Arvind Rajagopal – författare

The reader is part of the prestigious Themes in Politics series, which presents essays on important issues in the study of political science and Indian politics. It examines the role of the media in India's history and development, bringing together a collection of essays on its interplay with politics, society and culture. The book surveys the range of communication media in India and shows how their regulation and use has developed from the pre-independence period to the end of the twentieth century. This innovative and critical selection of essays has been organized thematically; the discussion moves from the public sphere in colonial times to the development era, the rise of the vernacular media, the impact of television and the emergence of newer forms of media like the Internet in the 1990s. The readings cover a range of disciplines, from history to political science and anthropology, and have been written by experts in the field. The reader will be of interest to students and scholars of Indian politics and governance, media and culture studies, sociology as well as the informed lay reader.

In the Cold War era, media became a central force in the shaping of political life, cultural exchange, and ideas of global order. A rivalry between political systems expanded into a worldwide struggle over who could shape information, control communication infrastructures, and define reality. Rossen Djagalov and Arvind Rajagopal present essays on the uses of Cold War media. Focusing on the Global South, the contributors illuminate how postcolonial nations and others defied superpower pressure to use media for nation-building and international cooperation. At the same time, communication infrastructures linked global regions in unequal ways that often reinforced the power of the United States. Throughout, the essays show how Cold War media practices like secrecy, propaganda, and cultural diplomacy cemented patterns that still influence global communication systems and international politics today. Cutting-edge and timely, Media and the Global Cold War reveals the workings of media beyond the superpower rivalry.

New perspectives on a cornerstone of soft power during the Cold War and beyond In the Cold War era, media became a central force in the shaping of political life, cultural exchange, and ideas of global order. A rivalry between political systems expanded into a worldwide struggle over who could shape information, control communication infrastructures, and define reality. Rossen Djagalov and Arvind Rajagopal present essays on the uses of Cold War media. Focusing on the Global South, the contributors illuminate how postcolonial nations and others defied superpower pressure to use media for nation-building and international cooperation. At the same time, communication infrastructures linked global regions in unequal ways that often reinforced the power of the United States. Throughout, the essays show how Cold War media practices like secrecy, propaganda, and cultural diplomacy cemented patterns that still influence global communication systems and international politics today. Cutting-edge and timely, Media and the Global Cold War reveals the workings of media beyond the superpower rivalry.

Collective political projects have become ephemeral and are subject to radical forms of erasure through cooptation, division, redefinition or intimidation in present times. Media and Utopia responds to the resulting crisis of the social by investigating the links between mediation and political imagination. This volume addresses those utopian space

In January 1987, the Indian state-run television began broadcasting a Hindu epic in serial form, The Ramayana, to nationwide audiences, violating a decades-old taboo on religious partisanship. What resulted was the largest political campaign in post-independence times, around the symbol of Lord Ram, led by Hindu nationalists. The complexion of Indian politics was irrevocably changed thereafter. In this book, Arvind Rajagopal analyses this extraordinary series of events. While audiences may have thought they were harking back to an epic golden age, Hindu nationalist leaders were embracing the prospects of neoliberalism and globalisation. Television was the device that hinged these movements together, symbolising the new possibilities of politics, at once more inclusive and authoritarian. Simultaneously, this study examines how the larger historical context was woven into and changed the character of Hindu nationalism.

In January 1987, the Indian state-run television began broadcasting a Hindu epic in serial form, The Ramayana, to nationwide audiences, violating a decades-old taboo on religious partisanship. What resulted was the largest political campaign in post-independence times, around the symbol of Lord Ram, led by Hindu nationalists. The complexion of Indian politics was irrevocably changed thereafter. In this book, Arvind Rajagopal analyses this extraordinary series of events. While audiences may have thought they were harking back to an epic golden age, Hindu nationalist leaders were embracing the prospects of neoliberalism and globalisation. Television was the device that hinged these movements together, symbolising the new possibilities of politics, at once more inclusive and authoritarian. Simultaneously, this study examines how the larger historical context was woven into and changed the character of Hindu nationalism.

This volume brings critical theory to bear on a familiar feature of our daily lives- the evening news on television- in order to clarify what it means to talk about hegemony. This book's approach makes accesible to a wider audience another way of seeing an otherwise taken-for-granted dimension of daily life and political culture. By empirically and theoretically reading a text taken from the evening news students can inspect, in a language familiar to them, what issues of ideology and legitimation are about.

This volume brings critical theory to bear on a familiar feature of our daily lives- the evening news on television- in order to clarify what it means to talk about hegemony. This book's approach makes accesible to a wider audience another way of seeing an otherwise taken-for-granted dimension of daily life and political culture. By empirically and theoretically reading a text taken from the evening news students can inspect, in a language familiar to them, what issues of ideology and legitimation are about.