Tracking the Spread of Right Wing Politics through Social Media in India

Project Year: 2017
Role: Co-Lead Researcher
Methods: Digital Ethnography and Qualitative Discourse Analysis
Company: UCLA

Problem

Digital and news media have become critical tools for spreading Hindu nationalist sentiment and suppressing critics of the current regime in India. Digital Hindutva (Hindu Nationalism) has become a driving force behind offline violence against religious minorities and dissidents in the contemporary era. This phenomenon, in which mass and social media was used to foment attacks offline, occurred through one particular episode in 2016 when college students at New Delhi’s prestigious Jawaharlal Nehru University were protesting against an unsanctioned hanging of a political prisoner from the contested region of Kashmir (aka the “JNU Row”).

During this episode, Facebook and Twitter were used to spread false claims about student protesters, leading to their arrest, beating, and ultimate incarceration.

Question

How does digital media contribute to the circulation and legitimization of nationalist discourse and violence against dissenters, and how can we better protect users from experiencing targeted violence?

Methods and Role

In a collaboration with media anthropologist Dr. Purnima Mankekar, we conducted and 8-week digital ethnography of the JNU Row. We examined the role of digital media in fomenting violence against student protesters. We performed qualitative discourse analysis of the circulation of fake (doctored) clips through Indian news media, social media posts in response to these clips, and the debates circulating around JNU students. This work brought together my interest in the role of digital linguistic practices in shaping discourses of gendered violence in India with Dr. Mankekar’s expertise in the intersection of theories of affect, gender, and mass media in India.

Deliverables and Impact

Dr. Mankekar and I presented our findings in a co-authored a peer-reviewed chapter in the edited volume Global Digital Cultures: Perspectives from South Asia.

I also collaborated with other students at UCLA to organize a public forum for scholars and students to discuss on the JNU protests at the Center for India and South Asia at UCLA in 2016. This public engagement facilitated public awareness of the role of digital media in the contemporary rise of Hindu nationalism in India.

Access Our Article Here:

Debating Cultural Perceptions of Gendered Violence on Social Media in India (Master’s Research)

Project Timeframe: 2014-15
Role: Lead Researcher
Methods: Digital Ethnography and Qualitative Discourse Analysis
Company: University of Cambridge

Problem

In the wake of the 2012 rape and murder of Jyoti Singh Pandey in New Delhi, India (popularly called the ‘Delhi Gang Rape’), a plethora of online discourse emerged attributing the event to India’s intractable “rape culture.” Such arguments provoked similarly defensive arguments about the global, rather than cultural, dimensions of gendered violence.

In this case, digital media served as an organizing tool for protesters to contest offline forms of violence against women, as well as a platform through which to debate and discuss the causes and solutions to violence against women.

Question

How do people use social media to debate and understand the causes and solutions to gender-based violence in India?

Methods

From November - July 2014, I conducted a digital ethnography of YouTube, Reddit, Twitter, and multiple Indian news outlets to understand how users were mobilizing social media platforms to organize offline protests and challenge long-standing ideologies about gendered violence.

I performed qualitative discourse analysis to collect, code, and analyze hundreds of online articles, social media posts, and comment threads surrounding two recent instances of gendered violence in India, including the 2012 Delhi gang rape and a lesser-publicized murder of two adolescent, Dalit girls in a rural village in Uttar Pradesh. I uncovered patterns in how users were engaging comment sections to debate the causes of rape, which galvanized major offline protests. I found that arguments were embedded in deeper ideologies about gender, class, and caste in India.

Deliverables and Impact

This work developed into three publications and six conference products where I examined the role of social media in changing attitudes toward gender-based violence in India. My MPhil dissertation on this topic from the University of Cambridge received recognition for its originality and timelinness.