In the last decade of 20th century, the Indian economy formally embraced the process of privatisation and liberalisation which began in 1991, heralding the contemporary phase of globalisation. The mixed economy, which was based on self-reliance and import substitution in the planning era, was opened to foreign investment, finance and trade. These economic reforms have changed the nature of capitalism and the nation-state and had a profound impact on Indian society and culture. Technology and economic change, which came with globalisation, have also transformed the media business, accompanied by an increase in literacy, expanding purchasing power and a volatile political situation in the Hindi belt (Bhaduri & Nayar 1996; Jeffrey 2000; Ninan 2007; Das 2013). Amid these changes, the media has emerged as an important site of ideological production and public discourse.
In contrast to the US, UK and Germany, where
circulation figures for print publications are on the decline and the 21st
century slogan is 'Internet first,' the Indian print media industry has been
growing steadily. According to the Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC) report
for 2017, despite competition from television, radio and the digital medium, the
average number of copies of print media publications in India went up by 23.7
million between 2006 and 2016. Most importantly, Indian languages have propelled
this growth, in particular the Hindi press, which was the fastest to grow, at
the CAGR (Compound Annual Growth Rate) of 8.76 per cent, during the period 2006-2016,
while the English-language press grew during the same period by just 2.8 per
cent.[i]
Against this backdrop, the relationship between the neoliberal
phase of globalisation and Hindi newspapers is intriguing and open to different
interpretations. Hindi newspapers have an identity of their own and have emerged
as market leaders, leaving behind the dominance of the 'elite' and 'national'
English newspapers. Using global technologies such as computers, the Internet,
fax, cell phones, etc., the Hindi press has expanded its reach into the small
towns and mofussil locations away from metropolitan centers, thus reinventing
and in the process transforming the existing post-colonial public sphere.[ii]
In the same decade, during the 1990s, there
were significant churnings in the socio-political cauldron of north India, which
led to the emergence of Hindu nationalism based on Hindutva ideology and political
participation of lower castes/class based on the ideology of social justice.[iii] With
the interplay of these twin political projects, which came to be known in the
popular media as Mandir and Mandal respectively, the influence of
Hindi newspapers among the ruling elite of Indian democracy has also increased.
At the same time, the Hindi press internalised the changes induced by the burgeoning
market and consumerist ethos of corporate capitalism in the liberalised economy,
changing the culture of news production, dissemination and 'definition.' The
question, however, is what have been the characteristics of this process of change?
What were the paths it followed? In other words, what have been the prominent
journalistic practices and features of the Hindi press in this globalizing,
neo-liberal nation-state? Did it lead to the vernacularisation of Indian
democracy or to the refeudalisation of the Hindi public sphere?[iv] In this paper, I map and analyse
the contours of these developments in the contemporary Hindi public sphere in
the 21st century.
(Published in South Asia Chronicle, Humboldt University, Berlin, 2021 (11), 141-166)
For full paper see the link below
(https://www.iaaw.hu-berlin.de/de/region/suedasien/publikationen/sachronik/sachronik)
[i] See Audit Bureau of Circulations. 2017. Press release:
Print media is growing: 2.37 Crore copies added in the last 10 years. 8 May,
http://www.auditbureau.org/news/view/53 [retrieved 28.11.17].
[ii] In this paper, I use the terms Hindi press
and newspapers interchangeably.
[iii] See for example the
works of David Ludden. 2008. Making India Hindu. New Delhi: Oxford
University Press, and Christophe Jaffrelot. 2003. India’s silent revolution. Ranikhet: Permanent Black.
[iv] Lucia Michelutti.
2008. The vernacularisation of democracy. New Delhi: Routledge, p. 204. In her
study of the north Indian city of Mathura, in particular the social and
cultural practices of Yadavs/Ahirs, Micheluti mentions the process of
vernacularisation of Indian democracy. Although she does not dwell upon the
role of the Hindi press in this process, she notes in passing that, 'Local
newspapers advertised the regional meeting and the MYS (Mathura Yadav Sammelan)
organised three informal gatherings in Ahir Para to organise the trip to
Kanpur. These meetings were reported in the local newspapers Amar Ujala, Aj and Dainik Jagran.
This is an example of how vernacular media are heavily used by the local Yadav
caste associations and how important printing material is in placing the Yadav
community in the public arena.' Furthermore, she also defines the
vernacularisation of democratic politics as 'The process through which ideas
and practices of democracy become embedded in particular cultural and social
practices, and in turn become entrenched in the consciousness of ordinary
people ', p. 217. Taberez Ahmed Neyazi. 2011. Politics after vernacularisation:
Hindi media and Indian democracy. Economic and Political Weekly, 5 March,
pp. 75-82. Neyazi has further elaborated upon 'vernacularisation and the role
of Hindi press in the deepening of Indian democracy.' As he points out, 'The
expansion of Hindi newspapers into the hinterland, though directly motivated by
profit generation, also helped in creating a space for marginalised groups to
raise their grievances in the public arena. As English newspapers have largely
been concentrated in urban areas, and television is mostly national and
regional, the local space, which remained unrepresented, was appropriated by
Hindi newspapers.' See also Ursula Rao. 2010. News as culture. New Delhi: Foundation Books, pp. 84f.:
'Through local pages and by supporting the making of news networks, Indian
newspapers offer institutionalised "social capital" for democratic
circulation. It is the door to a "parallel" universe of connections
and influences. The desire to become connected, and the reality of having to
work through relations, turns newspapers into a local organ. Newspapers achieve
what Berger (2000) has called the democratic participatory role.' Jürgen
Habermas. 1989. The structural transformation of the public sphere. Cambridge: Polity Press, p. 206.
Habermas writes about the refeudalisation that occurs as the commercial
interests of powerful corporations dominate the media market and usurp the
rational-critical function of the public sphere. He writes about the
transformation of public sphere: 'Before the expanded public sphere the
transactions themselves are stylised into a show. Publicity loses its critical
function in favor of a staged display; even arguments are transmuted into
symbols to which again one can not respond by arguing but only by identifying
with them.' I am using 'refeudalisation',
in the Indian context, to mean manipulation of the
mass media through 'paid news' and 'Khush khabar (good news)' and thus
subverting the 'rational-critical' space in the participatory democracy. Here a
reader is perceived as a consumer of the (mass) product rather than a (public)
citizen.
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