129. Gandhi & Broadcasting (with Chandrika Kaul and Jawhar Sircar)

‘Do I talk into this thing?’ These were the first words ever broadcast live, albeit inadvertently, by Mohandas Gandhi ahead of his speech to the USA. The year was 1931 and the location, London. Gandhi was in town as the sole representative of the Indian National Congress to attend the Second Round Table Conference. He was just weeks shy of his 62^nd birthday. This episode adapted from a BIC Streams session with Chandrika Kaul in conversation with Jawhar Sircar focussed on Gandhi and radio, a subject that has been curiously neglected, both in studies of Gandhi and of broadcasting. Gandhi’s engagement with radio, the circumstances surrounding his broadcasts, and his interaction with broadcasters, were analysed to help situate the medium within the Mahatma’s media repertoire and evaluated its impact.

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