The Biometrics Regime As New Outpost of Technological Imperialism: Narratives From Peoples Everyday Lives In India.

• In Event: Digital Imperialism: Colonizing Everyday Lives in the Global South II: Techno-Discourses and Resistances

Abstract

A village farmer reflects upon the value of his biometrics enabled identity being more important than his value as a farmer, doing agriculture. It certainly has a strong sense of reflection on what contemporary India has rapidly acquired as a technological means to govern people’s lives. Being part of the global south this emphasis is being strongly driven by neoliberal ideas/ways of technology enabled development from the global north. In this process different actors and institutions at the global, national and local level play their role, thus forming a regime. In this context and setting, the paper explores the forms of the regime defining the discourse on biometrics enabled development; setting the agenda for its use; facilitating entry of technology with (north driven) global policies of development; and creating grounds of profitable businesses for all players in this system. The paper thus will analyze/unpack the understanding of the larger structure of technological imperialism being impelled by forces from global north to replicate the sense of modernity in south, and how the biometrics regimen has come to be its new outpost. The theoretical approach of this paper will intersect both Science, Technology and Society (STS) studies and Post-Colonialism. Using various narratives from in-depth qualitative interviews as a part of ongoing fieldwork, the paper’s argument will be based on ethnographic data and empirics to reflect the realities of biometrics regime in everyday life in Indian villages.

Author

• RAJIV KUMAR MISHRA, Centre for Studies in Science Policy, School of Social Sciences, JNU, New Delhi, India