Page 276 - Religion, Media, and the Public Sphere

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Fig. 12.2. The seduction begins. When Hinduism meets MTV sponsored by Coca-Cola
(logos top right/left).

high technology, the free-market and institutions such as the World Bank, the
World Trade Organization, and related organizations is seen as a recognition on
the part of the West of what was already embodied in “Hindu philosophy.”
In terms of programming, the market-temple nexus is evident in many dif-
ferent forms. First, given that most epics are telescoped into each other, televis-
ing one religious epic often provides the alibi for representing another. This
stretches the length of the serial and proves highly pro¤table since advertisers
are lining up for such programming. Second, while general programming has
been openly wooing audiences through prizes including cash, automobiles, jew-
elry, and the like, religious programming has been following the same format,
although in less conspicuous and more sacred ways. When Dheeraj Kumar, pro-
ducer of the top mythological Om Namah Shivay, got in on the act, irate devo-
tees reacted angrily to the commercialization of the program. Kumar hastily
withdrew the contest and replaced it with a request to viewers to write a ten-line
“moral” for each episode telecast, and the rewards were Prasadam, Shiv Jyotir-
lingas, Angavastaram, Rudraksha, and a “mega prize” of a Jyotirlinga yatra with
“gold moments of Lord Shiva.” 8
In a thought-provoking piece on the sea change in the media landscape in
India, and particularly on modes of advertising, Swapan Seth, executive director
Equus, compares the current situation to the bygone era of planned socialism
where India was a “a nation devoid of self-con¤dence, a nation about to build

Gods in the Sacred Marketplace 265