TOWARDS ANTICASTE INTERNET: THE OPERATION, CHALLENGES AND ASPIRATIONS OF BAHUJAN PUBLISHERS.

Abstract

Communication and technology in India are dominated and hegemonized by elite oppressor castes (Savarnas). The absence of marginalized castes (Bahujans) in mass media systematically erases narratives, histories and opportunities present to them. In this study, we look at alternative digital Bahujan publishing as sites for claiming media representation and how a vision of anticaste internet is emerging through these publishing practices. We study how despite systemic challenges, Bahujan publication spaces have emerged across digital media as sites of intersectional discourse on caste through new media like blogs, visual art, memes, YouTube channels, infographics, podcasts etc. Further, We look at how this has exposed caste issues under the casteless facade of digital technology through challenges of caste-hate speech, poor moderation, algorithmic bias and inadequate platform governance. We draw from qualitative interviews with bahujan publishers across digital mediums. Through a critical caste lens, we uncover motivations, infrastructural needs, editorial processes, audience engagement, challenges and the future vision of these publishing projects. We discuss questions of identity, community, hate-speech, platform censorship, mental health and self-care which emerge in online anti-caste publishing. We conclude that in spite of the historic erasure and marginalization of bahujans from media narratives, bahujan publishing has opened a space for an emerging vision of anti-caste internet which needs to be studied from an infrastructure and platform lens.