionists, human haps radio might then have met local needs better. Until rights activists, communists, and students. There were wide- recently, the government has guarded the frequencies as spread reports of torture and sterilization, especially of the though they were its property and has only reluctantly allowed poor. While the judiciary was not abolished, the ruling party in private program producers some space on the government- the Parliament passed certain amendments to the constitution controlled stations. This may lead to licensing of private FM to put the prime minister and her party loyalists above the stations that will, in all likelihood, be urban-centered.

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