Radio, Colonial Development and Propaganda: Broadcasting in British Colonies, 1924–1939

Abstract

During the inter-war years British colonial broadcasting policy revolved around the idea that radio could promote gradual economic, social and cultural change while heading off demand for increased political participation. ‘Wireless’ could serve the needs of the colonial state by encouraging ‘colonial development’ and by reinforcing the loyalty of colonial subjects. Communal village listening and ‘wired wireless’ systems were seen as the best means to harness the psychological impact of radio listening to advance a particular vision of colonial modernity. Such schemes widened, but also controlled, access to the wireless world. This article adopts a ‘connected history’ approach to show how ideas about colonial broadcasting crossed the internal borders of empire, with India, Palestine and the Gold Coast in particular being used as models for state broadcasting initiatives in other colonies. Soviet Russia and Nazi Germany also provided inspiration. While the British Broadcasting Company played a key role advising colonial and imperial civil servants, it seldom itself proved a model for colonial broadcasting systems, which were intended for authoritarian rather than democratic political settings. This article also examines the significant gap between the ambitions of imperial and colonial policymakers and the reality of the sluggish growth of colonial broadcasting infrastructure and audiences. The pervasive poverty of British colonies was an obstacle to both private and colonial state investment in radio, and the British government failed to step in to offer subsidies to support colonial broadcasting. The impact of broadcasting in British colonies thus generally remained potential rather than actual.