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{{Infobox film
| name = Indian News Parade
| image = Indian News Parade logo.tiff
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| caption = ''Indian News Parade'' title card
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| producer = [[Information Films of India]], [[Central Cine Corporation]]
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| country = [[India]]
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'''''Indian News Parade''''' was a cinematic [[newsreel]] produced by the [[Government of India|Indian government]] between September 1943 and April 1946. Originally named '''''Indian Movietone News''''', it was produced in response to the Anglo-centric newsreels created by British and American companies. It suffered a poor critical reception, and production ceased shortly after the end of [[World War II]].

==History==
After a trip to Hollywood in 1940, film producer [[Ambalal Jhaverbhai Patel|Ambalal Patel]] pitched the idea of a weekly Indian newsreel to the British Government in India.<ref name="A directory of Indian documentary">{{cite book|title=A directory of Indian documentary|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oehkAAAAMAAJ|year=1998|publisher=Mumbai International Film Festival for Documentary, Short & Animation Films|page=27}}</ref> ''Indian News Parade'' was subsequently established in September 1942 by Patel and Sir Edward Villiers, under the name ''Indian Movietone News''. In an attempt to make the newsreels more accessible to the local population, Villiers intended to focus the content primarily on civil matters, a departure from other newsreels of the day which were heavily Eurocentric.<ref>''"British Newsreels for Overseas Countries. India''", July 1942-September 1943, INF 1/569, accessed at The National Archives.</ref> Some of the other newsreels circulated in India at the time were ''[[British Movietone News]]'', ''[[British Paramount News]]'', ''[[United News]]'' and ''[[Gaumont British News]]'', which all carried a distinct British or American bias, and although sometimes dubbed into local languages, were unpopular with the Indian population.<ref>Sargent, Paul, ''Indian News Parade: The First Indian Newsreel'', IWM Review, No. 12 (1999), 29-35.</ref>

Whilst subsidised by the government, ''Indian Movietone News'' was originally intended to be independently produced and distributed. Early newsreels were produced by ''Twentieth Century Fox India'', and were largely reissued versions of ''British Movietone'' newsreels dubbed into Indian languages.<ref name="BuñuelBandhu1992">{{cite book|author1=Luis Buñuel|author2=Pranjali Bandhu|title=Cinema in focus: writings|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1RFlAAAAMAAJ|year=1992|publisher=Odyssey|page=46}}</ref> These were criticised by the Ministry of Information and Film India for their failure to address the country's social issue and the developing war in Europe, and were not widely circulated.<ref>''Indian Movietone News 9; INF 1/569; Film India'', February 1943, 19</ref> In April 1943, the Indian government issued a directive under the [[Defence of India Act, 1939|Defence of India Act]] which required Indian cinemas to show ''Indian Movietone News'' (or other newsreels directly approved by the government) in an attempt to force it on an unwilling audience, a move which was heavily disapproved of.<ref name="Kohli2006">{{cite book|author=Vanita Kohli|title=The Indian Media Business|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hllyb6ymMy0C&pg=RA2-PA1-IA33|accessdate=31 May 2012|date=14 June 2006|publisher=SAGE|isbn=978-0-7619-3469-1|pages=2}}</ref><ref name="InformationServices1946">{{cite book|author1=India. Bureau of Public Information|author2=India. Information Services|author3=India Press Information Bureau|title=Indian information|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sztGAAAAMAAJ|year=1946|publisher=s.n.|page=32}}</ref> In order to better fulfil this directive, in 1943 ''Indian Movietone News'' was scrapped and replaced with the government-controlled ''Indian News Parade'', now produced and distributed by [[Information Films of India]].<ref name="BarnouwKrishnaswamy1980">{{cite book|author1=Erik Barnouw|author2=Subrahmanyam Krishnaswamy|title=Indian film|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=J_cKAQAAMAAJ|year=1980|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-502682-5|page=126}}</ref>

The new newsreel ran throughout the [[Second World War]], but in post-war India, its popularity waned amid accusations of political bias and irrelevance to modern life. In March 1946, the IFI's production budget was cut,<ref>''Indian Information'', 1 April 1946, 372</ref> and by the end of the month it was closed down. Indian News Parade was taken over by Ambalal Patel's Central Cine Corporation, but never escaped its reputation as a government propaganda tool, and production finally stopped in September 1946.<ref name="Seminar: The Monthly Symposium">{{cite book|title=Seminar: The Monthly Symposium|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kfRtAAAAMAAJ|year=1987|publisher=Malvika Singh|page=2009}}</ref>

==Content==
The early ''Indian News Parade'' reels focussed heavily on war propaganda, and were short on political commentary. In spite of objections from the government, the show covered [[Mahatma Gandhi]]'s release from the [[Aga Khan Palace]] in episode 62, showing that it retained at least some degree of independent editorial control. It was highly India-centric, compared to other newsreels at the time, but nonetheless still advocated cooperation with the forces of the [[British Empire]] and promoted colonialism. However, as independence for India approached, the newsreels began to widen their scope to include coverage of India's religious communities (episode 71), political parties (episode135) and international relations (episode 55), and started covering plans for post-war India (episodes 70, 71 and 88). During this period in the run-up to independence, ''Indian News Parade'' began to give prominence to Indian, rather than British, political figures (episodes 135, 160 and 163).

==Reception==
Critical reception of ''Indian News Parade'' was largely negative. After the newsreel was made compulsory in cinemas in 1943, the ''[[Journal of the Film Industry]]'' commented that, "the notification of compulsion seems to be an admission by Government that the more interesting class of the public found the films [Indian Movietone News] uninteresting".<ref>''The Journal of the Film Industry'', June 1943, 11, 12</ref> Exhibitors, who were obliged to pay a rental fee in order to show the now-compulsory newsreel, complained that the practice "smacked more of totalitarianism than democracy".<ref>Garga, B.D., ''From Raj to Swaraj: The Non-Fiction Film in India'' (New Delhi: Penguin, 2007)</ref> The obligatory screening of the [[jingoistic]] ''Indian News Parade'' articles was felt to be insensitive in poorer rural areas, particularly when episodes touched lightheartedly on issues which directly affected them (such as the [[Bengal famine of 1943|Bengal famine]]). In spite of the newsreels intent to make the news accessible to the general Indian population, its colonial bias meant that it was largely out of touch with its intended audience.<ref>Bhattacharya, Sanjoy (2001). ''Propaganda and Information in Eastern India, 1939-45: A Necessary Weapon of War''. (London: [[Routledge]]).</ref>

The Indian press was strongly critical of ''Indian News Parade'', citing its poor editing and lack of pace. The general cinema-going population were bored by repeated viewings; in a letter to the Ministry of Information, one European resident complained that "the scheme is getting on the cinema-going public’s nerves and a considerable amount of harsh talk is ensuing, which to my mind, completely eliminates all the original propaganda value".<ref>''Leach to Joyce, 15 March 1944, Films for Publicity'', L/I/I/686, accessed at the British Library.</ref> In the light of growing Indian nationalism, the newsreels' most vocal critics were those who attacked its political affiliations, denouncing ''Indian News Parade'' as a tool of the [[British Raj]] and labelling it irrelevant to the domestic audience.

==Preservation and academic study==
Copies of the ''Indian News Parade'' are preserved in the film archive of the [[Imperial War Museum]].<ref name=IWM>{{cite web |author=[[Imperial War Museum]] Film Archive |url=http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/search?query=INR%20&submit=&items_per_page=50&filter%5bwebCategory%5d%5b0%5d=%22film%22 |title=Indian News Parade |work=IWM Collections Search |accessdate=28 May 2012}}</ref> In 2010, following an [[Arts and Humanities Research Council]]-funded collaborative project between IWM, the [[British Film Institute]], the [[British Empire and Commonwealth Museum]], and [[University College London]] and [[Birkbeck, University of London|Birkbeck College]], catalogue records for ''Indian News Parade'' issues, some enhanced with [[Digitizing|digitised]] film material and contextual and analytical essays, were published on the project website ''Colonial Film: Moving Images of the British Empire''.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.colonialfilm.org.uk/search-content?keys=indian%20news%20parade&sortfield=%40weight&rpp=48 |title=Indian News Parade |work=Colonial Film: Moving images of the British Empire |accessdate=28 May 2012}}</ref>

==See also==
{{portal|Film|Journalism}}
* [[List of newsreels by country]]
* [https://picasaweb.google.com/118245811686959745462/IndianNewsParadeNewsreels19431946 Logos India News Parade]
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==References==
{{reflist|30em}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:1940s short documentary films]]
[[Category:Black-and-white documentary films]]
[[Category:1943 films]]
[[Category:1944 films]]
[[Category:1945 films]]
[[Category:1946 films]]
[[Category:Indian short documentary films]]
[[Category:Newsreels]]
[[Category:Indian black-and-white films]]

Indian News Parade - Revision history

UpdateBot at 17:09, 27 June 2022