Villagers' of India Hear The Wireless For The First Time

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 18920, 23 January 1936, Page 9

Villagers' of India Hear The Wireless For The First Time

I IEI'T.-COLON'EL 11. R. Hardiuge. in the "Asiatic Review," records, as.tt representative of the, Marconi Company in India, how the installation of village community receivers was received by the native population. He writes:.- — i "The installation of community reeei\:ei;s..iii. thp (.villages present eel a number., of. dimcult'ies. Those to-the north-west of Peshawar were situated in an.area in', which an. armed escort is. insisted!.upon,' by: the local authorities. At. some places considerable suspicion, was shown to our intentions, two.,,questions asked among many such being as to whether we proposed installing the village receivers in.order that we could listen to what the villagers were saying, or whether the intention was to enable us to communicate with our aeroplanes. "Complete ignorance of broadcasting and what the installation of a receiver involved gave us considerable trouble in the first few instances, and when .we wanted to climb roofs in .order, to examine the general lay-out of" the village and subsequently to erect an aerial, we were suspected of wishing to peer into the houses of neighbors and so violate the purdah of their womenfolk. The first test transmissions of Pathan speech, song, and' music soon e'eared the'air, however, and. willing helpers were then readily forthcoming.

i "Nevertheless, the situation was 'not without its anxious moments, notably when we visited Utmanzai, the 'home town' of. Abdul Ghai'ur Khan, leader of the famous 'Red Shirts,' and at the moment in gaol, lin order to install a set there. We

found that only a few\ hours before i our arrival there had been a regular I battle. Possibly the idea of some free

entertainment was welcomed after a | disturbed night, anil nothing untoward happened.,

The Plan Adopted,

' "The plan adopted was to install the loud-speaker as near .to the centre of the" village and as high as possible, This consideration was limited by .the. necessity of. finding a suitable, person willing to have I he receiver placed in his house, and both willing and cojnpetent,to. undertake the daily' switch; tng"pii and. off of the set at the appointed time. In a number of cases the most suitable place proved to be a hujra (private residence with large enclosed courtyard, usually fortified) of a Khan, while ili some villages the school premises, or rural uplift centre where one.already existed, was found to bo most suitable. "The effect of the first test transmissions to the villages was remarkable. We made it a rule to have a twominute tuning note, followed by a very brief address,by the station announcer at Peshawar in. Pushtu, ex-. plaining the object of the rural broadcasting scheme and what might be expected of it whqn the regular service. commenced, followed by' one or two gramophone records of; Pathan music and singing. The writer rcpeatedly watched from the roof-top, alongside the loud-speaker, the effect produced. In every direction, to a distance of

200 yards and more (which in most cases included the whole village), the women and children were seen coming up on their roof-tops, which are used for sitting out. Heard Clearly 200yds. Away

"At the same time, the men and children came swarming up the lanes towards the spot where the loudspeaker was installed. In fact, the tuning- note, with an output of si\ untfs, sounded (ike a siren and hud that effect. Then followed the programme, and we were repeatedly assured tha,t every word could be clearly heard up.to, in scime cases, as njueh as 200 yards from the loud-speaker . . .

"There is.no doubt at all that," concludes Lieutenant-Colonel Hardinge. "properly devised and rendered under a sympathetic and understanding control,' these rural broadcasting programmes, will He likely to play n very important part in the amelioration of the conditions of life in fhe frontier villages, and therefore will contribute substantially to the eventual pacification of this at present most unrestful territory."