Vatican Radio’s Indian programme marks 50 years ‎

Vatican Radio’s Indian programme on Saturday celebrated its 50 years with a Holy Mass followed by a ‎reception at its headquarters in Rome.  Jesuit Father Lisbert D’Souza, General Counsellor and Regional ‎Assistant for South Asia here at the Jesuit generalate in Rome, presided over a concelebrated ‎Eucharistic Celebration at the radio’s chapel, May 16, with hymns in Hindi, Tamil, Malayalam and English ‎languages, the four language programmes of South Asia. Later, at a reception, two Tamil and three ‎Hindi books on programme content were released. ‎

Vatican Radio was born on Feb. 12, 1931, under Pope Pius XI, who had entrusted the great radio ‎pioneer, Guglielmo Marconi to start a radio station for the Holy See.   However, what is called the ‎Indian programme today, consisting of ‎Hindi, Tamil, Malayalam and English for India, came much later ‎‎-  in 1965 – a year after Blessed Paul VI visited India on the occasion of the International Eucharistic ‎Congress in Bombay in 1964.  But 7 years before that,  an English programme had been launched in ‎‎1958 beaming towards South Asia.  It was in 1965 that the Indian Section was officially established ‎with a 10-minute-evening broadcast, twice weekly, in Hindi, Tamil, Malayalam and English, which over ‎the years and decades became a 20-minute programme each, as today.  ‎

There was  a fifth programme – Urdu – which began on Oct. 24, 1993, with a 7-minute broadcast ‎entitled, “Darwaza Khula Hai” (The Door is Open), aired on Sundays, with time taken from Hindi.  ‎Urdu became a standalone programme in 20013 with a 15-minute programme twice a week, on ‎Sundays and Wednesdays.  However, Urdu was suspended in September, 2013. ‎