Introduction: India is a country of complexities and contradictions, rhetoric of penetration of the new media and rhetoric concerning bias in the use of social media. While at the time India is introducing digital panchayats[1] or e governance at the level of villages, traditional caste based panchayats have banned the use of cell phones for women in certain villages of India. When at times social media was used in nationwide protests for ‘India against Corruption’, communal riots in Assam, a north east state of India, caused rumors of violence between ethnic groups, which led to a mass exodus from metropolitan cities of migrant North Eastern Indians to their hometowns. An ‘Occupy movement’ in some far off land led to proliferation of Occupy protests in India through social media, opposing government’s rampant behavior obstructing internet freedom in India (Reddy, 2012). The diverse geopolitical differences of opinion with respect to social, political and economic aspects of life, in the physical realm of the society have shown similar transcending trends in the digital world. Just as democracy has been shaped and defined in different ways, digital democratic presence of an individual has also seen varied formulations and restrictions. Access to information through a vibrant media system has long been recognized as an essential element in well-functioning democracies. Free access to information and a free press serve as a check on government, aid in transparency, reduce corruption, allow for debate and criticism of government decisions, and provide citizens with an input into political processes between elections. Ideally, broad access to information fosters public debate of issues of political salience, and allows all sides in those debates to be heard. Political scientists and media scholars have noted a shift towards greater citizen participation in democracy and influence in governmental decision-making with increased access to information (Etling, Faris, & Palfrey, 2010). But then at the same time, there have been instances when the Indian government has blocked access to certain sites, banned bulk SMS, in fragile times, acting as a semi authoritarian regime. In this context, the question that I would like to posit is the following.
Research Question: Under what conditions, do digital institutions emerge and evolve in the constant conflicting dynamic of socio-political discourse?
Hypothesis: Just as institutions and organizations have evolved and multiplied in the physical realm with relation to assertion of identities and mobility in the society, there is a need for digital institutional innovations for the empowerment of social identities, and safeguarding the fragility of such empowerments in a democracy asking different questions and constantly changing shapes.
Research Methodology: For the explanation of this rationale, the study method involves analyzing case studies from India, which involve digital protests, digital empowerment and digital political conflicts. The primary units of analysis in all these case studies would be institutions at different social, political and economic levels in both the digital and the offline world, and the analysis of such interfaces and conditions which lead to the innovations of digital institutions with the help of offline environment support. The variables of the study involve changing interfaces and digital arrangements between netizens and traditional institutions.
“….because contemporary nationalism is more reactive than proactive, it tends to be more cultural than political, and thus more oriented toward the defense of an already institutionalized culture than toward the construction or defense of a state.” – (Castells, 2010) The following is a case study of ethnic riots that broke out in Assam, a north eastern state of India and this event dynamic on social media, and the effect of this dynamic of social media on the physical realm of society. The communal clashes happened between the ethnic tribe of Assam and the Bangladeshi Muslim settlers in Assam. The mainstream media chose to ignore reporting for the first month since the clashes, sometimes giving the excuse of difficulty in reporting in the remote areas. The political undercurrent was obvious to everyone that the riots were unfolding in a state ruled by the Congress government, who has always held an image of secularism. The lack in reporting was compensated by social media. But it did create unrest in migrant Assamese communities in different states of India, fearing clashes with the Muslims. Social media again used in a different context caused a rampant exodus of scared immigrants from metropolitan areas all over India to their hometowns in Assam. The government then took action to ban bulk SMSs and blocked twitter accounts of those filled with Assam content. So, would the fear have been less proliferating and multiplying, if main stream media reported the incidents from day one and chose to give a clear, first hand information across India? The answer is yes. Social media filled in the vacuum created by the mainstream media, however the digital and unstructured institutions of the communities of people were still informal in their reporting, creating instances for rumors. The co existence of the formal and informal networks of reporting right from day one could also have prevented the exodus of masses that followed. As stated earlier the defense of the state became a second priority for the masses and the defense of one’s culture became the first. The presence of non-profit organizations on social media in Assam along with the support from the Government could have lessened the fear with their propagation by acting as digital institutions.
The popular digital institutions in India according to recent statistics have been corporate brands (with Facebook having a greater presence than other social networking sites), highlighting the commercial use of new media technologies over the use of these for developmental purposes. Hence, the combination of the popular commercial usage of technology with that of the socio-political discourse led to further stratification and separation of dialogue relating to these riots on social media. EXPLAIN GOVERNMENTBANNING TWIITER.
Information Communication Technology is seen as benefiting those who until now have remained excluded from India’s high-tech dreams, through initiatives that attempt to harness the power of these technologies for development purposes. The access to mobile technology has been one of these initiatives. Until the mid–1990s, ownership of a telephone was considered a luxury in India, with waiting periods of up to several years for a landline, even after paying hefty application fees (Kumar & Thomas, 2006). In 2007, 3.37 per 100 inhabitants had fixed phone lines (ITU, 2012), paying an average of US$3.30 per month for their maintenance (World Bank, 2006). Mobile phones, by contrast, have become a consumer item embraced by a broad segment of the Indian population. They first arrived in India in 1995, and since then their adoption has grown exponentially, with average annual growth of 80%. In March 2009, there were 391.8 million mobile phone subscribers (Facts, 2012). This means that more than a third of the Indian population now owns a mobile phone, the great majority of which are GSM systems. The country’s numerous ICTD projects are funded by a wide variety of actors, ranging from governments (national and state) to corporations to NGOs and foundations inside and outside the country. New technologies are deployed to provide e-government services, improve education and healthcare, and foster economic development. They are also thought to overcome gender and caste inequalities (Schwittay, 2011). In the context of this widespread mobile phone usage, the second case study here is the case of a village council or village panchayat banning the use of cell phones for women in a northern state of India. One of the local residents in this village said that, “ it has been observed that mobile phones have given unnecessary freedom to girls, which is distracting them from following our culture. The Panchayat’s decision will be strictly followed in the village as it has been accepted by all (Sarah, 2012).” This has been a pin pointer to an entrenched gender bias in the use of social media and access to information communication technology in India. The following numbers confirm this argument.
From this case, it is clear that the traditional networks of male domination in the Indian society have continued their dominance in the digital social sphere of life. The question then arises about how digital institutions can still be formed in an imbalanced representation of gender in the society. The answer to this is that first physical networks of free information sharing need to be strengthened and revolutionized. The Government of India, due to the strong political influences of the caste based Panchayats, has continued to ignore this situation of banning cell phone usage for women. If there is no physical support from a politically influential institution, then the proliferation for equal access to all in a gendered society faces bottlenecks. Equal access acts as the basis for formation of digital institutions, even in the presence of widespread infrastructure provision.
The third case study is of a recent event regarding the death of an influential political figure leading to the shutdown of the city of Mumbai, India, wherein two girls were arrested for posting views against the citywide shutdown on Facebook (Press Trust of India, 2012). Bal Thackeray, a right wing Hindu extremist was indicted in the Sri Krishna Commission Report for inciting members of his political party to murder hundreds of Muslims during the 1993 communal riots in Mumbai. However, the political diplomacies led to no arrests. In one of his Interviews he once said that he could remote control the city of Mumbai. Subsequently, his death caused a citywide panic and led a public debate on various social media platforms. The girls were arrested under section 66A of the Information Technology Act of India, for posting ‘objectionable content’, one arrested for posting her viewpoint rationally and the other for liking this post on Facebook. The aftereffects of these arrests were immediately seen on social media, with some choosing to voice their opinion and a large majority keeping quiet for the fear of getting arrested. Debates followed on national television the following day regarding the applicability of the Information technology Act. In the end, the Information Minister accepted the glitch, but also added that the law cannot by modified at this point in time.
The digital institutions in this case were the informal group of friends in a society and the legal institution binding this society. The comparison of this event could be made to that of a physical, offline, rational conversation happening between persons and the police barging in at the venue to arrest the persons for what they just said in a sound, peaceful setting. The unsaid assumptions of the society were translated into the digital sphere in this case, however the unsaid legal assumptions weren’t. This leads to the inference that digital institutions are half evolved if not given the unsaid, assumed and widely acceptable digital right. The delay of the monitoring institution to implement these rights would only decay the digital social networks further.
Conclusion: The above set of examples has led to some understanding of digital institutions and the need to define and create new ones. Digital institutions always arise from the network of ties in the physical world and can multiply when these digital representations of the physical ties get defined rationally. It is important to understand here that it is also a two way process, such that the online content also affects the physical formation of space. For example, the online threat messages sent to the North East migrant communities led to the incidental gathering of immigrants at railway stations, airports and other means of transport. In the case of the ban on mobile phone usage, it is important to reconfigure and reassess the political network ties between communities for information technology to penetrate within least developed communities, for them to create their identities in the subsequently formed digital institutions.
[1] The panchayat in India is the traditional mode of governance in villages. The word “panchayat” literally means “assembly” (ayat) of five (panch) wise and respected elders chosen and accepted by the local community. However, there are different forms of assemblies. Traditionally, these assemblies settled disputes between individuals and villages. Modern Indian government has decentralized several administrative functions to the local level, empowering elected gram panchayats. Gram panchayats are not to be confused with the unelected khap panchayats (or caste panchayats) found in some parts of India.