JOUR 404--
JOUR 404.604.1001
James L’Angelle
University of Nevada, Reno
Dr. Paromita Pain, Professor
Fall 2023
FINAL PROJECT PROPOSAL
India: The Telegraph Act and the Internet.
No communication system or network developed in a vacuum; nor did it exist in a bubble devoid of regulation. No nation existed in a vacuum before the world wide web changed the way its citizens communicated, India was no exception.
Under British rule from the mid-1800s to the mid-1900s, the first extensive effort to link the communication distance across the far flung empire was the telegraph. With it came infrastructure difficulties initially considered unimportant.
The East India Company, in de facto control of India, already had a functional telegraph system in place, running adjacent to its railway lines. An effort to augment this system through an independent government backbone infrastructure met with numerous dismal failures due to the weather, uninsulated wire lines atop bamboo poles that would collapse when a cyclone rolled across the country, renegade natives who stole the copper wire to make jewelry, insufficient battery power to relay messages, and signals that were interrupted and broken along the way.
In 1857, the Sepoy Rebellion forced the East India Company out of power; it was replaced by the Crown itself. (1) The quality of the government telegraph service didn’t necessarily improve for many years. Faced with most of the same issues, the new British administration reformed not just the infrastructure itself, but brought in Westerners to assist in message trafficking. (2)
With it also came the Telegraph Act of 1885; a seemingly innocuous piece of historical legislation paving the way for what came next: censorship, and in the 21st century, the internet. Throughout the years, much of the difficulty rose from the government of India’s refusal to accept commercial development of the enterprise, maintaining a monopoly where possible.
Today, it’s easy to “Google” the extent of the internet across the nation, which creates an oversimplified picture of the prevalence of the infrastructure. It overlooks the dialup, the incredibly slow download speeds, the crashes, the cost, and rules that prevented, and prevent, access. Somewhere in all of this, the government, possibly falling back on its failure during the telegraph era to keep the system up and running and the laws that governed it, still uses the Telegraph Act to justify shutting down the internet to prevent access by organized protesters, disillusioned provincial politicians out to demand reforms from the national government, and under-the-radar groups using the resources for criminal activity.
What is unclear is where the national government stands in implementing the Telegraph Act and its amended, more modern, regulations to cover up the flaws in the system. The purpose of this research will be to ferret out not just the intentional security shutdowns of the modern internet, but other, perhaps, less justified reasons based on infrastructure failure that might be passed off as security concerns. The coverup would be based on a strategy to fend off criticism, embarrassment and getting tossed into the social media doghouse over an inept official response.
The presentation will draw on a number of sources which show similar strategies were employed during the telegraph era, how legislation and regulation offset the setbacks and failures of the system, and how they are employed today, beyond actual genuine security concerns, also to be addressed.
(Image credit: Phone/cable lines dangle in a Gordian knot from a building and telephone pole in Amritsar, India; typical of the wiring problem that exists with the introduction of overlapping communications systems into an urban environment. https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/amritsar/open-house-what-can-be-done-to-address-the-issue-of-dangling-electricity-and-cable-wires-across-city-522344)
(Image credit: Breakdown of the Airtel "-G" networks, Imphal, Manipur State, India, https://www.nperf.com/en/map/IN/1269771.Imphal/1991549.Airtel-Mobile/signal/)
Resources:
1.) Indian Mutiny, Britannica, https://www.britannica.com/event/Indian-Mutiny
2.) CC Adley, The Story of the Telegraph in India., Bucklersbury, London 1866, https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Story_of_the_Telegraph_in_India/N_lNzCHQkS4C?hl=en&gbpv=1
image
https://auction.universityarchives.com/auction-lot/east-india-telegraph-co.-stock-signed-by-company_55548D98D2
Note: Dr. Paromita Pain, University of Nevada, Reynolds School of Journalism, Reno, Nevada, USA--has given the "Go ahead" on this final presentation project.
UNR Fall 2023
UNR Fall 2023