[Reader-list] 2nd posting from Indira Biswas on broadcasting

[Indira Biswas]

Hello,

This is Indira Biswas working on the topic ‘Mediation through Radio: The 
Calcutta Radio Station and the changing life of the city (1927 – ’57). I am 
sending my 2nd posting of the work done so far.
Through my research I am trying to locate the institutionalisation of this 
technology in a specific regional context of the Calcutta Radio Station 
(hence forth termed as the CRS) of late colonial situation and early post 
independence period. Through this I intend to explore the formation and 
dissemination of regional culture at various levels as well as nuances in 
identity formation within a national context.

As I have been focussing on the regional broadcasting of the CRS during its 
early years (1927 – 57) of broadcasting, I have been reading thoroughly the 
CRS journal Vetar Jagat published in vernacular language. I am also trying 
to locate The Indian Radio Times / The Indian Listener not a single of which 
could I locate in Kolkata or Mumbai. The Bombay Radio Station first started 
publishing the magazine since 1927. It shifted to Delhi since1936. Any 
information of this radio journal will be extremely helpful to me. I have 
worked on the weekly vernacular magazine ‘Ajkal’ published in vernacular 
language of the year 1934 and 1935. This weekly had regular column 
criticizing the radio programmes. Unfortunately, I am yet to locate the 
issues of the magazine of the years 1931 – 1933. I have also consulted 
several other vernacular weeklies such as Naba Sakti, Dipali, Kheyali, Desh 
and the newspaper Ananda Bazar Patrika.. I have also worked upon some of the 
private papers of the CRS artists like Barada Gupta, Gita Mitra and Mala 
Dutta. I would be grateful if anybody could share  knowledge about the CRS 
performers of the stated period.
Findings of these sources are helping me to form a general picture of the 
working of the station. I could locate information to questions like what 
was the public response to this new media, who and what did they listen to, 
who were the artists (professional or amateur, male or female) and what did 
they perform. I have located some interesting information on the music 
programme and participation of household women in radio. Both gramophone and 
radio played a crucial role in changing the cultural scenario of Calcutta in 
the first half of the last century. I hope to identify them by examining 
issues like redefinition of identities, changing faces of social taste, 
aesthetics and expectation of audience.

With regards
Indira Biswas
Research Assistant
Centre for studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta

_________________________________________________________________
Easiest Money Transfer to India. Send Money To 6000 Indian Towns. 
http://go.msnserver.com/IN/42198.asp Easiest Way To Send Money Home!