One Voice Many Languages, Colonial Radio in India

Abstract

Languages knit people together, but at All India Radio we witness the reverse trajectory. Radio's first 20 years, 1927–47, coinciding with the last 20 of British rule, saw the subcontinent's kaleidoscopic linguistic profile creating havoc. Three emotive stumbling blocks emerged, affecting radio: did a nation need a single language or was a multilingual state sustainable; could an alien language gain acceptance; and could there be consensus on a language imposed for institutional convenience. With heavy dependence on English, the dominant language of broadcast, station directors, had the authority to allocate rest of the time to prevailing languages, juggling diverse vernaculars. Complications surfaced at most stations, but most prominent at northern stations where language from being socio-cultural indicators became religious pointers, Hindi associated with Hindus and Urdu with Muslims. All India Radio adopted Hindustani, the confluence of both for practical reasons; instead of two languages, it was easier to cater in just one. This espousal led to heated disputes, with Hindi supporters alleging that radio's Hindustani leaned heavily towards Arabic, and the Urdu clique seeing a definite predisposition towards Sanskrit. The epicentre of controversy were the news programmes. The radio policy of British India was generally to be cautious and to avoid needless controversy.