Please click on the video clips to thoroughly enjoy the excellent piece - Editor
 Political communication or PC is the oxygen of democracy like
India. Soon after the Independence, PC, wore many hues as the government
pursued its series of nation building and political objectives. Official
media, particularly AIR, unknowingly transformed itself into common-man-friendly
mass medium only after 1962 Chinese attack. Please read to understand the
untold story of the national broadcaster – a seventh in the series by S Narendra, former adviser to PMs
and PIO and ex-Government of India spokesperson who weathered many a storm!
This is the story of the bygone era when we didn’t even hear
about FM. We just AM and SW (Short Wave)
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Until 1967, commercial advertising was banned
on All India Radio (AIR), the most powerful mass medium channel under
government control since its inception in 1930s. Why or how radio advertising
was banned are some of those unresolved questions. It may not be very wrong to
surmise that commercial advertising, ubiquitous symbol of a free market-oriented and
consumption-led economy, did not fit in
with the ideology of state controlled, socialistic economy embraced by the
political establishment of the time. Anyway, the post-war scarcity economy did
not offer people much to consume.
This commercial void was very adequately
filled by Radio Ceylon (now Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation) and Radio Goa (under Portuguese rule up to
1962) drawing away Indian advertisers. The famous Binaca Geetmala anchored by
Ameen Sayani broadcast from Radio Ceylon was a hit with Indian masses. Unlike
AIR that occasionally played melodious Indian film music, these two
broadcasters used Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and other language film music
as their staple fare from 6.45 AM to midnight. The most prominent brands that
rode on film music were: the ones such as Woodward’s Gripe Water (ajwan water
for infants), baby food by Glaxo, Ovaltine drink promoted for strength,
tooth-pastes like Kolynos with chlorophyll, McCleans, Bayer’s aspirin.
The most coveted Swiss watch - Favre Leuba - and
7’O clock razor blade kept the radio time. The symbols of good grooming were
Afghan snow, a first Indian competitor to Pond’s, Brilliantine for hair. Toilet soap Lux
for beauty led the field, followed by Lifebuoy for cleanliness. The Indian
brands making radio noise from Colombo were the likes of Dongre’s Balaamrut and Amrutanjan. It won’t be an exaggeration is I say that we came
to know of our own films in the making from Radio Ceylon.
The Chinese attack in 1962 indirectly
affected the fortunes of Radio Ceylon and AIR differently. Suddenly the Indian
government and the people discovered that the defence forces serving in far-flung
border areas need to be connected with the rest of country. Also, there was
realisation that they needed some element of entertainment. Besides sending troupes of film-folks to
border areas for entertaining the troops, the government allowed AIR to introduce
twice a day one-hour long ‘Fauji Geet Mala’ with Hindi film music. By
entrusting the anchoring of such film music slots to prominent film
personalities, AIR suddenly pulled in
huge audiences. Without the government realising it, it had opened a channel
that united Indians like never before and went on to serve the cause of
national solidarity as well as that of the Hindi language. In fact, film music
on radio and later Chitrahar programme on Doordarshan (1980s) served the cause
of Hindi much more than the Official Hind Language department of the government.
Until Hindi film music came to dominate, AIR
was an elite media that patronised classical Hindustani and Carnatic music, emerging
as an unparalleled repository of music of this genre. The introduction of
dedicated hours for popular film music changed the social base of AIR audiences
and placed it on the path to become a
truly mass media by beaming film music on medium wave transmission through
networking of its low-power transmitters. However, this path faced a big hurdle,
since radio sets cost a princely sum of
Rs 400 or more that was beyond the income of most
households.
In fact, there used be celebration and many
an eyebrow would be raised when anyone acquired a radio set. Village Panchayats
had radio sets playing farmers programmes and regional news.
Another significant change in communication
scene coincided with AIR embracing commercial advertising. India of 1960s was
literally eating ‘from ship to mouth’, that is, massive American wheat imports
coming in as aid was under PL-480 given to people from ration shops. From 1964,
the government had initiated Intensive Agriculture Development Programme or
green revolution by spreading new crop technology to farmers.
The musical instrument Harmonium had been banned on AIR, since 1952,as the then
I&B minister B.V.Keskar, another elitist inclination against this common musical accompaniment present in most film
music of those days. When Fauji Geetmaala was introduced on AIR, this ban on
harmonium also disappeared.
While the filmy music emerged as a strong unifying element,
another development went u8nnoticed. All India Radio as a mass medium airing
commercial advertising was perhaps the first step in transforming India as
one single common market in a virtual sense. In a virtual sense because while
people got to hear about brands with all-India marketing aspirations,
the relative lack of physical
infrastructure like air, rail, road transport
and telecommunications limited the marketers’ reach as well as consumers’
access to brands. India as a single common market took its full physical
shape only after 1991-onward economic reforms which opened the economy.
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Then we had the Bharat Electronics (BEL)
developing a radio set costing Rs 80. Such radio sets were distributed free to Radio Rural Forums.
Farm experts communicated with farmers via AIR. Soon these low cost radio sets
entered millions of homes. This was an unprecedented successful experiment in
development communication.
Radio from now on came to be referred to as
transistors which could be found even with street vendors. This media
revolution went on to become the most potent political weapon when prime minister
Mrs Gandhi split the Congress party and launched her economic revolution through ‘garibi hatao’.
The high voltage political drama satiated the
people’s appetite for news. The Congress party in 1967 had lost power in
several states and, for the furst time, the opposition strength in Parliament
had crossed 200 members. Suddenly, the misuse of AIR, especially its news, by
the government became a hot topic of political debate.
Indira Gandhi’s critics often referred to AIR
as All Indira Radio as its news bulletins would invariably begin with: “The
Prime Minster said today that....” and in Hindi: “Pradhan Mantri Ne Aaj Kaha Hai ki.....”
Superb Post !!!
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