Television - The Intelligent Idiot Box

As a kid, I was always scolded for watching too many television serials. My uncle (Praharsh Mama) always said, “Do a Ph.D. in serials and movies as that is the only thing that holds your interest!” He might not have known then that his words will come true some day in future. Though not a Ph.D., I did my Master’s thesis on Indian Television Soap Operas.

Television has always been seen as an ‘instrument for entertainment’. It is used to amuse and entertain people in their idle time or to kill their boredom. Most of the English teachers in primary schools are obsessed with essays on ‘Television: An Idiot box’. Almost every year students give identical rhetoric speeches on same topic in elocution competitions and debates and keep on proving television as an Idiot Box. Thus, from a very small age, we solidify the notions of watching television as a trivial activity which is used to kill time or for pleasure and very rarely to get information (through 24 hours running news channels or National Geography and Discovery channels).

Is watching television only limited till the above stated notions developed in us from a young age? As a matter of fact, television industry is a highly profitable industry. It not only generates employment in creative sector, like writing, acting, directing but also in technical and financial sectors. Qualified engineers are recruited to develop and circulate new and latest technologies such as Direct to Home (DTH) services, inventing new and better television sets for a better television watching experience, technical assistance in producing television programmes, telecasting them and so on. Thus television also plays an important role in economic development of any country.

Not only economical, but television can also cause major political repercussions. Arvind Rajgopal in his book, ‘Politics After Television’, analysis the emergence of one of the strongest political parties and the development of Hindutva movement in India. He says, “In January 1987, the Indian state-run television began broadcasting a Hindu epic in serial form, The Ramayana, to nationwide audiences, violating a decade-old taboo on religious partisanship. What resulted was the largest political campaign in post-independence times, around the symbol of Lord Ram, led by Hindu nationalists. The complexion of Indian politics was irrevocably changed thereafter.” He further adds, “While audiences may have thought they were harking back to an epic golden age, Hindu nationalist leaders were embracing the prospects of neoliberalism and globalisation. Television was the device that hinged these movements together, symbolising the new possibilities of politics, at once more inclusive and authoritarian.” Studies like these establish that watching television is after all not as trivial an activity as it seems to be. It can influence ideologies of masses which can result into great political moments.

My thesis does not get deeper into the above mentioned aspects of television viewing; rather it concentrates on a different yet very powerful domain which is highly affected by the television viewing patterns of the masses, the ‘Cultural Aspect’. Many theoreticians and academicians in west as well as in our own country have pointed out towards the effects of television programmes on endorsing or creating new cultural paradigms. My thesis will try and explore the cultural connotations derived from the soap operas and how it then adds on to being an important part of our own cultural. It somewhere constantly keeps on redefining the term -‘Indian Culture’.

This thesis is a small attempt to understand this phenomenon by analysing the popular television serial ‘Balika Vadhu- Kachi Umra Ke Pakke Rishte’. The serial is broadcasted on Colors Television in India and abroad. The serial has maintained high TRP ratings from the time it has been launched, not only that, it even changed the blue print of Indian soap operas. Hence, this series has been taken as the case study and will be thematically analysed to understand why it became instantly popular with its audience and how it defines Indian Culture.