The state and politics have significantly influenced the institution of television in India. But, despite the recent proliferation of literature on mass media, the political history of state-run broadcasting, particularly television, remains unexamined. Most studies have dealt either with the general history of broadcasting or the post-1991 satellite television boom, ignoring the political contexts of the1980s a period that witnessed both rapid growth and development of state-run television and political instability in the Indian States of Assam, Kashmir and Punjab.