SIGHT & SOUND
Channels that cater to the devout
Amita Malik

One of the pleasurable things about writing a media column is to find that older people not only listen and watch avidly but they are also keen critics and demand quality programmes. Because some of them are retired people who distinguished themselves in various professions, they have both the time and the ability to form valuable opinions and also, thankfully, take the trouble and time to convey their opinions.

Most so-called religious channels offer health-related programmes

There was an interesting feedback from Chandigarh some time ago. Now it is a viewer R.S. Devi from Delhi. I was not surprised to be told that she is the sister of the late J.N. (Mani) Dixit and retired as a reader from the Department of Education of Delhi University. Her father, the late S.C. Dixit, was President of the Delhi Journalists’ Association at the time of his death. With this background, I am not surprised that she has flooded me with so many comments and suggestions about Doordarshan, which she mainly watches, that it would take several columns to discuss them all.

I, therefore, propose to take up one point from her four-page letter where she questions why Doordarshan, in a secular state, only telecasts religious programmes and music for Hindus.

I would like to remind listeners and viewers that up to Partition, All India Radio used to cater to all religions. There were Muslim prayers and religious music on Fridays, Christian hymns on Sundays, Hindu prayers and bhajans on Tuesdays, and I forget the day on which they had Sikh shabd kirtan and prayers. And these programmes were acceptable all round and never controversial. India is a country with deeply religious people from different faiths and these broadcasts seemed natural and, no doubt, were of great comfort to the faithful from all religions.

However, more recently, as the different private channels made up for the omission, religious channels in their own right came up for different religions and do not seem to offend or trouble anybody. I made it a point to monitor a few of the religious channels to see what they were doing.

First the Muslim channel, Q TV, and what I could gather about it. Based in Dubai but financed by Pakistanis, it has 10 channels and telecasts in different languages all over the world, including India, where it has a large following. Its programmes are mostly made in Pakistan, where the idea of the channel originated, and it now has Indian programmes and Indian actors working for them.

As for the content, I found prayers being recited by a very photogenic young boy, perhaps just a teenager, and very well done. There is, of course, religious music as well, beautifully rendered and programmes of community interest. There was a woman in a burqa asking questions about diabetes and kidney problems from a doctor.

When I switched over to the channel Sadhana, which I naturally assumed to be a Hindu channel, I was surprised to find another question-answer session with a doctor giving remedies about diabetes and kidney problems according to "Arabic herbal medicine" from the A. L. Kausi Kidney Foundation based in Vellore. Obviously illnesses and medicines observe no religious barriers. Just as Q TV is owned by Pakistanis based in Dubai and also has Indian programmes and viewers.

The Aastha channel, for the short period I watched it, had religious music such as bhajans, religious discourses and discussions as on the other channels and by both men and women. On the Q channel, a young man asked the preacher if bhai-chaari applied only to Muslims, the preacher said firmly that Islam has clearly stated that it relates to the whole of mankind and not just Muslims.

Not to be left out, I find the Sikhs had a similar programme on ETC’s Punjabi channel and the music, shabd kirtan, was as beautifully rendered as by their Hindu and Muslim colleagues on their channels.

That is what I could find out in the course of a brief survey, that TV had religion without controversy, which must be of great comfort to the devout. And, I might add, to all lovers of good religious music. Around Christmas, I look forward to the lovely carols sung, alas only once a year, on TV, from the North-East, Chennai and other places where they are sung with such beauty as well as passion.