Majoritarianism and digital rights: understanding Kashmir and the ‘Othering of Other’ in the context of India

Abstract

We live in a world that is increasingly surrounded by visuals. From postcards, photographs, bill boards, magazines to the television screen and now the coming of the internet, the reality comes in mediated forms through multiple and contesting forms of visual culture. The screens proliferate and get embedded in the lives of individuals. This has resulted in increased accessibility and use of smart phones with reduced data costs leading to forging solidarities across nations and creation of shared culture of visuals and writings. It is noted that on the flipside, circulation of misinformation and disinformation takes place to embolden the ethnic majoritarian sentiments that have ideological affiliation with the present ruling party in India. The abrogation of article 370 and article 35A by the present government that gave special status of autonomy to the state of Jammu and Kashmir was arguably unconstitutional but celebrated as a victory of nationalism. In the aftermath of the abrogation, Kashmir witnessed internet ban for more than hundred days and therefore, communication was blocked by the government in the name of safeguarding sovereignty of the Indian nation state and maintenance of public order. Hence, the issue from being technical is political when some people are disconnected (outlawed) from cyber space. The article attends at understanding the context in which some people has been silenced with the internet ban and protest symbols that are historically contextualised but also has the potential to create something new with assemblage of protesting people, visibility of digital technologies and contention in the present regime.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

[1] The blaming of the communities are carried out where the state apparatus like the police is considered to be neutral and any use of force is justified with judicial enquiry into the infuriated and aggressive mobs inciting violence especially with regard to the marginalised community in India.

[2] Internet ban results in impediments to the access of internationally and the constitutionally guaranteed civil political socio-economic rights. The circulation of news and information is restricted and all forms of communication during the lockdown are criminalised by the Indian State even at the time of Pandemic. Since Independence, there has been a systematic attempt of rights violation in Kashmir which has been home to a long sustaining movement of the right to self determination. As a result, Kashmir has witnessed coercive and disproportionate force by the Indian military for example preventive detentions, ban on organisations or labelling them as terrorist organisations, criminal and extra judicial sanctions for any forms of political dissent in the form of talk and mobilisation. The martial law imposed in 1990 have created an anxiety of targeting and uncertainty among people of Kashmir leading to collective punishment. Hence, the protest repertoires signify all these injustices and rights violation that the Kashmiri people experience.

[3] The events lead to moral shock (Jasper 1997, 159–162) where lockdown was imposed communication and mobility but there is an effort to desymbolise and discredit the wrings done to the victims by shoring by support for the perpetrators that profoundly impact the collective moral political values (Alexander 2012). It occurs when an image or a piece of information opens someone that he or she becomes open to the possibility of protest, sometimes even in the absence of active recruitment.

[4] The precarious situation in which the children has been caught has always caught the attention of the people be it the Syrian boy of Kurdish ethnic background, Alan Kurdi who drowned in the sea when the family was migrating or the safety of the immigrant children. There are many images of children from conflict prone area that have captured the attention of people. A pellet hit an eye of a baby girl who became the youngest victims that circulated on social media that drew criticisms from the people.

[5] In the Indian context the middle class were in the forefront of the nationalist movement. The middle class articulated their own aspirations in the civil society and used the state apparatus for policy decisions would benefit them. Therefore, the old caste prejudices and differences were transmogrified into a new class of people in what Joshi (2001) called the fractured modernity. The women were considered the upholder of traditional values that would prioritise the family even though they attained education and enter into the public spaces for jobs. Hence, caste was relegated to the private realm and it is through endogamy and other mechanisms of socialisation that caste identity was perpetuated (Pandian 2002). Same is the case with the Muslim and Kashmiri women that experienced atrocities by the state apparatus and mired with various stereotypes.

[6] Weber (1968) spoke about the modern institution of the state that has legitimacy to use violence on state within its territory but the mainstream discourse like the media, newspaper report, the public official discourse and films.

[7] Appadurai (1995) opined with regard to national hegemonic culture which is contested by transnational forces and critiqued by the indigenous knowledge though the heterodoxy of ideas need to be understood in different ways.

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Notes on contributors

Ankita Chatterjee

Ankita Chatterjee is a Ph.D. researcher in Centre for the Study of Social Systems, School of Social Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India. Her research areas include digital sociology, visual anthropology, new media studies, and cultural studies.