ABSTRACT
Writing a history of Indian television immediately begs the question, how do we want it read? Exhaustive chronological treatments anchor the field (Kumar 2000), ideological examinations reveal a Hindu-centric nation with serious consequences for religious and gender minorities (Rajagopal 1996; Mitra 1993; Van der Veer 1997), development analyses demonstrate the failures of a socialist state (Fürisch and Shrikhande 2007), and audience studies reveal complex negotiations among multiple identity positions (Mankekar 1999). These critical approaches to the study of television in India rightly expose power differentials that facilitate, through the centuries, the inequities of interwoven structures of imperialism, colonialism, casteism, and capitalist patriarchy. Most importantly, they highlight the chronic condition of distrust in postcolonial societies, making it highly challenging to legitimize profitable connections to global circuits as they modernize under the very conditions that once constrained them.
