Just like a prayer

This is just one of many examples: switch on to bhajans, kirtans, Sat Narain poojas … next thing you know we will have hymns being sung. And why not? TV’s secular, ain’t ? While we were sleeping, or watching something else, television has become a pulpit. In the name of religion, hours are devoted to spirituality. The phenomenon dates back to the mid-eighties when Ramayan and Mahabharat graced DD. But serials are dramatisations, just the agarbatis; the real acts of devotion are now in these real life and long drawn out sessions with holy men reciting, lecturing, singing.

We were always taught that this little box was devoted to the two `Es’: entertainment and education. Nobody said anything about a third one enlightenment (or is it incitement?)

NEPC may spend more time than many channels in catering to our souls. But everyone is in God’s own territory. DD, Zee, ATN, Star Plus, Siticable, IN Net and even PTV, begin the morning on a spiritual note and it is possible for viewers to spend hours with hands folded in front of the TV set because during the day, someone is invariably deliverying us from evil.In the USA, televangelists are not just popular; they are very, very popular. and sometimes dangerous because they can breed the kind of fanaticism that leads to Heaven’s Gate (a sect whose members recently committed mass suicide). In India, we have acquiesced in and promoted the pseudo-secularisation of religion by avidly watching Doordarshan’s epic serials. The Ramayana or Mahabharat (which are even now being rerun on local cable channels) have been replaced by the likes of Om Namash Shivay which, perhaps to gain greater acceptability and viewership, has transformed religion into a comic book sci-fi. Gods float about in the firmament like space ships and their fights look like a masala Star Wars. Few of us actually realize that religion is sanctifying (?) the TV set let alone that many people are hooked to it. We tend to believe that people watch only movies and serials. But many watch televangelist shows too. Maybe not in the heart of Malabar Hill in uptown Mumbai or posh West End in Delhi. But TV ratings for DD and the satellite channels reveal that while mythologicals fair poorly on satellite TV (metro intensive), they are hugely successful on DD’s nationwide network.

The local cable channels are the main conduits for religion with discourses, serial reruns and even the broadcast of proceedings in Mecca. Why? Because cable channels have plenty of time to fill and recordings of religious discourses or poojas are cheap hour-fillers. Also, they give viewers a breather from films, the other staple on local channels. Women, particularly, could be enjoying such spiritual offerings they beat sex and violence any day. Impossible to measure the precise nature of the impact such televangelism has on viewers. If constant exposure to sex and violence can be said to have brutalised human beings, then might not constant exposure to religion communalise us even more? It is common knowledge that before and after the demolition of Babri Masjid, communal videos were run on local cable channels. Nobody stopped it; perhaps because nobody could. There are just too many cable operators around and who’s going to check them, anyway? Even supposing some regulation were possible, should we regulate? And how would we go about it? It is everyone’s fundamental right to practise the religion of her or his choice: can this right be withdrawn?Nothing to do, then, but worry. And to marvel at our own contradictions: A Train to Pakistan is censored by the CBFC (it might offend communities) but religious discourses go on forever.

Mumbai producers may believe Bollywood is the opium of the masses. But Karl Marx was right all along: it’s religion that drugs human beings. Television is just its medium, not the message.