- I am a Senior Professor in Communication at University of Hyderabad, where I also hold a UNESCO Chair on Community Me... moreI am a Senior Professor in Communication at University of Hyderabad, where I also hold a UNESCO Chair on Community Media. My teaching and research interests are in the areas of communication for social change, community media, community radio, and participatory communication for development.edit
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Page 1. Working Paper 53-2010 Religions and Development Research Programme Religions, Ethics and Attitudes towards Corruption: A Study of Perspectives in India Vinod Pavarala and Kanchan K. Malik University of Hyderabad, Hyderabad, AP... more
Page 1. Working Paper 53-2010 Religions and Development Research Programme Religions, Ethics and Attitudes towards Corruption: A Study of Perspectives in India Vinod Pavarala and Kanchan K. Malik University of Hyderabad, Hyderabad, AP Page 2. ...
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Introduction Politics of Community Radio in India Legislating for Community Radio A Comparative Analysis of Policy Frameworks in other Countries Mixed Signals Radio Broadcasting Policy in India Facilitating Community Radio in India... more
Introduction Politics of Community Radio in India Legislating for Community Radio A Comparative Analysis of Policy Frameworks in other Countries Mixed Signals Radio Broadcasting Policy in India Facilitating Community Radio in India Profiles of NGOs and their Community Radio Initiatives Narrowcasting Development Community Radio and Participatory Communication Revitalizing Civil Society Forging Counter Publics with Community Radio Community Radio for Empowerment The Gender Dimension Conclusion Community Radio in India - Opportunities and Challenges Appendices References Index
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only on a comparison with medieval ( ‘traditional’ ) hagiographies, ignoring the key intertext of the saint films (despite his interviewees’ indications of their influence). In the visual media section, another chapter that suffers from... more
only on a comparison with medieval ( ‘traditional’ ) hagiographies, ignoring the key intertext of the saint films (despite his interviewees’ indications of their influence). In the visual media section, another chapter that suffers from insufficient attention to the early proliferation of mythological and saint films is Steve Demé’s account of religious elements in Hindi commercial cinema. He concentrates instead on mythic models in more secular genres (hardly ’real news’, as Babb would say, particularly since Oemé relies heavily on analyses in Manushi and elsewhere). His question as to whether or not the cinema, seen as morally suspect, is a likely vehicle for religious innovation is rendered somewhat toothless by the exclusion of this crucial early moment. In contrast, Philip Lutgendorf’s richly informed account of Ramanand Sagar’s televised Ramayan is exemplary in its sensitivity to the wider narrative tradition of which this is the most popular recent manifestation. Tradition is understood here as process rather than essence, so that the intertexts of cinema, TV soaps and modem fiction are ranged alongside katha and ramlila. John Little’s examination of the use of videos in the Swadhyaya movement in India and the US is similarly attentive to the textual and performative frames of reception, which again include a distinctly modem source of cultic authority-the late 19th century cross-hatching of ’Vedic Hinduism’ with liberal ideas, and the discourse of science (which develops in popular printed literature, another area beyond the scope of this collection). Like Smith, Little relates the circulation of visual material to the perpetuation of charismatic personality cults, although what is remarkable about the use of videos in Little’s study is their strict confinement to viewing within the collective ritual context of sarsang. The question of the kind of collectivity addressed by mass media also comes up in the chapters by Regula Qureshi and Scott Marcus on interactions between audio recording technologies and participatory traditions of religious musical performance. Qureshi’s fascinating account of qawwali (sadly marred by proofing errors) tracks its negotiations between the commercial imperatives of the recording industry, continuing ritual control by religious leaders, and appropriation by state-run media in India
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ABSTRACT This paper argues that religion influences the ways that people think and speak about corruption, typically leading to condemnation. However, it is also argued that, in a systemically corrupt country, such condemnation is... more
ABSTRACT This paper argues that religion influences the ways that people think and speak about corruption, typically leading to condemnation. However, it is also argued that, in a systemically corrupt country, such condemnation is unlikely to influence actual corrupt behaviour. Based on fieldwork in India, the paper finds that existing anti-corruption policies based on a principal-agent understanding of corruption, even if they incorporate religious organisations and leaders, are unlikely to work, partly because people consider “religion” to be a discredited entity. Instead, the paper argues that if corruption were to be seen as a collective action problem, anti-corruption practice would need significant rethinking. Despite its current lack of influence, revised policies and practices may see a role for religion.
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In this chapter we analyse the role of community radio as an effective tool for grassroots communication and decentralized information access during the Covid-19 pandemic, through the lens of UNESCO’s IFAP programme. Through an analysis... more
In this chapter we analyse the role of community radio as an effective tool for grassroots communication and decentralized information access during the Covid-19 pandemic, through the lens of UNESCO’s IFAP programme. Through an analysis of the conversations conducted by us online and other data about the work done by community radio (CR) stations during the pandemic in South Asia, we explain how CR emerged as a credible and vital link for those at the grassroots and margins during the pandemic.
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ABSTRACT This paper argues that religion influences the ways that people think and speak about corruption, typically leading to condemnation. However, it is also argued that, in a systemically corrupt country, such condemnation is... more
ABSTRACT This paper argues that religion influences the ways that people think and speak about corruption, typically leading to condemnation. However, it is also argued that, in a systemically corrupt country, such condemnation is unlikely to influence actual corrupt behaviour. Based on fieldwork in India, the paper finds that existing anti-corruption policies based on a principal-agent understanding of corruption, even if they incorporate religious organisations and leaders, are unlikely to work, partly because people consider “religion” to be a discredited entity. Instead, the paper argues that if corruption were to be seen as a collective action problem, anti-corruption practice would need significant rethinking. Despite its current lack of influence, revised policies and practices may see a role for religion.
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Page 1. Economic and Political Weekly May 31, 2003 2188 Building Solidarities A Case of Community Radio in Jharkhand Even as the government is dithering over legislation to facilitate the functioning of community radio in ...
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This chapter describes the use of a participatory and ethnographic approach to explore a sanitation campaign in the Nadia District of West Bengal. The research took place from late 2015 until mid-2016, around a year after Nadia District... more
This chapter describes the use of a participatory and ethnographic approach to explore a sanitation campaign in the Nadia District of West Bengal. The research took place from late 2015 until mid-2016, around a year after Nadia District was proclaimed Open Defecation Free (ODF). Ethnographic approaches are most often considered in development work for situation analysis or formative research. In this case, however, we took this approach for a ‘retrospective analysis’ of the Sabar Souchagar (Latrines for All) campaign (SSC) in Nadia District. The chapter explores the research design in relation to the participatory, complex, and critical components of the Evaluating Communication for Development (C4D) framework, and concludes with some observations about the applications of this approach in C4D research and evaluation.
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Introduction Politics of Community Radio in India Legislating for Community Radio A Comparative Analysis of Policy Frameworks in other Countries Mixed Signals Radio Broadcasting Policy in India Facilitating Community Radio in India... more
Introduction Politics of Community Radio in India Legislating for Community Radio A Comparative Analysis of Policy Frameworks in other Countries Mixed Signals Radio Broadcasting Policy in India Facilitating Community Radio in India Profiles of NGOs and their Community Radio Initiatives Narrowcasting Development Community Radio and Participatory Communication Revitalizing Civil Society Forging Counter Publics with Community Radio Community Radio for Empowerment The Gender Dimension Conclusion Community Radio in India - Opportunities and Challenges Appendices References Index
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In countries where religion plays a central role in people’s lives, it is expected that many people, including public servants, will derive their moral and ethical values from their religion. Religion provides many with a language of... more
In countries where religion plays a central role in people’s lives, it is expected that many people, including public servants, will derive their moral and ethical values from their religion. Religion provides many with a language of ethics and, often, an actual ‘list’ of rules by which to live, some of which may be relevant to fighting corruption. Problematically, however, many of the world’s most corrupt countries also rank highly in terms of levels of religiosity, suggesting that the relationships between widespread religious adherence and levels of corruption are not straightforward. Attempts to reduce corruption have had limited success, leading to a renewed interest in the role that religious values might play in future initiatives. This study assembles a picture of people’s religious beliefs, values, perceptions of corruption, and notions of tradition and modernity, based on extensive semi-structured interviews in several locations across India. Corruption is widespread, inst...
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This chapter provides an overview of community radio in India and elsewhere, against the background of recent insights on participatory development, the inequities of the ICT revolution, the right to communicate and the democratization of... more
This chapter provides an overview of community radio in India and elsewhere, against the background of recent insights on participatory development, the inequities of the ICT revolution, the right to communicate and the democratization of airwaves. A recent Rockefeller Foundation ...
In countries where religion plays a central role in people's lives, it is expected that many people, including public servants, will derive their moral and ethical values from their religion. Religion provides many with a language of... more
In countries where religion plays a central role in people's lives, it is expected that many people, including public servants, will derive their moral and ethical values from their religion. Religion provides many with a language of ethics and, often, an actual 'list' of rules by which to live, some of which may be relevant to fighting corruption. Problematically, however, many of the world's most corrupt countries also rank highly in terms of levels of religiosity, suggesting that the relationships between widespread religious adherence and levels of corruption are not straightforward. Attempts to reduce corruption have had limited success, leading to a renewed interest in the role hat religious values might play in future initiatives. This study assembles a picture of people's religious beliefs, values, perceptions of corruption, and notions of tradition and modernity, based on extensive semi-structured interviews in several locations across India.
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Institutionalised communication for development (C4D) privileges observable, concrete, simple, and measurable outcomes of social change to the neglect of more complex, emergent, processual, and intangible outcomes. Excessive focus on... more
Institutionalised communication for development (C4D) privileges observable, concrete, simple, and measurable outcomes of social change to the neglect of more complex, emergent, processual, and intangible outcomes. Excessive focus on tangible effects betrays an unshakeable belief in the rationality of purposive social action. The demand for tangible outcomes arises from an institutional matrix (‘a regime of power’) feeding off targets, benchmarks, and indicators. Although the global C4D enterprise has begun to acknowledge intangible outcomes, no satisfactory solutions are offered to account for them in evaluations. The concept intangible outcomes argues that this arises out of both political indifference to democratic participation and social justice, and epistemological disregard for marginalised knowledges. Recognising the intangible outcomes and accounting for them in institutional practices of impact evaluation are not only ethically warranted but also methodologically prudent.
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Hegemonic Open Science, emergent from the circuits of knowledge production in the Global North and serving the economic interests of platform capitalism, systematically erase the voices of the subaltern margins from the Global South and... more
Hegemonic Open Science, emergent from the circuits of knowledge production in the Global North and serving the economic interests of platform capitalism, systematically erase the voices of the subaltern margins from the Global South and the Southern margins inhabiting the North. Framed within an overarching emancipatory narrative of creating access for and empowering the margins through data exchanged on the global free market, hegemonic Open Science processes co-opt and erase Southern epistemologies, working to create and reproduce new enclosures of extraction that serve data colonialism-capitalism. In this essay, drawing on our ongoing negotiations of community-led culture-centered advocacy and activist strategies that resist the racist, gendered, and classed structures of neocolonial knowledge production in the metropole in the North, we attend to Southern practices of Openness that radically disrupt the whiteness of hegemonic Open Science. These decolonizing practices foreground...
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This article examines Forum Theatre as a form of participatory communication for social change. Based on an ethnographic study of Jana Sanskriti ( JS), a Forum Theatre group working for over three decades in the eastern Indian state of... more
This article examines Forum Theatre as a form of participatory communication for social change. Based on an ethnographic study of Jana Sanskriti ( JS), a Forum Theatre group working for over three decades in the eastern Indian state of West Bengal, this article seeks to show how this form of theatre, developed by the Brazilian activist Augusto Boal, subverts the passivity inherent in the communicator–receiver model of the dominant paradigm by activating the critical consciousness of the spectator and triggering a process of social change through dialogue and discussion. JS has been using Forum Theatre to address some of the deeply entrenched social norms in rural West Bengal, including those related to patriarchy, child marriage, domestic violence, and maternal and child health related issues, by extending Boal’s notion of the ‘spect-actor’ to encourage the spectators to become ‘spect-activists’, who then are engaged in community-level work on social change. We suggest that this for...
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Page 1. Economic and Political Weekly May 31, 2003 2188 Building Solidarities A Case of Community Radio in Jharkhand Even as the government is dithering over legislation to facilitate the functioning of community radio in ...
sh.se. Publications. ...
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The article published in a volume edited by Kanchan K. Malik and Vinod Pavarala charts the course of community radio in South Asia, especially in India, and argues that because of certain decisions made at its point of origin, community... more
The article published in a volume edited by Kanchan K. Malik and Vinod Pavarala charts the course of community radio in South Asia, especially in India, and argues that because of certain decisions made at its point of origin, community radio in India fell into a development trap. The paper suggests that the NGOization of community radio in India has had some specific social and political consequences for the future of community radio in the region.
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The article suggests that recognizing the intangible outcomes of communication for social change and accounting for them in institutional practices of impact evaluation are not only ethically warranted, but also methodologically prudent.... more
The article suggests that recognizing the intangible outcomes of communication for social change and accounting for them in institutional practices of impact evaluation are not only ethically warranted, but also methodologically prudent. The recognition of such outcomes, which may even be unanticipated (in Mertonian terms), and their integration into our evaluation matrix is essential if the process of social change is to be underwritten by principles of human rights, social justice, equity, and listening to people’s voices.
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"Community radio in South Asia: a roadmap for democracy" is the introduction to the book edited by Kanchan K. Malik and Vinod Pavarala (Routledge, 2020). It gives an overview of community radio in the region and locates it within certain... more
"Community radio in South Asia: a roadmap for democracy" is the introduction to the book edited by Kanchan K. Malik and Vinod Pavarala (Routledge, 2020). It gives an overview of community radio in the region and locates it within certain key trends and issues that characterize media development in the various countries.
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Community radio produced, controlled and owned by the people can empower the marginalised and address the "voice poverty" which afflicts South Asia. The article details the macro-level institutional environment required for a democratic... more
Community radio produced, controlled and owned by the people can empower the marginalised and address the "voice poverty" which afflicts South Asia. The article details the macro-level institutional environment required for a democratic and sustainable community radio sector and identifies the challenges involved in making the sector vibrant and dynamic in the South Asian region.
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In this chapter we analyse the role of community radio as an effective tool for grassroots communication and decentralized information access during the Covid-19 pandemic, through the lens of UNESCO’s IFAP programme. Through an analysis... more
In this chapter we analyse the role of community radio as an effective tool for grassroots communication and decentralized information access during the Covid-19 pandemic, through the lens of UNESCO’s IFAP programme. Through an analysis of the conversations conducted by us online and other data about the work done by community radio (CR) stations during the pandemic in South Asia, we explain how CR emerged as a credible and vital link for those at the grassroots and margins during the pandemic.
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The chapter argues that grassroots media initiatives such as community radio emerged globally as a challenge to the dominant paradigm of linear, top-down communication from the elites to the marginalized. It argues further that, in South... more
The chapter argues that grassroots media initiatives such as community radio emerged globally as a challenge to the dominant paradigm of linear, top-down communication from the elites to the marginalized. It argues further that, in South Asia, even as the rhetoric is grafted on to a participatory communication perspective, community radio has been co-opted into a fairly benign model of ‘development radio’.
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The two-decade-old community radio (CR) movement in India, right from its inception, has had to contend with the political question.1 Advocates and activists campaigning for the opening up of airwaves in India for third-sector... more
The two-decade-old community radio (CR) movement in India, right
from its inception, has had to contend with the political question.1
Advocates and activists campaigning for the opening up of airwaves in
India for third-sector broadcasting, independent of the state and the
market, were cautious to eschew an argument based on communication
rights, something that would have surely been construed as overtly
political by the government in power in Delhi which was wary of the
demand for CR. Instead, campaigners deployed an already prevalent
paradigm of communication for development which seemed somewhat
benign and acceptable to the state.
In this chapter, we provide a review of the historical context in
which broadcasting policy in India evolved from the patronizing and
authoritarian colonial control to the post-colonial period when the
state swung schizophrenically between autonomy and regulation. In the
second part of the chapter, we offer an analysis of the paradigmatic choices made by (mostly urban) media activists and advocates to graft an older media technology (radio, albeit in its new frequency modulation [FM] avatar) on to an equally settled discourse of development communication and, more hesitantly, on to ongoing political and social struggles in Latin America and elsewhere.
from its inception, has had to contend with the political question.1
Advocates and activists campaigning for the opening up of airwaves in
India for third-sector broadcasting, independent of the state and the
market, were cautious to eschew an argument based on communication
rights, something that would have surely been construed as overtly
political by the government in power in Delhi which was wary of the
demand for CR. Instead, campaigners deployed an already prevalent
paradigm of communication for development which seemed somewhat
benign and acceptable to the state.
In this chapter, we provide a review of the historical context in
which broadcasting policy in India evolved from the patronizing and
authoritarian colonial control to the post-colonial period when the
state swung schizophrenically between autonomy and regulation. In the
second part of the chapter, we offer an analysis of the paradigmatic choices made by (mostly urban) media activists and advocates to graft an older media technology (radio, albeit in its new frequency modulation [FM] avatar) on to an equally settled discourse of development communication and, more hesitantly, on to ongoing political and social struggles in Latin America and elsewhere.
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The paper is based on case studies of four community radio stations in India and explores how they are developing community-based programming in cooperation with local women and their voluntary associations, using local dialects and... more
The paper is based on case studies of four community radio stations in India and explores how they are developing community-based programming in cooperation with local women and their voluntary associations, using local dialects and indigenous cultural forms, to provide relevant local information and discussion about issues of governance, agriculture, natural resources, and gender inequities. The article analyses women's contributions in five dimensions, as listeners, program content contributors, producers, and planners and managers. Drawing on Nancy Fraser, the article discusses how the work of these women contributes toward the creation of counter-public spheres that articulate and give visibility to women's realities and bring their concerns, identities, and issues to the dominant public agenda.