Reinforcing a New Indian Identity

India, that is Bharat, has existed as a civilization for a very long time. Even before the Greeks could comprehend philosophy, the Indian civilizational state was producing some of the greatest philosophical texts in various domains, many of which are relevant to the day. Some of the oldest universities in the world came into existence in this part of the world. If not for the colonisation and decimation of India’s indigenous identities, Bharat would have probably been at par with some of the most developed nations in the world. Even though 75 years of India’s existence in its current form has yielded a period of respite from the shackles of a colonised master, our thoughts have not been liberated.

We are plagued with a thought process that is a product of the Western hegemonic ecosystem that establishes the superiority of Western civilizational thought. Western civilizational thought has a tendency to disregard the wisdom of oriental cultures. In his Magnum Opus Orientalism, Edward Said takes due note of this phenomenon, where he notes –

“In a sense, the limitations of Orientalism are, as I said earlier, the limitations that follow upon disregarding, essentializing, and denuding the humanity of another culture, people, or geographical region.”

Bharat never was a nation-state as per the established Western standards of the terminology. Benedict Anderson, in his work Imagined Communities, necessitates the existence of certain factors that are essential for a nation-state to exist; these include the national imagination, limitations, a sovereign, and a sense of belonging to the community. The Indian civilizational state, which was connected through a cultural thread, had none of these was therefore not a nation. It was a collection of indigenous ethnic identities that were, a lot of times, warring with each other. It was this disunity that provided the space for colonisers to gradually take over political control from indigenous populations.

Anderson also speaks of the invention of Gutenberg’s Printing Press and the role of newspapers in the establishment of national identities. In a more contemporary context, the media plays a role in shaping and reinforcing national identities. As such, the role of the Indian media in reinforcing a new Indian national identity becomes an area of discussion. Popular culture and media also exercise soft power and, as such, are instrumental in advancing India’s long-term goals of establishing itself in the image of a ‘Vishwa Guru’, which roughly translates to ‘a teacher for the world’. India’s soft power prowess through the use of its ancient wisdom became very evident with the popularisation of yoga. As the ‘International Day of Yoga’, celebrated on 21st June, came to be declared by the United Nations, it lent credibility to ancient Indian knowledge and wisdom.

The vast wisdom that is stored in India’s ancient texts must be exhibited to the world so that they are able to experience and even critique, for what is wisdom that cannot stand the test of time. It is here that the role of the Indian media comes in. The media in India must be able to represent a version of India that is modern and yet rooted in its ancient wisdom. While there is substantial representation of India in Western media, the lens with which they look at India is one that is coloured with thoughts that could be explained through Orientalism. This is probably the reason why depictions of India in the Western press seem to be derogatory and even racist at times. It is here that one is reminded of a New York Times cartoon after India’s successful Mars Mission. While there was an official apology that was issued later yet the publishing of the cartoon reflects a mindset – a mindset that sees India as a regressive third world nation plagued with poverty and incapable of feeding its population.

There was indeed a time in India’s contemporary history when the nation had to face the humiliation of being in a ‘ship to mouth’ existence. This was after the British left India, with the Indian economy constituting only a two percent share of the world economy, down from twenty percent when they had taken over. The image of India in the Western press has always held the shadow of India’s poverty-stricken colonial past. Owing to politico-economic factors, there is a faint chance that the representation of India in the Western media will have any considerable improvement.

The tendency of the West to criticise the Indian media for a lack of objectivity and independence is clearly established by reports such as the Press Freedom Index published by Reporters Sans Frontières, which ranks India at 142. The Indian media has also played a very important role in mitigating the internal dynamics of various events. Throughout India’s contemporary history and its existence as a nation, the Indian media has played a very important role in setting up the necessary checks and balances for a functional democracy. An important instance from contemporary Indian history that is worth mentioning here is the infamous Emergency that was declared by Indira Gandhi from 1975 to 1977. The Indian Express went to print with a blank editorial representing censorship by the Indira Gandhi Government in the name of Emergency.

The COVID-19 pandemic is another such example where the Indian media played a very important role in keeping the Government on its toes. Indeed, some media houses give more space to the state actors to represent their voices and even so, it cannot be disregarded that there was substantial criticism coming out of India’s media houses. Be it the labour migration crisis when India’s first lockdown was announced or the floating bodies in Uttar Pradesh, the Indian media has led dialogue critiquing the government’s actions. It is indeed true that in the contemporary context, the media is polarised and there are politico-economic pressures that various media houses have to definitely tackle. Even so, the independence of media opinions is visible when some of the most critical coverage of the Indian government comes from an Indian media house. The critique of the Government of India, again, during the Chinese encroachment into Indian territory is worth noting.   

Even though there is substantial evidence that there is diversity of opinion in the Indian media, there seems to be a certain discourse that is being peddled and popularised in this regard, about the biased nature of the discourse, which is only one-sided in nature. Drawing on the MacBride Commission’s ‘Many Voices One World’ report, the flow of news, which is skewed towards the West, is a contributing factor to the image of India that is being built in the Western media. It is therefore imperative to at least make an attempt to encourage the creation of media that is cantered in India so that an Indian perspective on international events becomes presentable. Al Jazeera, from Doha, is an example in this regard, which acted as a counter to the Western-centric discourse. Another attempt at the democratisation of discourse came from Brazil, through its Marco Civil Da Internet. While it was criticised by the West as an attempt to balkanize the internet, it was also seen by others as a counter to the West’s imperialism. “War is merely the continuation of politics through other means”, were the words of Carl von Clausewitz, but in contemporary times, hard power has substantial limitations. The soft power projection through a national media, which is based in India and entrenched in Indian values, is therefore the need of the hour to represent India as it actually is, rather than what imperialist discourses have made it to be.

Robin Jeffrey’s India’s Newspaper Revolution had taken due note of the fact that there is a lack of representation of India’s marginalised in the decision-making bodies of mainstream media. Although, digital divide is an absolute reality, social media has enabled the democratisation of discourse, lending a great amount of voice to the voiceless. In order for the mainstream media discourse in India to be more representative, this is another gap that needs to be worked upon. There is a need for more representation of marginalised voices in the mainstream media discourse. To build a new India, the concern shouldn’t be on what India is, but what the projection of India is made to be.

Originally published with Sanchar Srijan, a publication of the Indian Institute of Mass Communication. Please click this Link.