NEGATING THE HEGEMONIC POWERS OF PRINT NARRATIVES: A STUDY OF COUNTER-PRINT CULTURE IN INDIA

Print, as global phenomena was a trend that clearly emerged out of the various facets of Modernity. Thus Print and its development was a major turning point in the history of dissemination of a wide plethora of discourses and epistemological systems across the globe. Within the Indian context, like in any other part of the world, the evolution of print culture had, since the advent of technological and scientific advancement, been a major intervention in the modern age which made it possible to archive a large reservoir of oral knowledge. This paradigm shift from the purely oral to the print forms was rather a significant marker in Indian history which in a sense changed the face of not just literature but also the production, acceptance, and reception of all other Indian knowledge systems. Keeping in view and being fully aware of the importance and widespread reach that Print holds in India, this paper attempts to look closely at a trend during the 1970s which in a sense countered the print culture that had become a dominant form of exchange of knowledge. Here, it becomes rather important to delve a bit deeper into the period which is in common parlance called the 1970's. Contrary to the general understanding, in the Indian context 1970s refers not just particularly to the decade i.e. from 1970 to 1979, rather to a trend that emerged much before 1970 in the Indian context. Thus, the specific reference here is to the ‘historical moment' in Indian history called the Emergency, which for the first time since the emergence of the Print Culture faced censorship being imposed on the Press, an event which posed a major challenge and in a sense undermined its purpose itself at a time when it was in its boom and had acquired wide acceptance. This study focuses on those tendencies within the period which sought to find alternatives to print forms of resistance and seeks to delve deep into those alternative counter-narratives, mostly in the oral form that went on to challenge the established supremacy of Print. Thus, the focal point of the study is on a counter-print discourse, a trend which came as an offshoot of the excesses of the Government during the Emergency.