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India, Practice of Public Relations in

No adequate discussion of public relations in India can occur without reference to the country's rich cultural mosaic. India is a prime example of “unity in diversity”—a vast and varied land with a rich history of over 5,000 years. The Indus Valley civilization (ca. 3300–1300 BC), considered one of the world's oldest urban civilizations, flourished in the Indian subcontinent (today's northwestern India and Pakistan). Although noted for Hinduism, India is also the birthplace of Buddhism, Jainism, and Sikhism. After Indonesia and Pakistan, it has the third largest population of Muslims. In addition, India is home to several hundred languages—13 of which are used by more than 1% of the country's 1.2 billion population and 29 languages are spoken by at least 1 million people. Therefore, practicing public relations in a country that is as large and as culturally diverse as India is a challenge of great proportions. Several phases of public relations are discernible in India.

Pre-Independence India

No complete description of public relations in India is complete without recognizing the evidence of similar public relations activities in the land during pre-biblical times. The Indus valley civilization provides archaeological evidence of terracotta and stone seals that the rulers used as tools of communication. Religion provided an opportunity for the use of communication as seen in the founders of Jainism and Buddhism. In fact, an ardent Buddhist—Emperor Asoka—used rock and pillar edicts during his reign (304–232 BC) to propagate Buddhism and publicize social and moral precepts, including social and animal welfare programs. The Bhagavad Gita, a guide that offers 18 chapters on how individuals should behave in society, is said to have been given by Lord Krishna to Arjuna between the 5th and 2nd century BC. Further along in history, Adi Shankaracharya used oratory and debates (Ashtavad-hana) to propagate his Advaita philosophy between AD 788 and 820.

However, much of India's modern public relations activity occurred in the 20th century. The struggle for independence was a powerful social movement that used many of the principles of public relations and some of the most sophisticated means of communication and persuasion, including the use of vernacular press, effective oratory, and nonviolent protests. The British colonialists established the Central Bureau of Public Information in 1923, which after independence became the precursor to the Press Information Bureau. Publicity was the principal focus of this bureau. A few years prior to independence, corporations like the Tatas, Dunlop, Unilever (Hindustan Lever), and Philips engaged in outreach initiatives using public relations.

Post-Independence India

Independence from British imperial rule in 1947 led to the contentious breakup of the Indian subcontinent into India, West Pakistan, and East Pakistan (East Pakistan became Bangladesh in 1971). After independence, India adopted a more socialistic model for development, instituting Soviet-style five-year plans. The emphasis was on establishing a large public sector whose primary purpose was national development. In turn, this led to what can be called public sector public relations, reflecting the political and economic philosophies of the prosocialist leaders of the day. The central and state governments set up large departments of “information and publicity” that were recognized as the public relations arms of government. The work of these departments often blurred the boundaries between public relations for national development and publicity aimed at maintaining the status quo by engaging almost exclusively on personalities rather than policies of political leaders of the party in power.

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