Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin - Kultur-, Sozial- und Bildungswissenschaftliche Fakultät - Institut für Asien- und Afrikawissenschaften

Afro-Asian Solidarities, Epistolary Exchanges and Photographic Archives: Tracing Radio's Material Resonance(s) in Cold War India

Vortrag von

Dr. Anandita Bajpai (ZMO Berlin)

im Rahmen des GAMS Research Colloquium

01. Dezember, 10h c.t. in Raum 217 am IAAW

Abstract

As a pervasive medium of the ‘Cultural Cold War’, international radio broadcasting was utilized as a tool for crafting Cold War affinities and mobilizing transnational solidarities by states on both sides of the Cold War ideological divide. Zooming in on the perspective of listeners, this presentation traces the affective trajectories of several international broadcasters in India. How did radio’s ‘resonance’ sediment listeners’ everyday lives through memorabilia, letters and photographs? Based on archival research (since 2018) and fieldwork conducted in the states of Uttar Pradesh (2022), Bihar (2018, 2019) and Rajasthan (2022), the presentation will trace radio’s material legacies and how listening communities ‘talked back’ to the medium. It will show how listeners’ private collections and narratives provide us the possibility to explore their biographies, their relationship to radio as technology, as well as how they actively formed networks of exchange and solidarity in and outside India.