Tag: India

The Secret History of Yoga

 

Yoga ears composite 3

 

Hearing ear

To mark UN International Yoga Day Mukti Jain Campion sets out to explore the roots of modern yoga practice and uncovers an extraordinary multicultural history in which early 20th century European ideas of health, fitness and the cult of the Body Beautiful became intertwined with Indian nationalism and the revival of Indian interest in its own traditions of physical culture. Out of this heady mix emerged a new generation of yoga innovators who transformed an obsolete and frowned-upon practice of Indian holy men into something that would appeal to masses of ordinary people around the world. (1 x 28′)

First broadcast BBC Radio 4 June 2016 & BBC World Service July 2016

Contributors include: Mark Singleton Author, Yoga Body: The origins of modern posture practice Dr Jim Mallinson Yoga historian, School of Oriental and African Studies, London Dr Manmath Gharote, Lonavla Yoga Institute, India Dr Suzanne Newcombe, The London School of Economics

Readers: Tim Pigott-Smith and Denise Stephenson

Producer Mukti Jain Campion

 

Radio Choice: The Times, The Daily Telegraph and the Daily Mail

   Mukti Jain Campion’s fine documentary about the gaps and changes in our perception of yoga – Gillian Reynolds, The Daily Telegraph 17/06/16

 

What’s behind the five popular poses loved by the world? 

Online Shopping, Indian Style

Assisted shopping in village store

Online shopping in India is booming, despite the many hurdles. Less than 20% of Indians have access to the internet, few use any form of online payment, and the logistics challenges of delivery are huge in such a vast country with traffic-congested cities and unreliable postal addresses. At the peak of the Diwali seasonal shopping frenzy, Mukti Jain Campion joins a motorbike courier on his delivery round in Bangalore to discover what Indians are buying online and why.

Producer Mukti Jain Campion

First broadcast December 2015 BBC Radio 4 and BBC World Service

Hearing ear

Sugar, Saris and Green Bananas

1.Sugar in my blood  London-born journalist Lainy Malkani delves into her family’s roots and discovers the rich but bitter-sweet history of Indian indentured labourers on Caribbean sugar plantations.

2.Indo-Guyanese and proud Prompted by her mother’s death, Lainy explores what migrating to Britain from the sugar plantations of Guyana meant for her family.

(2 x 28′)

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First broadcast September 2015 BBC Radio 4

Contributors include: Peter Fraser, Professor Clem Seecheran,  Victor Jeevan Sookaram and Raymond Rahiman

Producer: Mukti Jain Campion

Radio choice: The Mail on Sunday, The Sunday Telegraph, the Daily Mail and the Daily Telegraph

An Indian in Bloomsbury

 

Photo by Marilyn StaffordMukti Jain Campion celebrates the life of Mulk Raj Anand, the founding father of Indian Literature in English and author of the classic novel Untouchable. Anand was a follower of Gandhi and a passionate campaigner for Indian independence, but, surprisingly, his literary career actually began amongst the fashionable intellectuals of The Bloomsbury Group in 1920s London. (1 x 28′)

First broadcast   February 2004  BBC Radio 4

Readings by Roshan Seth

Producer Mukti Jain Campion

 

Powerful and revealing– Sue Arnold, The Observer

 

Contributors include: Dr Alistair Niven, Susheila Nasta, The Rt. Hon. Michael Foot, Pankaj Mishra, Dominic Rai of the Man Mela Theatre Company

Radio Choice: The Independent, The Guardian, The Daily Telegraph, The Sunday Telegraph, The Times, The Sunday Times, The Mail on Sunday, The Daily Mail, The Observer

Radio 4 Pick of the Week

Photo courtesy of Marilyn Stafford

Blogging Against Bribery

 

babIn April 2011 the web was set abuzz by the hunger protest of 72 year old Anna Hazare, demanding that the Indian Government draft a tough new anti-corruption bill. His fast in Delhi was supported by campaigners across India and the world, fuelled by Facebook and Twitter to make it the most successful use of the internet and social media in an Indian protest. Mukti Jain Campion reports from Bangalore on this new trend for click-tivism and examines an innovative anti-bribery website called ipaidabribe.com (1 x 28′)

First broadcast  June  2011 BBC Radio 4

Producer Mukti Jain Campion      Executive Producer Charles Miller

 

In top 5 most popular stories of the day on BBC World News website

Bridging the Morphine Gap

 

btmgMukti Jain Campion investigates why, despite producing most of the world’s medical morphine, India’s own people have virtually no access to it and how a hospice in Shrewsbury is helping pioneers of the Indian palliative care movement to overcome the ignorance that surrounds this vital pain relieving-drug. (1 x 28′)

First broadcast March 2008   BBC Radio 4

Producers Mukti Jain Campion and Chris Eldon Lee

Radio 4 Pick of the Week

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Bengal to Baker Street in 80 Paintings

Mukti Jain Campion discovers the story of pioneering Indian modern artist Jamini Roy (1887 – 1972) and how the largest collection of his work came to hang in a private apartment in central London. (1 x 28′)

See Slideshow of the paintings discussed in the programme.

First broadcast March 2014  BBC Radio 4

Contributors include: Professor Nirmalya Kumar (pictured), Collector of Jamini Roy’s paintings; Richard Blurton, Curator of South Asian Art at the British Museum; Partha Mitter, Emeritus Professor of Art History, University of Sussex; Sona Datta, art historian, curator and author of book on Jamini Roy “Urban Patua”; Artist Sir Howard Hodgkin

Producer Mukti Jain Campion

This is a fascinating programme about art, its collection, its inspiration, its social value and how attitudes of critics and art historians change over time – Gillian Reynolds, The Daily Telegraph

 

Radio Choice: The Times, The Daily Mail, The Daily Telegraph, The Independent, The Observer and Radio Times

Crossing the Black Waters

 

ctbwFrom the first sailing of its ships to India in 1607, the English East India Company began a movement of people, goods and ideas that has linked the imaginations and fortunes of the people of Britain and the Indian subcontinent for 400 years. Mukti Jain Campion explores the extraordinary social legacy of the Company and of the early travellers who crossed the kala pani, into the unknown. (3 x 28′)

First broadcast January 2002 BBC Radio 4

Contributors include: Dr Huw Bowen, Dr Kate Teltscher, Rozina Visram, Professor Om Prakash, Rudrangshu Mukherjee, Dr Laxshmi Subramanian, Dr Indira Ghose and Tapati Guha Thakurta.

Readers: Vincent Ebrahim, Christopher Holmes & Malindi O’Rorke

Producers Mukti Jain Campion & Chris Eldon Lee

 

A compelling listen – Paul Donovan, The Sunday Times

 

 1: Identity  How the Company changed the way Indians and Britons looked at themselves, and each other.

2: Sex  The Company’s role originated many of the enduring myths about each country’s sexual behaviour.

3: Wealth  How the Company changed the fortunes of millions of Indians and Britons.

Radio Choice: The Guardian, The Mail on Sunday, Time Out, The Sunday Times

Radio 4 Pick of the Week

 

e-Villages

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Mukti Jain Campion visits five pioneering projects that are bringing the internet to rural communities on the Indian subcontinent. (5 x 14′)

First broadcast June 2002  BBC Radio 4

Producer Mukti Jain Campion

These stories will amaze – Gillian Reynolds, The Daily Telegraph

1: Putting the I See into ICT    Telemedicine comes to a south Indian village bringing eye care to the poor.

2: Making Waves A fishing community near Pondicherry where the internet is helping to catch fish and save lives.

3: Wise Women of the Web A women’s self-help group is connecting the village to the world through an internet centre in the local temple.

4: Browsing the Horizon  Kothmale Community Radio has developed an innovative way of giving villages of Sri Lanka’s highlands access to the web.

5: Reducing Bureaucracy to Byte Size  The villagers of Dhar are discovering the power of the internet in getting better local government.

Radio Choice: The Times, The Independent, The Guardian, The Telegraph, The Sunday Times,The Sunday Telegraph, The Mail on Sunday 

Radio 4 Pick of the Week

Grandmothers’ Footsteps

gfTwo travel documentaries in which Mukti Jain Campion accompanies her children back to the childhood homes of their two grandmothers – a rural village in India and a remote crofting community in the Scottish Highlands – and discovers that the two women have more in common than just grandchildren. (2 x 28′)

First broadcast November 1997 BBC Radio 4

Original Music by Nick Sargent

Producers Mukti Jain Campion & Chris Eldon Lee

Two documentaries of the kind radio does well: contrasting social histories told by people who have lived them. The moving spirit in more ways than one is the producer Mukti Jain Campion – Peter Barnard, The Times

Radio Choice: The Times, The Independent, The Guardian, The Telegraph, The Sunday Times, The Evening Standard, Radio Times

Radio 4 Pick of the Week