The Idiot Box: Government Controlled Mass Media and Hindi Imposition

The radio and TV media have helped the Hindi protagonists the most in imposing Hindi upon the vast unassuming non-hindi speaking population of India in the last couple of decades.

DD National is a channel Doordarshan started with an intention of telecasting TV programs (99.99% Hindi) to the entire nation. Of course regional language movies were telecast on Sunday afternoons. The very choice of this poorest of poor time slots - Sunday afternoon i.e. - for a TV program shows the degree of neglect shown by the channel towards other Indian languages.

Why does DD National feature only programmes in Hindi? And why should DD National be the only channel receivable across the country without a booster? And who's funding all these things - we the people - there's a big chunk of public money being allocated for Prasar Bharati (which also runs DD National, Vividh Bharti FM station etc.) every financial year. It is because of policies of Prasar Bharati combined with the Rajbhasha policy all such channels are obliged to carry most content in Hindi. Why else does one hear Bangalore edition of FM Rainbow featuring so many Hindi songs while the Bangalore FM market is so heavily bent towards Kannada entertainment? Isn't it amply clear that the Rajbhasha policy is here to bulldoze all the other bhashas of India? Will we, the people, let it bulldoze our languages lying down?

Getting Deeper Into Consumer Affairs

The Indian Ministry of Consumers Affairs includes a department taking care of consumer affairs and their welfare in India. Under its aegis, a set of rules has been listed to regulate consumer information, safety and comfort. Among these rules is this peculiar one that particularly addresses the importance of good packaging of consumer goods.

Under Chapter II, Section 9 (4) refers to a particular way in which Declarations on packaged consumer goods must be made. What this says is that the declaration must be either in Hindi (Devnagri script) or in English, but of course, the central government through this rule doesn't preclude usage of any other regional language on the package, as long as Hindi is not missed out. What's so official about language used on consumer goods?

While this presents a clear case of myopic thinking on the part of policy makers, to every individual consumer, this translates to an additional indirect expenditure of no avail, especially in non-Hindi speaking states. So going by number of people living in these states, nearly most of India (around 60+%) is bearing the additional burden of expenses on packaged goods which come with the mandatory Hindi Declarations as well.

All this doesn't mean the Indian government is sitting quiet observing all these wasteful expenditure incurred by its subjects & corporates alike. It is also, in turn, spending money to educate people and make them Hindi Literate - thereby creating a virtual less-lossy environment for corporates. As a by-product, of course, all other languages (and cultures associated with them) are rapidly going down the drain, thereby shaking the very pillar of our unity - cultural diversity.

So what're all these costing the common non-Hindi speaking consumers? Much. One - for a consumer to learn a new language only to be a consumer. Two - always bear the extra costs of packets with multiple languages, because, come what may, Hindi would never fully be absorbed by tens of Crores of non-hindi speakers in India (stats for this are available everywhere). Three - the true consumer's interests are being compromised with, businesses cornered-in with misplaced polity intervention. At the end these are only driving consumers into a pit of confusion amidst multiple languages - something that will invariably follow when policy makers get so deep into consumer affairs.

Welcome!

Welcome to my Brand New Blog!

Here I plan to think aloud, and share somethings that I come across in life, with a hope that it will make an interesting (and intriguing?) read. So, do come back; you never know, there might be some surprise waiting for you here.

Till then..