I’ve written about it here and here, but here’s another article, this time by Indian Express columnist Shailaja Bajpai, where she talks of Indian television propagating harmful ways of thinking instead of doing the reverse :

In all soaps, the most important entity is the Family, the most critical event, the Wedding, the central theme Marriage. The promos for a new soap, To Baat Hamari Pakki, coming soon to Sony, picture a young girl decked up in jewellery and clothes almost as heavy as her ornaments, before she is thrust before the boy’s family with a tea tray for a “show”. In Behenein (Star Plus), the family is preparing for a wedding: “Shaadi, shaadi, shaadi” — that’s all you ever hear on these serials.

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TV serials justify the continuance of ignorant, harmful old ways of thinking and discourage, nay, punish anyone who dares to flout them. The khap panchayat diktats on same gotra marriages, the “honour” killings we read about and which has perhaps seen a mother kill her own daughter in the Nirupama Pathak case, are very much a part of the world in our TV serials.

Entire article here.