After 54 years, Voice of America switches off its Hindi service

New Delhi, September 12: It would appear Chacha Sam no longer needs his Hindi-speaking bhatijas to listen to him. Perhaps he’s now come to trust them, so the words are redundant. Or perhaps he’s now given up on them, so the words are wasted.

Fifty-four years after it started broadcasting, Voice of America (VoA) is switching off its Hindi service. VoA Hindi will broadcast its final programme on September 30, following which its six-member team — at the centre of over 1,200 fan clubs and catering to nearly 8 million listeners — will fall silent.

VoA Hindi crackled to life on July 1, 1954 when the war hero Dwight D Eisenhower was President of America, and Jawaharlal Nehru’s India was on the verge of presenting to the world its philosophy of non-alignment. Now, in a radically transformed world, the US Broadcasting Board of Governors has struck Hindi off the list of 45 languages that America uses to speak to the world.

The decision is part of VoA’s “language service reduction” and, expectedly, budgetary cuts. Yet, America’s changed geostrategic priorities are indicated as much in the choice of the language services that have survived — Urdu and Bangla — as in the ones that have suffered Hindi’s fate, languages of (formerly communist) East Europe.

“From 30th September we will be ending our seven-hour long Hindi language services at VoA. This is a policy decision conveyed by our Washington-based headquarters and is in keeping with the new world order that the USA faces after 9/11,” a VoA official told The Indian Express on condition of anonymity.

“The focus is increasingly on languages like Pashto and Urdu now even though VoA Hindi has a good listenership across South Asia. It will surely be missed by many,” the official added.

Over half a century of broadcasting has inspired VoA Hindi fan clubs in the entire Hindi-speaking world in South Asia, and in the Hindi-speaking diaspora in Mauritius, Surinam, Fiji, Saudi Arabia, U A E and Germany, boasting a cumulative total active membership of over 40,000.

When it launched, VoA Hindi used to be on air for a mere 30 minutes daily. The service subsequently widened its range of programming to an hour and a half daily, with immensely popular call-in shows Hello America and Hello India.

Former and current staff of VoA Hindi are heartbroken. “I used to work at VoA so this is saddening,” said a former staffer.

Ads By Google

Message*	Maximum characters allowed

Name*		Email ID*
Subject*		Country*

TERMS OF USE:
The views, opinions and comments posted are your, and are not endorsed by this website. You shall be solely responsible for the comment posted here. The website reserves the right to delete, reject, or otherwise remove any views, opinions and comments posted or part thereof. You shall ensure that the comment is not inflammatory, abusive, derogatory, defamatory &/or obscene, or contain pornographic matter and/or does not constitute hate mail, or violate privacy of any person (s) or breach confidentiality or otherwise is illegal, immoral or contrary to public policy. Nor should it contain anything infringing copyright &/or intellectual property rights of any person(s).

I agree to the terms of use.

BAD DECISSION by Kanta Kathuria on 2008-09-13 17:10:38.304576+05:30
How you can equate urdu and bangla,The decission is astonishing.I am listening VOA Hindi from last 25 years but none of the US President took such a foolish decission.It is a slap on millions of Hindi language lovers.The decission should be immediately rolled back

Reply Forward

Don'y do that by Abdul Khan Gazi on 2008-09-13 17:05:24.515086+05:30
This is not a good decission of US Government as our Radio Club is lisstening to VOA Hindi when we dont rely on other Urdu channels.VOA Hindi is popular in Pakistan and we don't think that it does not involve much money too.At the time of President election it should not been done

Reply Forward

Mail this page