[HCDX] All India Radio external services division

["Mike Brooker" <aum108@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

An item about All India Radio's broadcasts to Pakistan, from the Times of
India, Jan, 24 2001:


Mail from Pakistan, with love...

NEW DELHI: A gruesome partition, three wars and countless peace initiatives
later, India and Pakistan still continue to exchange as many hues of love as
of hostility. Even as the Army on the western front counts bullets and body
bags, the external services division of All India Radio fondly treasures its
mail from Pakistan.

Transcending the barbed wire... Hopes and warmth reach new delhi in stamped
envelops from various corners of the Islamic nation responding to a 22 hours
45 minutes daily broadcast by the division.

Of the 16 foreign language services - Urdu, Punjabi, Sindhi, Baluchi and
Pushtu, along with Hindi - play the linguistic ambassadors between the two
estranged neighbours as the services have an immensely large Pakistani
audience-base hooked on for decades now.

The ESD, that began its journey in 1939 with Pushtu for the listeners of the
then North-West Frontier Province, today exemplifies a swelling bond of
affection between the two nations in sharp contrast to the current political
equation between Islamabad and New Delhi.

``If one were to look at the mails that we get in response, he would not
readily believe that it has come from the land across the LoC ...
Unfortunately it is perhaps the least known angle between the two
countries," says Shobha Mittal, deputy director, ESD.

The audience-base for the services is largely concentrated in townships and
rural areas, where the presence of TV and Internet is almost negligible
(barring only the Hindi service which commands a listenership even in
Pakistan's metros).

Ask Shalini Sagar, an announcer with Sindhi services for several years and
she has some surprises to share: ``Our service is primarily for the Sindhis
on both sides of the divide yet Pakistan constitutes 70 per cent of the
total feedback".

``The response is amazingly warm... One can't help but marvel at the beauty
of this bond that we share with our Pakistani listeners," says an
overwhelmed Shalini.

Her enthusiasm is substantiated as one finds letters, with requests and
personal problems. ``Even cases of human right violation among the mail
received".

``The mail box often carries magazines, newspaper clippings, books, invites
to family functions, embroidered Eid as well as Diwali greeting cards... at
times cassettes too," says Shalini.

Interestingly, Sindhi services have an accutely limited backup of film based
entertainment, for the cinema has only 15 feature films to its credit. A
proposal made few years ago to include songs from other languages was met
with sharp reactions from across the border, clearly indicating their
contentment with limited options, she says.

Her sentiments find an echo in Amarjit Sahiwal, who spent seven years as the
Seraiki announcer with the Punjabi unit of ESD, which has now been shifted
to Jalandhar.

A listenership ratio second only to Hindi and Urdu services with 80 per cent
in Pakistan, Punjabi commands a response ratio of nearly 70-75 per cent.

The service also has the distinction of organising live events in
coordination with Seraiki Academy, that have been bringing people of the
squabbling nations together through harmonious and cultural exchanges.

One of the most remarkable events being organised since August 1992, is the
``Seraiki Mushaira" of which Amarjit is still nostalgic about. ``It has
given a new dimension to the prevailing equations in the subcontinent".

The mushaira has been bringing together the best of the writing talents from
both nations on to a single platform, witnessing a unique endorsement of
ideas, says Sahiwal.

``The event is immensely popular and has had listeners incessantly asking
for more... It seemingly looks like a grand confluence of two great
societies and their literary heritage," notes Sahiwal.

``We would even get telephone calls from our listeners in Pakistan's Punjab
and other Seraiki speaking areas sometimes during broadcast... and that
indeed speaks volumes for our programmes," said Sahiwal with pride.

What could be more astonishing is the fact that ESD broadcasts have remained
popular, notwithstanding Pakistani government's repeated efforts to air
indigenous broadcasts on close meters within the same timeframes, says
Shalini.

Nevertheless, it may still haunt even the most rational of minds to question
this warmth in relationship when events like Babri Masjid demolition,
Pokhran, Kargil or the more recently the Kandhahar highjack occurred. Says
Mittal, ``One may find it hard to believe but no political development, at
any given point of time, has ever influenced the content or quality of
response from Pakistan".

``We have never received any correspondence from our listeners condemning
India or its actions ... Even when tensions reached an unprecedented high,"
she says.

Endorsing her stand, A M Mauj, also a deputy director with ESD and incharge
of the Urdu service, says, even during the Kargil episode, the letters as
much admired our programmes as they would earlier do.

``The Urdu service, which has the second largest listenership base in Asia
next to BBC, receives nearly 500-700 letters every week from Pakistan... and
one loses count when we have the annual Urs of Nizamuddin Auliya and Hazrat
Amir Khusro," says Mauj.

``We have received letters which were clearly tampered with... They were
either open or torn, but never with a trace of bitterness," says Shalini.

On condition of anonymity, one announcer recalls having received a letter
from Pakistan, which surprisingly was full of praises for India soon after
the nuclear tests in May '98.

However less known this emtional exchange may be, but the fact remains
that - nothing has united people, on both sides, as strongly as cultural,
linguistic and social similarities.

Fifty years down the line, the postmen on both sides are busy stamping this
truth. ``In 1947, the land was partitioned ... Hearts weren't!" says an AIR
official.(PTI)

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Mike Brooker
99 Wychcrest Ave.,
Toronto, ON  M6G 3X8
CANADA
(416) 536-7406
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