Since 1991, India's courting of foreign investment has been accompanied by protectionist posturing in sensitive sectors
like insurance and the media. The tensions in making the shift from a mixed economy to a relatively open and
market-oriented economy were evident when the government considered reviewing a ban imposed by Jawaharlal
Nehru's government in 1955, and allowing foreign press companies to operate in the country's ‘mind-market’ in 1991.
This led to a welter of protest, forcing the government to drop the move. Since foreign media proposals periodically
engage government attention and provoke reactions, this is an attempt to take a closer look at the issues involved.
This paper will examine the posturing of the Indian elites, the state of the Indian press, the notion of media-cultural
imperialism and the legal question of media ownership by foreign nationals. It will conclude with the suggestion that
nationalist, cultural and mercantile interests were conflated to run one of the most effective campaigns by the press
against the government in recent years. Large sections were animated by genuine concerns, but mercantile interests
rode high, and manipulated them to telling effect.