Date：February 16 2010, (Tue.) 16:00-17:30
Venue： Room AA401, 4th Floor, Research Building No.2, Yoshida Campus,
Kyoto University
http://www.asafas.kyoto-u.ac.jp/en/about/access.html
Speaker: Taberez Ahmed Neyazi (Visiting Fellow, East-West Center, Hawaii)
Discussants: Patricio N. Abinales (Professor, Center for Southeast Asian Studies, Kyoto University)
Gautam Bhaskar (Ph.D. candidate, Graduate School of Asian and African Area Studies, Kyoto University)
This research project explores the role of vernacular media in the
deepening of India’s democracy. India is not only the most populous
democracy - it is one where people from lower caste and class groups
are increasingly beginning to participate in electoral politics. This
has led to the political empowerment of lower caste groups in India.
What is striking about India is that the process of democratic
deepening has taken place despite the low level of economic
development, illiteracy and social divisions. While most of the
neighboring countries in the South Asian region have experienced
authoritarian rule and military dictatorship, India has remained a
successful democracy, except for a brief interlude of authoritarian
rule from 1975 to 1977. The case of India also negates the commonly
held belief that got established through the experiences of East Asian
countries that authoritarian regimes are needed in order to achieve
rapid growth. There is wide consensus among scholars about the
expansion of the participatory base of Indian democracy, which Yadav
(2000) has termed the “democratic upsurge”. In an attempt to
understand the mechanisms of the deepening of Indian democracy, this
research analyzes the role of Hindi news media. The main hypothesis of
my current research argues that the process of the deepening of
India’s democracy has occurred largely due to the rise of the
vernacular media with its ability to reach the masses that could not
be reached by English newspapers and television. This research
explores the role of Hindi media in facilitating the deepening of
grassroots mobilization in Indian democracy by paving the way for the
entry of hitherto marginalized groups into the political arena. This
is done through a study of one of India’s major Hindi language
dailies, Dainik Bhaskar (The Daily Sun). The structural development
and expansion over the years of Dainik Bhaskar exemplifies the
dominant position that Hindi news media has come to occupy in a
globalizing India. The entry of new social groups into the political
arena with the rise of grassroots movements and popular mobilization
since the 1980s has largely been facilitated by the Hindi newspapers
that have strong presence in small towns and rural areas. The
resurgence of Hindi newspapers has not only contributed to the further
consolidation of Indian democracy, but it also challenged the long
held dominance of English newspapers in the public sphere. It has also
resulted in ‘vernacularization’ of the public sphere and widening the
political and cultural space available for the hitherto marginalized
classes who could not participate in ‘national’ public sphere because
of a certain dominant mode of discourse hegemonized by the
English-speaking ‘national’ elite.
Taberez Ahmed Neyazi is currently Visiting Fellow, East-West Center,
Hawaii. He received Ph.D. from National University of Singapore in
September 2009. His dissertation title was "Media Convergence and
Hindi Newspapers: Changing Institutional and Discursive Dimensions,
1977-2007". His publications include “Cultural Imperialism or
Vernacular Modernity? Hindi Newspapers in a Globalizing India”, Media,
Culture and Society, Sage, London (Accepted for publication), “Global
Myth vs. Local Reality: Towards Understanding ‘Islamic’ Militancy in
India”, Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs, Vol. 29, No. 2, June 2009,
pp. 153-169, Routledge, London; and “State, Citizenship and Religious
Community: The Case of Indian Muslim Women”, Asian Journal of
Political Science, Vol. 15, No. 3, December 2007, pp. 303-318,
Routledge, London.