“DOES INDIAN CHANNELS A THREAT FOR OUR CULTURE”

A famous writer Robert Sylwester remarks that:
“A child in a living room in which nothing has changed in days will thus focus on TV or video games and their emotionally arousing and continually changing environments. The more the environment deviates from normality, the more attractive it is to a developing brain that must explore and master many recognition and response strategies!” [1]

People now a days have a great access to all kinds of information and thus are connected to each other regardless of the geographical boundaries via a number of sources where electronic media has the biggest share as the world is becoming a global-village, especially when we talk about Pakistan where the poverty is high having people with low per capita income, where by giving just Rs.400 per month to cable operators more than 50 channels could be enjoyed leaving the minds to see dreams as a virtual reality form for the whole month. Not just in Pakistan but all over the world electronic media is progressing and is diffusing widely like fire. Amid globalization, Nation states need to preserve their culture as their identity. The cable TV, Internet and satellites have acted as catalyst in bulldozing the cultural boundaries. All these technologies have changed the mind set of ordinary people. Changes haven’t taken place not only in quality of life but also in social architect of society, Cultural values (for which India is known), have changed due to liberalization and globalization. As a result global culture is emerging.

The effects of cable TV on children are both positive and negative… most of the children are attracted towards Indian TV channels because their language is about same but there is a lot of difference in their cultural and ethical values. So there is a great difference in their programs also. Children are very much attracted towards the glamorized Indian programs. When they watch there is a different life style and culture they get confuse because there is a lot of difference between the environment they watch on TV and in which they live. As a result they start adopting different things from TV with out knowing its impact! Even small kids when see their channels they will start doing the same acts like they say some words like Namste or evolving the plate like an Aarti Thali.

Secondly they are promoting dance culture in our society. We are inspired from their dance programs like NACH BALIYE AND JHALAK DIKHLA JA. Now we want programs of their type on our television like Indian channels introduce INDIAN IDOL we have SANGEET ICON which has the same theme and format. So we are just coping their style of programs and culture.

Turning towards sex and violence issues, the vulgarity in these channels is increasing which could be seen as a result in the changing lifestyle of today’s youth. When we come to our media channels they are doing the same it seems like Indian channel are nowadays the trend setters, whatever they show in their channels it seems to be sure that it is going to be a main new norm of our media channels so we can say that it is not only effecting the youth but effecting our media as well. For that parents should take care that what their child are seeing because they know that what would be the outcome. But if they banned their child to see Indian channels then they will be more curious about these channels. That is also dangerous so parents should tell the good and bad points of seeing these channels so then they will know why parents don’t allow them to see these channels.

The call for banning Indian content in Pakistan was subsequently taken up on the one hand by the guardians of the country’s morality and on the other hand by some influential representatives of the media industry who argued that the across-the-fence productions were stifling locally-created works. Their logic, it appears, was that removing access to Indian material in the local market would encourage audiences to give Pakistani fare a chance, and promote the local television and film industry.

At first glance, there seems to be little wrong in this line of thinking. Our television and film industries are in their nascent stages, after all, as compared to the media powerhouse that is India. Remove the ‘bad’ influences and only the ‘good’ influences will be left, runs the apparent argument; ban the competition and we’ll corner the market.

First, let us take the complaint that the projection of Indian culture poses a grave danger to the values and social codes prevalent in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. This is the point over which the issue was raised in the National Assembly. But one must ask that if the public is indeed greatly concerned about the influence of Indian culture (as the MNAs argued), then why does it continue to prove so perennially popular in Pakistan? Indian productions are amongst the top sellers in the Pakistani DVD and CD market: clearly, millions of Pakistanis are unconcerned about the pernicious influence contained therein to the extent of spending their hard-earned cash on them.

Secondly, the not-unconnected traditions of the freedom of choice and a free media demand that citizens have the right to access whatever form of the media they desire — as long as it is being legally obtained and aired. An arbitrary ban imposed by the government would amount to censorship, and the denial of citizens’ right to choose.

A Pemra-imposed ban would do very little to mitigate the concerns of the soldiers of morality. Let us not forget that Indian programming — and that from all over the world — is available by the ton on the open market in the form of pirated CDs and DVDs. The removal of this content from the public airwaves would not prevent most citizens from getting easy access to it anyway. Whether your taste runs towards Shahrukh Khan or Pamela Anderson, whether it is Govinda’s moves that turn you on or Madonna’s, they’re all available at your local shop for a hundred rupees.

And, significantly, so are any number of mind- and soul-improving CDs and DVDs on Islamic injunctions and interpretations, tilawats, sermons by Islamic scholars and the debate of issues through religious terms. The point is, cultural fare of all sorts is widely available in the country, and citizens are indeed free to choose what they like. In terms of public concern about cultural adulteration, one must draw the obvious conclusion contained in the fact that Indian fare remains amongst the bestsellers.

The issue of foreign content in general is different, therefore, from that of illegally-acquired content being aired on private cable networks. In recent years, Pakistan has come under severe criticism in the international arena for its failure to control piracy and enforce copyright laws. There have been extensive raids on well-known producers of pirated materials, and there are now spot Customs checks at international airports. These can be bolstered by moves to control the acquisition, sale and broadcast of material that breaches copyright and intellectual property laws.

The answer lies not in the knee-jerk and arbitrary banning of cultural fare from selected countries, but in devising codes that regulate the industry and ensure that no party – from the producers to the government of Pakistan to the consumers – are denied their due rights. It is ludicrous to ban overseas productions from the local airwaves – but these broadcasts must be brought into the fold of fairness and legality.



So who is responsible for promoting Indian culture we as a nation or our own media?







[1] Robert, Sylwester. “The Effect of Electronic Media on Cognition and Behavior – Part 1A.”