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Pratyoush
Onta/Radio and the politics of democratic culture
in Nepal
This
paper focuses on Radio Nepal, in particular its
early period in the 1960s when the Panchayat system
was being established. At that time, the new political
system needed philosophical justification, which
state radio aspired to provide in part. In weighing
this period of Nepal’s history, this presentation
is mostly suggestive and general, and many details
have been left out.
The
history of radio programming in Nepal is only
a half-century old. Radio arrived in 1951 with
the arrival of democracy, but in the first decade
it did not seem to play much of a role. For example,
the Nepali Congress did not issue radio proclamations.
But after King Mahendra’s December 1960
coup, radio became a tool to reinforce the ideological-cultural-political
matrix.
Of
all mediums, radio was the farthest reaching.
By and large, radio programmes featured development
themes, the promotion of bikas. After 1965, only
Nepali language programming was aired in most
categories, helping to establish Nepali as a national
language.
In
the six months after the 1960 coup, Radio Nepal
spent much effort trying to justify the dismissal
of multi-party democracy. In following years,
culture became an important theme of radio programming,
often as a guise for justifying the existing political-social
structure. Explicitly political programming concentrated
on Panchayat philosophy after the Panchayat constitution
was promulgated, and more generally, radio became
a tool for promoting kingship.
Concerning
development, in 1960-62 Radio Nepal devoted significant
attention to the east-west highway, often implying
that the road was a result of the king’s
efforts. The distinction between justifying the
Panchayat system and justifying bikas is difficult
to make, as the two agendas intersected: good
citizens were ones who supported the king and
worked for the advancement of the nation.
Critics
often say that Radio Nepal was a tool of the regime,
but that is not the whole story. While development
imperatives were used to justify the political
situation, international compulsions and theories
of nation building must also be considered. UNESCO,
for instance, estimated in the 1960s that 70 per
cent of the world’s people lacked access
to information sources. Governments were invited
to create state-supported media outlets, and many
academics and consultants touted radio as a tool
of economic development and even nation building.
However, internationally famous texts about radio
and media development had nothing to do with democracy;
in fact, they were implicitly statist. The promotion
of radio was more closely linked to development
– and expectations of social change –
than with democracy.
By
1969, these general assumptions had made their
way into a UNESCO report on radio in Nepal. The
report argued that the public likes radio, as
is clear from the popularity of community listening
centres, and consequently, state-backed radio
programmes on development could advance bikas.
Consultants in these years also supported the
use of Nepali as an exclusive language of education
on the ground that it would help build the nation-state.
While
it is relatively easy for a developed country
to have a free press, developing countries generally
have a more difficult time. And, indeed, some
international consultants supported the Panchayat
radio system, even as it was used against multi-party
democracy. In contemporary Nepal, the legacy of
these years is that Radio Nepal continues to be
the country’s dominant medium, and reform
efforts continue to be resisted.
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