Yiting Dong-Reading Journal 1

According to the reading of a case study of the reception of two contemporary televisual versions, it reflected the young Punjabi Londoners how they negotiated the culture difference and identity by using TV as a recourse. This reading journal will focus on the discussion of Indian cultural by the Dhani family watching the Mahabharata in English and Indian version.

In the case,  Dhani family is a big family that has nine people and lived in a three bedrooms house in Old Southall. The parents came to England 12 years ago after the war. Basically, from their home ornament, it strongly shows their religious and background culture. For instance, line the top of the sideboard of Krishna, Shiva, Vishnu, Lakshmima and other gods. They also have their own domestic shrine and puja or prayers are performed three times a day.

The important thing is about watching the Mahabharata. The Mahabharata is one of the two famous Sanskrit epics in India. It plays the important role in the area of India’s philosophy and religion. Compare two versions of the Mahabharata, the viewing of Brooks’ Mahabharata has aroused the dissatisfaction of the whole family. For example, Ranjit, the youngest son in the family, thought Duryodhana should wear red because red stands for blood, anger and fire. Actually, they limited by their deeply rooted cultural code. They cared about the use of the colors, symbolic of certain qualities and especially because of view the Indian version.  The differences really reflect the India culture.

From the India cultural, different identities should have its own symbolic, which the other people can recognize obviously. Such as, you can distinguish the people by tell the strength, the behavior, the wearing. Everything is meaningful in India. This also can be a reason why they cannot accept the English version of the Mahabharata. The English one is more concentrate on the language. As India cultural, they thought the images could create the meanings. The visual is presented creates certain codes that are interpreted by the viewer, such as the icons, colors. The English version was absolutely unsuitable for the India cultural. The viewers can gain a better understanding about themselves and the society by imagine as a source of meaning.

The new TV delivery system is a good way that can relate this Hindus family to connect with India and Pakistani popular culture.  As the India government, they use the television to reinforce their value and in fact, one of the most unexpected effects of the liberalization of television in India is how it has contributed to the rapid growth of channels in languages other than Hindi.

In conclusion, two different versions of the Mahabharata have created the different imagine meaning for the Indians. They emphasized on the visual staffs, which was based on their original India cultural background. They can gain the meaningful imagine from the television visual rather than talked more in the English version. Certainly, TV is a media connection for the people to create the visual cultural and shape the individual identity.


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