THE ROLE OF INDIAN MEDIA IN PAKISTAN

 Media’s rapid outgrowth in today’s world outweighs that of any. It wouldn’t be wrong, I reckon, if we label it as a cultural canvas that has and is influencing our people. Invading a country in physical terms might not be that harmful as when minds are invaded mentally, for physical invasion after a certain period of time wipes of itself but when cloaks over shadow a psyche it nearly gets impossible to wipe the dirt off.

Our country is the one suffering these heinous invasions at the hands of our neighboring country. Of interest, it’s not just them but our gate keepers that assures a successful transaction of their culture into our homes and their to our minds. The cultural invasion of India in soaring heights in our very own country. Ranging from the product placement to TV serials to reality shows to animated cartoons. The idea behind these varied genres of programs makes one watch if not all then any one of it, there by ensuring a wide audience range, in a country where almost all age groups thrives and fetches onto a program somewhat different to that of theirs.

Indian media as we all know is to a great extent a living embodiment of their religious, cultural and spiritual rituals not even a single serial is shown without any of these. The cultural invasion, sadly, is met with great enthusiasm in Pakistan where they overshadow our advertisements by telecasting theirs. Such fierce is their cultural penetration into ours.

Pakistani culture never witnessed such an era where an entire family saw intimate scenes or obscenity with the rest of their family, even a girl without duppata was overlooked in search of other more appropriate channel, but now with their dense cultural invasion into ours actresses wearing sleeveless, tan tops minis are graciously welcomed in our society in an attempt to meet the requirements of modern era or else people are labeled as too backward.

As young minds are easy to transform and mould, they target our children with their young religious caricatures. Eg. Choota beam, Hanuman two eminent cartoons seen by nearly half of our country’s children- depicts the lives of their Gods sons where they are shown practicing their hindu rituals and attains spirituality and super powers. To one’s amusement the cartoons hold such a huge impact on our children that they are seen imitating the same rituals and meet each other with hands enjoined as a gesture of goodwill as seen in Hindu culture.

bollywood since as long as one can remember has over shadowed our industry. statement is clearly depicted by the fact when our people run to see their movies forming long queues despite of its inhumane content against our cultural norms and make sure he/she doesn’t miss it. The cultural invasion can be measured in terms of their events gradually becoming a part of ours like valentines, Halloween parties, holii (where colors are smashed onto one another) have become a part of our culture and is seen as a growing trend in large among our youth.

Their usages of slang words have even tarnished the politeness and simplicity of our language as one intently ought to speak theirs to compete with their peers.

Indian dramas with their growing profundity in Pakistan are seen eradicating our cultural norms and bringing on theirs. Ironically, compounding their efforts is our very own media strengthening their roots in ours by telecasting an abundant of their soaps nearly the entire week. Dramas such as achey lagtey hain, pariwaar, qubool hey,being at the top charts with favorable amount of viewers ship from our audience.

With every Indian serial come their never ending ritual, and sadly one witness’s sounds of Indian hymns reverberating into every house hold.

In our country where billboards once showcased Islamic verses, motivational sayings or our own celebrity’s endorsing brands have now been replaced by massive Indian celebrities manifesting products, advertisements.

On the contrary when one part of the subcontinent enthusiastically welcomes the content of their rivals, India on the other hand have implied strict rules regarding depiction of Pakistan content onto their TV channels. It was once in August 2009, Indian daily The Asian Age had reported that the Indian government banned Pakistani TV channels in India and it was also planning to establish high-frequency transmitters and towers in the bordering areas to stop transmission of Pakistani programs. Such is the case when it comes to broadcasting our dramas in their land. It is either we all have to stand or pass laws regarding the broadcast of there dramas or else this cultural invasion of theirs into our minds will result in a perpetual threat to our norms and values.