The Digital Popular and the New Political in India

• In Event: Media, Activism and the New Political: Inter-Asian Perspectives

Abstract

The past decade in India has been marked by a number of astonishing instances of popular participation intersecting with and reshaping a wider political field. However, the discussion so far has been marked by a focus on the strictly ‘political’ dimensions. Media and popular culture remain incidental to these analyses. In this paper, I attempt to redress this gap by examining two very distinct expressions of public sentiment (rage, in particular): one involving the issue of corruption and the nation-wide mobilization led by a politician, Anna Hazare; the other involving a film song (Why this kolaveri di) that went on to become the most popular YouTube video of 2011. I argue that the link between media and political culture in contemporary India is to be found in the realm of ordinary, everyday media use.

Author

• Aswin Punathambekar, U of Michigan