[Reader-list] Transitor turns 50...

[s choudhary]

New Delhi, 18 Oct 2004.Today I want to pay my tributes to that small instrument which made such a huge impact on my life when I was growing up in a small sleepy town in the middle of hills and jungles in Central tribal India.

It was my friend, my teacher, my university,and my window to the rest of the world- my transistor- which completes its journey of 50 years today. 

It was the era before the arrival of TV, newspapers took 2 days to reach remote areas, and transistor was the source of information and entertainment.

18th October 1954 when TI-1 was first introduced, as transistor was called at that time; it costed more than $50, quite a huge sum for that period.

It was a revolution for the younger generation in America. Whereas the Radio was part of the installed furniture,controlled by the parents at home , the transistor gave the freedom to choose your favourite programme. It was also when the Rock n Roll arrived. The two clicked together so well- the rebellion of the sixties was reflectd in the popularity of these little machines.

The transistor has been on roll since then. Very soon Japanese models took over the first American ones and that remains the rule so far. Prices today for a transistor have come down to less than $1 and has made itself affordable for the poor.

Moving ahead from diode and triode, the technology of transistor was a big step forward. We see its usage even today in TV and computers which uses the transistor technology in various forms.

Many have graduated from transitor to television to broadband & computers now. But for a huge majority transistor remains a trusted ally even after 50 years.

Be it be a rikshaw puller in Delhi or a farmer in remote corner of India, the one thing they have in common apart from being poor is a transistor.

If you leave last couple of decades ours has been a story of transistor radios.

I remember visiting a market called BBC Bazar in Bangladesh. It came by that name in a very interesting way- It was the year 1971, the war  of liberation was on and the only transistor in the locality was available in  a hamlet in this remote area half a day from capital Dhaka. The whole population converged to listen to the evening news which turned a small hamlet into a full fledged market named after the most popular radio station at that time.

India has 104 million transistor homes, more than double than the reach of TV. And radio transmissions are available to 98.5% of the population.

According to Planning Commission statistics more than half of Indian houses do not have any electricity connection. With these kind of figures does one need to emphasise the importance of transistor for a country like India ?

Ten years back, the Indian supreme court gave an interesting ruling.

This judgement strongly critiqued the long-held government monopoly over broadcasting in this country. In early 1995, the court declared the airwaves as public property, to be utilized for promoting public good and ventilating plurality of views, opinions and ideas.  (AIR 1995 Supreme Court 1236).

In view of this, the judges said it was essential that the Indian Parliament "steps in soon to fill the void by enacting a law or laws, as the case may be, governing the broadcast media, i.e.  both radio and television". 

Parliament has stepped in to relax laws to liberate television but many wonder why Governement is so afraid to free Radio.

Radio still remains a powerful tool for the rulers to spread "their" message. But it is still a one way traffic where people have no control on what they listen.

Even our tiny neighbours like Nepal and Sri Lanka have gone forward to legalise community radio stations where people talk to each other rather than being talked at all the time.

It was not surprising that there were no celebrations planned for a technology which has given us so much and contains huge potential to democratise our polity. This probably tells about the time and place we live in.

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Shubhranshu Choudhary                Freelance Journalist
Ph : + 91 98110 66749                   e mail : smitashu at vsnl.com
http://36garh.notlong.com              http://smitashu.8m.net
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