Digital Media in Resisting Social Inequality the Indian Experience

Abstract

It is often argued, hierarchy, holism, continuity and transcendence constitute the hallmark of Indian society (Singh in Modernization of Indian tradition. Rawat Publication, Jaipur, 1986). As Dumont (Homo hierarchicus: the caste system and its implications. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1966) puts it; Indian society and Western society represent an opposition between homo hierarchicus versus homo aequalis. In Indian context, hierarchy, in social parlance, depicts nothing but the repressed side of inequality. As we are told, the entire social system in India is founded on the social inequality. And this inequality is in-built and deep-rooted in the entire social fabric which manifests itself in some form or the other and which is perpetuated in various forms of social exclusions, segregations, traditions and taboos. However, one’s lived-in experience in the contemporary digital world alters one’s notions of inequality topsy-turvily. For instance, Ghurye’s (Caste and race in India, Popular Prakashan, Delhi, 1969) ideas of civil disability, religious disability, restrictions on food and commensal intercourse, endogamy, inequality and hierarchy and Dumont’s ideas of inequality based on pollution appear redundant owing to the alterations in people’s approach to notions of caste and religion in modern times. With little ambiguity one may state, digital media has to a large extent succeeded in demolishing such exclusions and social disabilities and it has emerged as a powerful weapon to resist social inequalities and bridge social gaps between social groups. The present paper represents a modest endeavour to examine the role of social media in resisting social inequalities in Indian context.

Research focus: Sociology of Work, Gender Studies and Dalit Studies, Education and contemporary socio-political Issues.