A necessary weapon of war : state policies towards propaganda and information in eastern India, 1939-45
This thesis studies official policies of propaganda at different levels of the colonial administration in Assam, Bengal, Bihar, Orissa and the eastern United Provinces during the Second World War. By contrast to the available research, it treats 'propaganda' as a complex political strategy, whereby information and a variety of material benefits were disseminated, always biased towards a particular viewpoint, with the purpose of mobilising support for specific ideological campaigns, for example the publicity launched against the Indian National Congress between 1942 and 1944. Attention is given to the objectives of policy, the structures used to disseminate official propaganda, the limitations imposed on these efforts by the available technology, the audiences targeted, the themes advertised, and the impact of these activities on wartime and post-war politics. Contrary to earlier work on the topic, this thesis argues that colonial policy aimed not merely to suppress information inimical to that released by the state, but also to collect intelligence about the morale of specific audiences, their responses to the various nationalisms being articulated at the time, and the themes which needed to be addressed at
Bhattachary, Sanjoy
History
A necessary weapon of war : state policies towards propaganda and information in eastern India, 1939-45. This thesis studies official policies of propaganda at different levels of the colonial administration in Assam, Bengal, Bihar, Orissa and the eastern United Provinces during the Second World War. By contrast to the available research, it treats 'propaganda' as a complex political strategy, whereby information and a variety of material benefits were disseminated, always biased towards a particular viewpoint, with the purpose of mobilising support for specific ideological campaigns, for example the publicity launched against the Indian National Congress between 1942 and 1944. Attention is given to the objectives of policy, the structures used to disseminate official propaganda, the limitations imposed on these efforts by the available technology, the audiences targeted, the themes advertised, and the impact of these activities on wartime and post-war politics. Contrary to earlier work on the topic, this thesis argues that colonial policy aimed not merely to suppress information inimical to that released by the state, but also to collect intelligence about the morale of specific audiences, their responses to the various nationalisms being articulated at the time, and the themes which needed to be addressed at
necessary weapon war state policy_towards propaganda information eastern india study official_policy propaganda different_level colonial_administration bengal eastern united provinces second_world_war contrast available propaganda complex political strategy whereby information variety material benefit disseminate always bias_towards particular viewpoint purpose mobilise support specific ideological campaign example launch indian national congress attention_give objective policy structure use disseminate official propaganda limitation impose effort available technology audience target theme advertise impact activity wartime post_war politics contrary early_work topic argue colonial_policy aim merely suppress information release state also collect intelligence morale specific audience responses various nationalism articulate time theme need addressed