A new kind of imperialism? The BBC, cold war broadcasting and the contested geopolitics of south asia

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Acknowledgements

Thanks are due to the British Academy for their ongoing intellectual and financial support in the form of a Postdoctoral Fellowship, Professor Klaus Dodds for his helpful comments on an earlier draft of this paper, and the editorial team who have compiled this special issue. Special thanks also go to Monica Thapar of the BBC Written Archive Centre, who has worked tirelessly to locate and ‘vet’ the files that have informed this research; and to S. K. Singh, Mark Tully and Mark Dodd for giving up their time to help me better understand the historical and geopolitical context of BBC–Indian relations.

Notes

Notes

1 K. C. Sharma, The BBC and India, Indo-British Review (A Broadcasting Partnership: India and the BBC—1932–1994), Vol. XX(2) (1994), 82–84.

2 Andrew Walker A Skyful of Freedom (London, Broadside Books, 1992), 116.

3 For more on Louis Malle, see Hugo Frey, Louis Malle (Manchester, Manchester University Press, 2004).

4 Harvard Film Archive (www.hardvardfilmarchive.org).

5 Susan Seymour, Calcutta: A Review, American Anthropologist, New Series 73(2) (April 1971), 503; Hugo Frey, op. cit.

6 Ibid., 503–504.

7 Peter Montagnon (1994) A question of balance, Indo-British Review (A Broadcasting Partnership: India and the BBC—1932–1994), Vol. XX(2) (1994), 53.

8 Todd Gitlin, Phantom India, Film Review Quarterly, 27(4) (1974), 57–61.

9 National Archives of India (hereafter NAI) XPP/3070/44/70: Decision to close down BBC for her anti-Indian activities (Memorandum complied on 17 December 1970).

10 Ibid. The letter was despatched to Sir Charles Curran on 3 August 1970.

11 Interview: Mark Dodd, Former Head of BBC Eastern Service (Telephone: 17 December 2007). It is worth noting that France had its own colonial legacy in India, having administered the trading settlements at Pondicherry (now Puducherry), Karikal and Yanaon (now Yañam) on the Coromandel Coast.

12 Surenedra Kumar, Liaising in London: an Indian diplomat recounts his experiences with the British Media, Indo-British Review (A Broadcasting Partnership: India and the BBC—1932–1994), Vol. XX(2) (1994), 71–76. The BBC's Bush House and the Indian High Commission in London sit side-by-side on the crescent-shaped Aldwych, between The Strand and the Kingsway.

13 Congress(R) was a faction of the Indian National Congress (INC) Party that was most loyal to Indira Gandhi and her policies, following a split in 1967. Although Congress(R) was the breakaway faction (and was referred to as ‘new’ Congress), the electoral commission decided that it was, nonetheless, the ‘real’ INC.

14 Lok Sabha Approves Action Against BBC: Account of Parliamentary Debate, The Statesman, 28 August 1970, 3. Accessed at the Nehru Memorial Library and Museum (hereafter NMLM): Roll No. 5212.

15 It is worth noting, however, that equally vehement criticism had been received from Pakistani listeners during the 1965 conflict—a fact that was considered by the BBC to indicate an overall balance in its approach.

16 Letter to Editor (from Radha Mahan Prasad), The Statesman, 29 August 1970, 3 (NMLM: Roll No. 5212). Emphasis added.

17 Andrew Walker, op. cit, 114.

18 NAI XPP/3070/44/70. During the 1970s Marxist liberation movements in the Portuguese colonies of Mozambique and Angola (FRELIMO and MPLA respectively), lead the way in rejecting both ‘old’ colonialism (territorial, etc) and ‘neocolonialism’ (cultural, economic, etc.). It is unclear whether the BBC had any explicit connection here. For a broader discussion of decolonisation in Mozambique, see James Sidaway and David Simon, Geopolitical Transition and State Formation: the Changing Political Geographies of Angola, Mozambique and Namibia, Journal of Southern Africa Studies, 19(1) (March 1993).

19 David Caute, The Dancer Defects: The Struggle for Cultural Supremacy during the Cold War (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2003).

20 In so doing Pakistan became the chief US ally in South Asia. See, for example, Dennis Kux, The United States and Pakistan, 1947–2000: disenchanted allies (Baltimore, Johns Hopkins University Press, 2000).

21 Prior to 1947, BBC personnel had been instrumental in designing and implementing India's broadcasting system. The BBC employee, Lionel Fielden, had played a central role in fashioning the identity of All India Radio (AIR), while Sir John Reith had even contemplated—albeit briefly—leaving the BBC altogether to take the helm of Indian broadcasting. See John Reith, Into the Wind (London, 1949) and Alasdair Pinkerton, Radio and the Raj: broadcasting in British India (1920–1940), Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, 18(2) (April 2008), 167–191.

22 BBC Written Archive Centre (WAC) E1/2064/1. Letter from Derek Holroyde (BBC, New Delhi) to J. Beresford Clark (Director of External Broadcasting), 23 September 1955.

23 Radio Ceylon was, in fact, the oldest radio system in South Asia having been founded in 1923. By the 1950s/60s it was being widely lauded as the ‘king of the airwaves in South Asia’ thanks to popular presenters/personalities, music programming and language services in Tamil, Sinhalese, Hindi and English. Source: V. S. Sambandan, When Ceylon ruled the airwaves, The Hindu, 1 January 2006, Magazine, p. 12.

24 Carol Forrester, Navjot Gill & Graham Mytton (1994) BBC audience in India: 50 years of research, Indo-British Review (A Broadcasting Partnership: India and the BBC—1932–1994), Vol. XX(2) (1994), 10–21.

25 In fact, much of Radio Ceylon's popularity during this period can be explained by its near continuous broadcasting of Indian film music.

26 Forrester et al., op. cit, 14. The conclusions of the USIA's 1954 report resonate strongly with the BBC's national survey of India from 2001/2 (see introduction), which identified a trust rating of 98%.

27 Julian Hale, Radio Power: Propaganda and International Broadcasting (London, Paul Elek Press, 1975). Chapter 4, ‘The BBC’, offers an interesting account of the development of the BBC's international reputation for impartiality.

28 Ibid.

29 NAI XPP/3070/44/70: Decision to close down BBC for her anti-Indian activities. Circular Memorandum, from S K Singh (External Publicity) to All Heads of Missions and Posts abroad (17 December 1970).

30 Ibid.

31 NAI XPP/3070/44/70: Decision to close down BBC for her anti-Indian activities. Letter of Support for the Indian Government (31 August 1970).

32 BBC's consistent slander campaign criticised, The Hindustan Times, 2 September 1970, p. 3 (NMLM: Roll No. R6165).

33 NAI XPP/3070/44/70. Katherine Mayo was, in fact, an American journalist who travelled extensively through India during the early 1920s. Her subsequent book, ‘Mother India’, was dismissed by Gandhi as a ‘drain inspector's report’ for its depiction of poverty and repressive social practices. See, The Mother Indian Syndrome, The Hindu, 17 October 2004, p. 12.

34 Ibid. See also, BBC's consistent slander campaign criticised, The Hindustan Times, 2 September 1970.

35 Mark Tully, Reporting India: the BBC agenda, Indo-British Review (A Broadcasting Partnership: India and the BBC—1932–1994), Vol. XX(2) (1994).

36 Extract of letter from Mr. R. P. N. Dhavan entitled ‘Effect on Race Relation’ to the Editor, The Times, reprinted in NAI XPP/3070/44/70: Decision to close down BBC for her anti-Indian activities. Circular Memorandum.

37 S. K. Singh, Imposing Sanctions: the BBC and the Louis Malle Affair, Indo-British Review (A Broadcasting Partnership: India and the BBC—1932–1994), Vol. XX(2) (1994), 80–81.

38 Subhash Chakrovarti, Across two media, Indo-British Review (A Broadcasting Partnership: India and the BBC—1932–1994), Vol. XX(2) (1994), 41.

39 Ibid.

40 Lok Sabha Debates, Fourth Series, XLIV(22) (New Delhi, 1970), 226. The Swatantra party had been established in 1959 in opposition to the Congress Party's brand of Nehruvian socialism, preferring, instead, free enterprise and increasing Western cooperation and inward investment.

41 Ibid. Emphasis added. Only Shri N. K. Somani (Swatantra) offered any form of explicit defence of the BBC at an institutional level by reminding parliament of the BBC's longstanding reputation as an ‘autonomous corporation’, while evidencing that between 1939–45, ‘even Germany and Russia … used to plug into the BBC news for getting facts and figures?’

42 The Loudest Silence, The Hindustan Times, 30 August 1970, p. 7.

43 The Indian press expressed general disappointment at the level and quality of parliamentary opposition to the government's position. The scant opposition that did emerge was condemned as politically motivated ‘caveats’, rather than opposition on matters of principle.

44 The Hindu, 28 August 1970, p. 9 (NMLM: Roll No. R8381).

45 The Times Weekly, 13 September 1970, p. 1.

46 Ajit Bhattacharjea, Mishandling Foreign Media, The Hindustan Times, 28 August 1970, p. 7. Emphasis added. Battacharjea's commentary seems remarkably prescient given Indira Gandhi's subsequent initiation of ‘Emergency’ provisions during 1975, which severely curtailed the freedoms of the printed and broadcast media across India (see conclusion).

47 This became a popular approach in the print media's reaction to the Louis Malle affair. In its Hindi-Urdu programmes on 27th August 1970, the BBC quoted extracts of British press reaction, and stated: ‘Had Britain been as sensitive as India had been over how the situation in Northern Ireland was reported in foreign countries, not even one correspondent would have remained in London’. See also NAI XPP/3070/44/70: Decision to close down BBC for her anti-Indian activities. Circular Memorandum, from S. K. Singh (External Publicity) to All Heads of Missions and Posts abroad (17 December 1970).

48 Prakash Mirchandani, Holding the Delhi Fort, Indo-British Review (A Broadcasting Partnership: India and the BBC—1932–1994), Vol. XX(2) (1994), 31.

49 S. K. Singh, Imposing Sanctions, op. cit.

50 Interview: S. K. Singh, Director of External Publicity in the Ministry of External Affairs in 1970 (India Habitat Centre, New Delhi, India, 10 May 2004).

51 Interview: Subhash Chakravarti (New Delhi, India, 6 May 2004).

52 Lok Sabha Debates, Fourth Series, XLIV(22) (New Delhi, 1970), 204–226.

53 Ibid., 212.

54 Ibid., 213.

55 Dietmar Rothermund, India and the Soviet Union, Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 386 (1969), 78–88.

56 Mark Tully and Zaneer Masani, From Raj to Rajiv: 40 Years of Indian independence (London, 1988). The schism in the Congress Party (1967) freed Indira Gandhi from the fetters of more ‘conservative’ members, and allowed her to pursue her own vision for the party and the country with more authority and certainty than ever before. An integral part of that vision was a much closer alliance with the Soviet Union, and an extension of socialist principles within India.

57 This unofficial alliance was ultimately formalised on 9 August 1971, when the Soviet Union and India signed an Indo-Soviet treaty in the pursuit of ‘peace, friendship and co-operation for a period of 20 years’. This seemed to analysts to be particularly concerned with questions of ‘collective security’. See Ashok Kapur, Indo-Soviet Treaty and the Emerging Asian Balance, Asian Survey, 12(6) (1972), 163–474.

58 FCO 26/269: BBC Overseas Service to India. Memorandum Re. BBC to India (9 September 1971). The National Archive: Public Records Office (TNA).

59 See, for example, Indu B. Singh, The Indian mass media system: before, during and after the national emergency, Canadian Journal of Communication, 7(2) (1980), 39–49; Alasdair Pinkerton, Radio Geopolitics: The BBC World Service and Britain's ‘Voice Around the World’ (Unpublished Ph.D. Thesis, University of London, 2006).

60 Sir William Hunter, The Old Missionary (Oxford, Henry Frowde, 1896), 2.

61 John Osman, India at war, Indo-British Review (A Broadcasting Partnership: India and the BBC—1932–1994), Vol. XX(2) (1994), 147.

62 See, for example, Kirk Johnson, Media and social change: the modernizing influences of television in rural India, Media Culture and Society, 23(2) (March, 2001), 146–169. Curiously, Johnson's article completely ignores the widespread presence of radio before the arrival of television. Even today radio still enjoys a much wider ‘reach’ across the Indian subcontinent (urban and rural) than television: 97.3% versus 41% (respectively).

63 In 1926, Eric Dunstan was seconded from the BBC to manage the development of the Indian Broadcasting Company. See Alasdair Pinkerton, 2008, op. cit.

64 Prakash Mirchandani, op. cit., 37.