From Nehru to Modi: Understanding the History of Indian Television Through a Post-Development Lens

Abstract

Digital India, the government's flagship programme, at first glance is a radical departure from the past and a welcome step forward to digitise the country's faltering infrastructure. However, as this chapter argues, seen through a post-development lens, the launch of Digital India can also be seen as a continuation of past governmental policies that hark back to the era of India's first Prime Minister and the continuation of such programmes thereafter, policies which used the medium of mass media ostensibly as a tool for development but ultimately as a mechanism of control. From the beginnings of television history in India and tracing its growth, this chapter shows that the policies of the present government, has its echoes in the past and development is still the rhetoric used to control the country's increasing population.