152 pages
250mm x 168mm
ISBN-10: 1 85856 321 6
ISBN-13: 978 185856 321 3
January 2004

'Moti Gokulsing's new book is a welcome addition to the growing body of work on Indian popular culture. The study adroitly blends new information and fresh insights and widens the discourse of popular culture in India by connecting it to issues of consumption, globalization and nationhood.' Professor Wimal Dissanayake, University of Hawaii

'In eight well structured and lucid chapters, the author traces the origins of Indian soap operas and places them in the context of soaps produced in other parts of the world, before analysing their evolution over the past decade and the way that process of change reflects, and impacts, how large segments of India's population think and act' - Hindustan Times.com

'admirably lucid yet comprehensive...these volumes will serve as very useful introductory guides into the nature of Indian media, its histories and cultural trajectories, for a wide range of users. The volume on television is especially recommended on account of its comprehensive coverage of methodological and analytical issues as well as the care given to narrating the complex history of Indian television over the past decade' - South Asia Research

'an excellent overview of Indian cinema and television that should be read by all scholars and students interested in global media processes in general or Indian media studies in particular'. - Asian Journal of Communication

At least one third of India's billion inhabitants regularly watch Indian soap operas, which have displaced popular cinema as the prime entertainment genre. And in the Indian diaspora on every Continent, Indian soap operas are a feature of life - a source of pleasure, discussion and shared identity.

This book characterises the forms of these soap operas and relates how they have evolved. It explores how they have contributed to shaping the identity of modern India. Initially developed by the national telecast service, Doordoshan, specifically to convey messages about women's role, contraception and other family issues. Doordoshan also engaged viewers with serialisations of the two great epics, the Ramayana and the Mahabarata. But with the onset of cable TV, soap operas became primarily entertainment driven and progressively more sensational. The book traces the impact of these different strands of soap operas and considers their impact on India's dominant concerns: the search for national unity, identity, the changing role of women, and the ideology of consumerism.

Soft Soaping India is the first book to study Indian televised soap operas in all its forms and will be essential reading for students of the media and sociologists interested in India and its diaspora. It will also be relevant to Women's Studies.

K. Moti Gokulsing is Visiting Fellow at the University of East London. He co-edits the journal South Asian Popular Culture and is author of the acclaimed Indian Popular Cinema, also published by Trentham.