Table Of Content

The Indian Public Sphere The Themes in Politics series presents essays on important issues in the study of political science and Indian politics. Each volume in the series brings together the most significant articles and debates on an issue, and contains a substantive introduction and bibliography. OTHER BOOKS IN THE SERIES Language and Politics in India Asha Sarangi (ed.) Globalization and Politics in India Baldev Raj Nayar (ed.) Hindu Nationalism and Governance John McGuire and Ian Copland (eds) (Oxford India Paperbacks) Civil Society and Democracy A Reader Carolyn M. Elliott (ed.) (Oxford India Paperbacks) Parties and Party Politics in India Zoya Hasan (ed.) (Oxford India Paperbacks) Democracy in India Niraja Gopal Jayal (ed.) (Oxford India Paperbacks) Gender and Politics in India Nivedita Menon (ed.) (Oxford India Paperbacks) Secularism and its Critics Rajeev Bhargava (ed.) (Oxford India Paperbacks) State and Politics in India Partha Chatterjee (ed.) (Oxford India Paperbacks) The Indian Public Sphere Readings in Media History edited by Arvind Rajagopal 1 1 YMCA Library Building, Jai Singh Road, New Delhi 110 001 Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide in Oxford New York Auckland Cape Town Dar es Salaam Hong Kong Karachi Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Nairobi New Delhi Shanghai Taipei Toronto With offices in Argentina Austria Brazil Chile Czech Republic France Greece Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan Poland Portugal Singapore South Korea Switzerland Thailand Turkey Ukraine Vietnam Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press in the UK and in certain other countries Published in India by Oxford University Press, New Delhi © Oxford University Press 2009 The moral rights of the author have been asserted Database right Oxford University Press (maker) First published 2009 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from Oxford University Press. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address above You must not circulate this book in any other binding or cover and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer ISBN-13: 978-019-806103-8 ISBN-10: 0-19-806103-X Typeset in Minion 10.5/13 by Eleven Arts, Keshav Puram, Delhi 110 035 Printed in India at Pauls Press, New Delhi 110 020 Published by Oxford University Press YMCA Library Building, Jai Singh Road, New Delhi 110 001 4 Contents List of Illustrations, Tables, and Charts ix Preface xi Acknowledgements xv Publisher’s Acknowledgements xvii List of Abbreviations xix Introduction 1 The Public Sphere in India: Structure and Transformation Arvind Rajagopal PART I: FORMATION OF A COLONIAL PUBLIC SPHERE 1. Transmission 31 Ranajit Guha 2. The Indian Ecumene: An Indigenous Public Sphere 49 C.A. Bayly 3. The Politics of Popular Images: From Cow Protection 65 to M.K. Gandhi, 1890–1950 Christopher Pinney vi Contents 4. Obtaining Moral Consensus in a Law and Order 88 Society: Indian Responses Rajeev Dhavan PART II: THE NATIONAL POPULAR 5. Redefining Obscenity and Aesthetics in Print 101 Charu Gupta 6. The Hindi Political Sphere 121 Francesca Orsini 7. ‘Women-Oriented’ Narratives and the New Indian Woman 135 Purnima Mankekar 8. Who is it that is Singing? Shot–Music–Speech 151 Aniket Jaaware PART III: NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND MEDIATIC INFRASTRUCTURE 9. The Mahatma Didn’t Like the Movies and Why it 171 Matters: Indian Broadcasting Policy, 1920s–1990s Robin Jeffrey 10. ‘Subliminal Charge’: How Hindi-Language Newspaper 188 Expansion Affects India Peter G. Friedlander, Robin Jeffrey, and Sanjay Seth 11. A ‘Split Public’ in the Making and Unmaking of the 207 Ram Janmabhumi Campaign Arvind Rajagopal 12. Forging Public Opinion: The Press, Television, and 228 Electoral Campaigns in Andhra Pradesh G. Krishna Reddy PART IV: EMERGENT ORDERS: LOCALIZATION, CONSUMERISM, DIGITAL CULTURE 13. Close Distance: Constructing ‘the Indian Consumer’ 247 William Mazzarella Contents vii 14. Local News Gatherers 260 Sevanti Ninan 15. Globalization, Sexuality, and the Visual Field: Issues 278 and Non-issues for Cultural Critique Mary E. John 16. Internet in India 291 K. Gopinath 17. Call Centre Conundrum 312 D. Wood Appendix: Literacy, Print, Radio, and Television Growth 1941–2006 320 Select Bibliography 329 Notes on Contributors 337 4 Illustrations, Tables, and Charts ILLUSTRATIONS 3.1: Photographic montage of Gandhi embodying 78 other figures of political potency, c. mid-1940s, central India 3.2: Jay Hind, photographic montage of Subhash 79 Chandra Bose, Gandhi and others, c. mid-1940s, central India 3.3: Gandhi reveals his true allegations to B.K. Dutt, 81 c. 1931. Just as Hanuman, the monkey-god tears open his chest to reveal his allegiance to his master, the god Ram, so here Gandhi tears open his (inferior) peaceful exterior to reveal his faith in revolutionary struggle 3.4: Mata ka Bandhan Mochan, late 1940s. Rising Art 83 Cottage, Calcutta. Bose accepts Bhavani’s sword, repeating earlier imagery in which Shivaji received the same sword 3.5: The ten avatars of Subhash Chandra Bose, c. 1950 86 x Illustrations, Tables, and Charts TABLES 4.1: Offences by Publication in the Indian Penal Code 96 10.1: Daily Newspaper Circulation, Literacy, and India’s 190 Population, 1961–98 12.1: Population Change in Andhra Pradesh and 233 Newspaper Change in Telugu, 1961–91 A Table 1: Literacy and Media Growth, 1941–2006 324 CHARTS A Chart 1: Readership Growth versus Television Viewership 320 Growth, 1977–2001 A Chart 2: Growth in Print, Radio, and Television and in 321 Literacy, 1941–2001 A Chart 3: Growth in Population versus Growth in Literary, 321 1941–2005 A Chart 4: Growth in Readership and in Literacy, versus 322 Population Growth, 1941–2005 A Chart 5: Growth in Newspaper Readership and Television 322 Viewership versus Growth in Population and in Literacy, 1941–2005 A Chart 6: Growth in Newspaper Circulation versus Estimated 323 Readership, 1941–2005