ABSTRACT
As a popular visual discourse, television in India provides space for national imaginings. Since its inception in the 1950s, television was controlled by the state and has been used to introduce and promote specific nation-building agendas. However, in 1992 the parameters of control that had been in effect earlier began to diminish in the wake of the introduction of satellite and cable television. Within a span of a few years, the viewing spectrum increased from three state-run channels to forty satellite and cable channels, available predominantly in urban India. Aside from the sheer increase in the number of channels and programs, the most dramatic change was in the content of programs. The new programs shifted focus from social development and nationalism to what Mankekar calls, “the politics of family, sexuality and intimacy” (1999, 356).
