By S.Narendra
(Former Information Adviser to PM, Principal Information
Officer &
Govt. Spokesperson)
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Political communication, the oxygen of an open, functioning
democracy like India, is at the present moment choked with vituperative
confrontation. Te recent parliamentary proceedings and the TV debates have
left much to be desired as far as the behaviour of our political leaders. The
political institutions supposed to be dedicated for leading the healthy
discussions at national and State capitals have become non-functional and
alternative channels like media and social media have taken over. In this tit-for-tat
era, it is instructive for students of communication like me to take a look
at the evolution of political communication from the freedom movement to the
present. I am sure, as you read, you will agree with me!
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Political
communication (PC) is the oxygen of a democracy like India. When it purposefully
moves through the body politic, it will keep the heart and mind of the
democratic polity healthy. It follows from the premise that the PC comes from
many voices and in many hues, making the Indian democracy vibrant and colourful.
One of the most respected scholars on
Political Science, Earnest Barker in Reflections on Government calls democracy
as the revolution by consent. He pays a great tribute to India by reproducing
the preamble to our Constitution as his Forward to another book of his.
According to Barker, this preamble epitomises the best in western social and
political theory that developed over three centuries. The preamble, along with
the chapters on Fundamental Rights, (of which the rights to freedom of expression,
practice of faith and profession, are critical parts), and the Directive
Principles of State Policy set the framework for our political communication.
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| Charkha - symbol of the original political communication |
The
evolution of political communication in India runs parallel with the political
development of India from the 18th century. This background is
essential for understanding PC. The inspiration for political communication and
its broad socio-political agenda came from decades of freedom movement that
preceded Independence. It initially addressed the elites of India at home and
the political opinion makers in Britain. Leading intellectuals of the time such as Gopalakrishna Gokhale and Srinivasa
Shastri adopted the British political
communication styles and modes as they believed in changing the colonial rule
while working from inside. In contrast, Balagangadhar Tilak and several others
wanting to change the system while remaining outside of it, took a more
strident stand. Tilak’s famous statement:’ Freedom is My Birth Right’ echoed in
his newspaper Kesari, stands out and posed a direct political challenge to the
British. With this began the political communication of confrontation.
Gandhiji’s differed from Tilak in so far as the means for achieving this birth
right. His peaceful civil disobedience, that set the tone for freedom struggle
morphed into mass Satyagraha movement. This was a mission, a medium as well as a
message all rolled into one. It galvanised the ordinary people who were
recipients of political communication and became its messengers.
Wrapping
PC around symbols drawn from the common
man’ s everyday life such as making of salt, making one’s own cloth from Charkha and Khadi (to teach self -reliance),
burning of British cloth (Swadeshi) for infusing national pride and arouse
anger against colonial suppression of Indian enterprise were part of Gandhiji’s
master stroke series! In an era when there was no media, the use of symbols
(wearing the trade-mark lion cloth, half dhoti and displaying of bare chest,
and symbolic acts like Dandi march, fasting, travelling by III class coaches,
courting arrest, prayer meeting followed by discourse, Prabhat Pheris all
became the political media and the message of
a mass movement.
Scholars’ Perspectives: The
broad features PC adopted by leaders at this stage of India’s political development
very tightly fits in with the definition of ‘political communication’ given by
leading scholars on the subject. R.E Denton and G.C Woodward in their Political
Communication in America characterise it as the ways and intentions of message
senders to influence the political environment. Another view is that the key
factor that makes communication ‘political’ is not the source of a message, (sender and form of
communication such as speeches, media coverage, ordinary citizens’ ‘talk’,
public discussions) but its content and purpose. Another group of scholars emphasise
the ‘strategic nature of political communication in which the role of
persuasion in political discourse is critical. It is noteworthy that PC has to
be ‘strategic’ strategic’ for influencing public knowledge, beliefs and action on
politics. For some writers, PC covers verbal or written communication as well
as visual representations such as dress (Gandhi cap, wearing of Khadi clothing,
dhoti, by politicians), make –up, hairstyle (Indira Gandhi’s famous silver
streak and wearing of simple sarees in public appearances) and party symbols
and various other props to establish political identity. In PR terms, we call
it as Image management.
Allow
me to get into some nitty-gritty since its relevant in the context of current
political communication scenario.
A
writer regards strategic political communication
(SPC) as comprising ‘PC that is manipulative in intent, that utilises social
scientific techniques and heuristic devices to understand human motivations,
human behaviour and the media environment, to inform what should be
communicated and what should be withheld, with the aim of taking into account
and influencing public opinion, and creating strategic alliances and an
enabling environment for the policies of the political establishment-at home
and abroad. The PC that emanated from the freedom movement leaders stands up
remarkably well to all the above cited academic frameworks and attributes defining PC.
Initially,
available media in the form of newspapers, pamphlets and widely publicised
petitions to the Imperial government in London complemented the political
campaign for gaining Indian representation in the governing system of India.
Then came the trend of leaders of freedom movement like Gopalakrihna Goghale
(The Maratha, Servants of India Soceity journal) and Balagangadha Tilak
(Kesari) starting their own news
newspapers. Having one’s own communication vehicle also increased the political
clout of such leader-publishers. Gandhiji’s Harijan and Navjeevan were not only
his political instruments but also vehicles for propagating his social reform
mission. If one glances through the Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi running into
more than one hundred volumes, he was an incessant writer of letters and most
of them were loaded with political messages. Separately, publishers of
newspapers in different languages arrived in support of the struggle for
independence, especially after Gnadhiji took over its leadership. These
newspaper owner–publishers were observers of the movement as reporters or even
commentators. At the same time, they became participants in the freedom
movement by making their newspapers as its
campaign vehicles. It was not usual for such owner-publishers to hitch
their newspaper to one or the other leader. These publications came to be known
as ‘nationalist newspapers’. Their credibility and influence (if not their
circulation) grew in direct proportion to the government’s action to block
them. It was not unusual for literate participants in the struggle to make a
digest of news relating to the movement published in newspapers and circulate
among the people who had no access to them. In my own house in Mysore, my elder
brother and sister and their friends were engaged in this work. The word of
mouth played a significant role in rallying the illiterate people.
Media’s Legacy: This
‘participatory role’ of Indian
newspapers had a profound impact on the way the newspapers functioned,
including their content in the first decade of independence. The
newspapers could not shed their perspectives and orientation as less than
critical followers of leaders. As Inder Malhotra, a senior journalist noted in
a newspaper column that the newspapers adulation of leaders made them blind to
the blind–spots of leaders who had now become rulers. If one examines the
contents of newspapers of this period, they continued the practice of
reproducing the speeches and statements of politicians and official press
releases (the practice of printing verbatim Rastrapati Bhavan’s daily press notes
of President’s engagements - an imperial legacy- was stopped in 1972). Among the staff,
political correspondents outnumbered the other reporters, causing heavy
coverage of political news. Only a shock like the Indian army’s debacle in the
Sino-Indian war of 1962 made them sit up, get out of their awe of erstwhile
leaders of the freedom movement and ask
questions normally raised by journalists in a democracy. Of course, there were
exceptions to this practice but such exceptions were drowned out by
cheer-leaders. PC had to wait for many more years to emerge as communication
for empowering citizenry to hold the rulers accountable. This clearly establishes
that PC as a theme and its consequences for the evolution of economic and
political policies deserves deeper academic studies.
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| Immortalised at Sabarmati |
The Government Media: On
the colonial government’s side, there were a few newspapers like the Statesman,
Civil and Military Gazette and others.The government’s political communication
translated many times into brutal action against the freedom movement, like
incarceration of its leaders, mass lathi-charge and censorship of newspapers.
This
action had twin effects. The first was the case for freedom emerged stronger,
attracting an increased number of people into the struggle. The other was to
make the political opinion in Britain to sit up in horror and search for a
compromise. Not only the press in Britain but also the media in the US began to
focus on the freedom struggle and the political communication, indirectly.
As
and when the British government came up with constitutional reforms like
Minto-Morley Reforms, later Montague and Chelmsford Reforms and the Cripps
Mission, the government made efforts to put across its point of views through
the official machinery. An Information department was created within the Home
affairs department. The Indian involvement in the first and second World Wars moved the government to scale up its information (propaganda) dissemination
machinery .The radio, named AIR/Akashavani came in 1927 and acquired the
tradition of working as the megaphone of the government. Ownership of radio
sets was limited but as a novel electronic media wielded a great influence and
increased the velocity of the word of mouth. The PR wing of the
government-Press Information Bureau (PIB) was set up in mid-1930s. Its first
chief J.Henessy in a first of its kind submitted an official report containing
PIB’s performance to the government. In this meticulously compiled report, he
tried to correlate the use of government money on PR and media relations with
the output and impact. In table after table, he records the column centimetres
of space gained in newspapers through press releases and other activates.
Perhaps this was the first and the last such attempt by an official media unit to
hold itself accountable to the money spent by it.
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| The author sunarendra@gmail.com |
The birth
of official journals like the defence magazine Sainik Samachar (Ruskin Bond was
associated with it), PIB and AIR during the Raj laid the foundations for the
development of a larger official media system after Independence. The launch of
five year plans for socio-economic development in 1952 moved the government to expand this official ‘publicity’
set up with the addition of field publicity vans for contact with the people, an advertising
wing (DAVP), Song And Drama division for harnessing folk media, and the
Publications Division for publishing books and official journals like Yojana,
Kurukhetra (for publicising CD or Community development movement, an idea of
S.K.Dey, a favourite of Nehru). Doordarshan made its appearance in 1959 but
acquired momentum in 1970s with SITE experiment. While the official media
machinery’s stated role was to spread awareness about development among the
people for bringing about their participation in it, in practice they have been
used by governments of all hues for political communication. The never
ending debate about their use and abuse
by governments in office is now part of
political communication and electoral code of conduct for contestants in
elections. (
Next:
Post Independence Period.
