Technopolitics of Communication in Modern India

Paper Chains and Viral Phenomena

Inbunden, Engelska, 2025

AvPragya Dhital,UK) Dhital, Pragya (School of Oriental and African Studies

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This book offers a groundbreaking account of the role of media technologies in Indian nationalism and democracy. From the Brexit referendum in 2016 to the phenomenon of ‘Trumpism’, there has been much speculation about the role played by new media in an apparent return of illiberal politics and primordial identities. Dhital argues these developments could best be understood by not taking identity for granted as a static and exclusive form of affiliation. She also emphasises how the technical and material are interwoven into human thought and action rather than acting upon them externally. She accordingly focuses on the technopolitical means by which groups have been ventriloquised during critical periods in Indian political history, across various media – from newspapers and magazines to radio broadcasts, speeches and online platforms.Chapters cover prison writing produced during the emergency of 1975-77, regulation of public speech during the 2014 general election, and the Citizenship Amendment Act protests of 2019-20. Through these case studies, Dhital works towards an alternative, more reflexive, basis for popular representation, one that does not sacralise ‘the people’ and assume power in their name.

Produktinformation

Utgivningsdatum2025-01-23
Mått162 x 238 x 16 mm
Vikt447 g
FormatInbunden
SpråkEngelska
Antal sidor192
FörlagBloomsbury Publishing PLC
ISBN9781350466661

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AcknowledgementsIntroduction Kaleidoscopic communities The dispositif of state The orphan word Qaum, millat, ummat Background and outline of the study1. The immense writing-machine Ignorance and power Split publics, forked tongues The file paper ‘An ignorance which liberates’ 2. The one-man media house Abul Kalam Azad: Imam ul-HindAziz Burney: Azizul HindImpossible Speech3. Emergency pedagogy Chaos in the airPrison writers ‘Back to the barbaric feudal days’ ‘We, representing the entire political spectrum in the country’ Reader voters 4. The model code The sacred space-time of popular sovereignty The numbers game Social engineering The ethics of electoral regulation The scandal of democracy 5. Fearless speech ‘I hailed you, you cut off my tongue’ ‘I am willing to give my life for my own qaum’ ‘I will sit here till blood stops flowing in my veins’ Epilogue

An original and innovative examination of the complex processes of media and political communication in modern India, crossing boundaries between literary and textual criticism, political science and social anthropology. Dr Dhital explores political mobilisation , the operations of ‘subversive’ literature, and the transmission of ideas through ephemeral literary productions with incisiveness, imagination and insight. Her conclusions about language, state media policy, censorship and electoral law are strikingly relevant to current conditions as well as to colonial and post-colonial history. This is a notably impressive debut, subtly but decisively advancing the discussion of nationalism and identity in the ‘imagined communities’ of the modern world.