The history of the Indian language broadcasts (Hindi, Tamil and Malayalam) goes back to some 35 years. On May 31, 1990, Vatican Radio marked the 25th anniversary of the Hindi, Tamil and Malayalam broadcasts. In May 2001 we turn 35.

The transmissions towards the Indian Subcontinent started before 1965 as a repeat of the English programmes prepared by the English section. The English programme was aired a number of times in different directions, including Africa and South Asia till separate sections were created to make their own programmes for these zones. A few months later, the Indian Section came into being with Indian personnel and Indian languages began to be aired besides English.

However, these Indian language programmes were of ten-minute duration and went on the air only twice a week. On May 12, 1985, we could start the daily programmes in Malayalam; but this was only for the morning. Almost on the eve of the Pope's 1986 visit to India, we could start the daily transmissions for 15 minutes each in Hindi and Tamil as well. However, in the evening we could only air 6 minutes of Catholic news in each one of the languages, including English. By the end of 1986 we were broadcasting in the evening for 10 minutes each. From March 25,1990 onwards we increased our transmission time to 15 minutes for each of the four languages - Hindi, Malayalam, Tamil and English - both in evening and in the morning. Since September 1993, each language has been transmitting for 20 minutes twice daily.

There is a good response to our programmes, in spite of the fact that there is a vast difference in the Christian traditions or concentrations in the region. This calls for differences in ontent and presentation of programmes. To facilitate audience contact, we have established contact offices in India and Sri Lanka which print and distribute monthly newsletters in all the four languages and reply the listeners who write to us. It is certainly a heartening consolation to read the many letters of our listeners who say that they want to know more about Christ, about the Church, about the Pope, about the Vatican, what the Church is doing for world peace, against racial discrimination, for equality, inter-religious dialogue and cooperation etc. Quite a number of our listeners want copies of the Bible or literature on Christ. We realize that we need to go a long way in the area of publicity; we need to arrange regular advertisements in the magazines or papers. Several listeners have suggested we increase the duration of our broadcasts.