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404 Anshu ChatterjeeIndian entrepreneurs located across the nation also received a tremendousboost in the reform-oriented environment, gaining access to external sourcesthat enabled them to broadcast into their own communities. Previous restrictionssurrounding the television industry had barred local entrepreneurs fromthe television sector. The lowered cost of access to new technologies at theglobal level, combined with regional expertise and associations, providedthese enterprises with an unexpected advantage. Within a decade of the deregulatorymoves, the Indian television sector consisted of 40–50 new playersaffiliated with a diversity of channels directed at community audiences. In1990, 27 million households in the country had television. By comparison, in2001, over 60 million households, comprising more than 31 percent of thecountry’s one billion residents, contained televisions sets. 2In comparison to other developing nations, the expansion of commercialtelevision in India occurred among the nation’s multiple cultural communities,challenging the larger players seeking a national audience. Historically, thestate-owned Doordarshan controlled this space, transmitting mainly Hindi andEnglish programs despite the nation’s language diversity. Although,Doordarshan’s reach extended across the nation by 1990, no clear receptionfigures exist. However, only 42 percent of Indians are Hindi speakers. Over106 language communities reside in India, of which twenty retain the officialstatus of a national language. Reception among these communities remainedlimited.From Doordarshan’s inception in 1959, the state had utilized television topromote selected developmental, social, and political objectives. In 1983,Rajiv Gandhi’s reform-oriented administration extended Doordarshan’s entertainmentsegment to include programs with a possible national appeal. Newcultural programs, such as Hindu mythology programs, gained an immediateviewership. Some scholars detect a link between the appearance of Hindumythology programs and Rajiv Gandhi’s attempts at mobilizing the Hinduvote (Rajagopal, 2001; see also Mitra, 1993). They argue that the increasingpopularity of the Hindu Nationalists, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in thenorthern and western parts of the nation caused Rajiv Gandhi to introduce religiousprograms into state television which had previously followed a secularpolicy.However, the proliferation of religious programs in the 1980s may be betterunderstood in the light of the state’s new commercial agenda. India consists of83 percent Hindus. Under Rajiv Gandhi, the objectives of the national mediadeveloped under the Nehruvian state confronted the new commercial objectivesthat responded to popular preferences. In addition, no apparent links existbetween audience programming preferences and their political choices. RajivGandhi lost the following 1989 elections and, although the Hindu mythologyprograms continued to be popular across the country, the BJP’s vote base