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8 GLOBAL HUMANITIES Year 6, Vol. 8, 2021 – ISSN 2199–3939 Editors Frank Jacob and Francesco Mangiapane Identity and Nationhood Editorial by Texts by Frank Jacob and Francesco Mangiapane Amrita De Sophie Gueudet Frank Jacob Udi Lebel and Zeev Drori edizioni Museo Pasqualino edizioni Museo Pasqualino direttore Rosario Perricone GLOBAL HUMANITIES 8 Biannual Journal ISSN 2199-3939 Editors Frank Jacob Nord Universitet, Norway Francesco Mangiapane University of Palermo, Italy Scientific Board GLOBAL HUMANITIES Jessica Achberger Dario Mangano Year 6, Vol. 8, 2021 – ISSN 2199–3939 University of Lusaka, Zambia University of Palermo, Italy Editors Frank Jacob and Francesco Mangiapane Giuditta Bassano Gianfranco Marrone IULM University, Milano, Italy University of Palermo, Italy Saheed Aderinto Tiziana Migliore Western Carolina University, USA University of Urbino, Italy Bruce E. Bechtol, Jr. Sabine Müller Angelo State University, USA Marburg University, Germany Stephan Köhn Rosario Perricone Cologne University, Germany University of Palermo, Italy 8 GLOBAL HUMANITIES Year 6, Vol. 8, 2021 – ISSN 2199–3939 Editors Frank Jacob and Francesco Mangiapane Identity and Nationhood Editorial by Texts by Frank Jacob and Francesco Mangiapane Amrita De Sophie Gueudet Frank Jacob Udi Lebel and Zeev Drori edizioni Museo Pasqualino https://doi.org/10.53123/GH_8_5 Masculinities in Digital India Trolls and Mediated Affect Amrita De SUNY Binghamton [email protected] Abstract. This article analyzes the proliferation of post-2014 social media trolling in In- dia assessing how a pre-planned virtually mediated affective deployment produces phys- ical ramifications in real spaces. I first unpack Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s hyper-masculine social media figuration; then study the generative impact of brand Modi Masculinity through a processual affective rendering regulated by hired social media in- fluencers and digital media strategists. Finally, I assess the impact of Modi Masculinity on individual social media users, who voluntarily or sometimes circumstantially become enmeshed in this constructed network. Keywords: masculinities, social media, trolling, affect. For Baisakhi Chakraborti, a routine space, she was in the middle of an ani- bus journey from her departmental of- mated conversation with her colleagues fice at a North American University in about the current state of Indian politics November 2018 turned into “nothing when she was rudely interrupted. This short of a nightmare”.1 Oblivious to her was before the recently concluded Lok surroundings and with the deceptive as- Sabha elections in May 2019 when Nar- surance that the school bus was a safe endra Modi was re-elected as the Prime 1 The subject’s original name has been changed to protect her privacy. This excerpt is from a conversation I had with her on 10 January 2019. Names of all social media users have been changed for privacy reasons. GLOBAL HUMANITIES © Photo by Jeremy Bishop on Unsplash YEAR 6, VOL. 8, 2021 – ISSN 2199–3939 61 Minister of India for another 5-year term. 1. Methodology Baisakhi had referred to the rise of Hin- From October 2018 to the months du vigilantism when she was belligerent- leading up to the general election from 11 ly interrupted by a group of young men, April 2019 to 23 May 2019, I performed presumably from the same university. a close reading of both official and per- They accused her of spreading lies and sonal Twitter accounts. I first singled out misinformation about her country. Soon the Twitter accounts that had specifically after, she got off the bus, too scared to en- participated in disseminating the initial gage with this unexpected burst of vitriol. false tweet and the pornographic video This was only the beginning of targetted ascribed to Rana Ayyub in 2018. I first social media attacks. traced the DailyO news report, which had In another incident that took place on shared Rana Ayyub’s tweet, to find the a different scale, on 23 April 2018, an In- troll accounts. Some of these accounts dian journalist, Rana Ayyub, found her- appeared to be defunct or bot accounts. self trapped in a targeted viral social me- However, this search rendered a perva- dia hate campaign. Ayyub, who had been sive online digital ecosystem where I targeted many times before for her Mus- repeatedly noticed similar online behav- lim identity and her often critical con- ioral patterns. Out of the first hundred ac- demnations of India’s government, was counts that came up with the initial tweet, not unfamiliar with the online ecosystem ninety-two of them belonged or appeared 2 of hate campaigns. However, this time to belong to men. While Baisakhi’s virtual abusers were more toned down in terms she became the victim of “an online lynch of their abusive rhetoric, the comments mob” (Chatterjee 2018). This targeted, on Rana Ayyub’s profile on every tweet online blitzkrieg was prompted by a com- reflected a persistent toxic culture of on- munally charged fake tweet in her name line vitriol. Several investigative media from a Twitter handle posing as the offi- reports further confirm that global digital cial account of Republic TV (a prominent trolls overwhelmingly turn out to be men right-wing media channel in India). Soon (Gudipaty 2017; Megarry 2014). An ex- after, a pornographic video with her face amination of these Twitter accounts and morphed on it was relentlessly circulated their general online behavioral patterns on social media platforms like Facebook revealed an over-reliance on images and and Twitter alongside the personal details text that can be attributed to traditional of her address and phone number. More representations of ‘manliness.’3 Due to recently, on 3 July 2020, in the aftermath the frequent nature of their occurrence of another violent encounter between and similar replicative patterns, I have militants and security personnel in Kash- parsed these traits to launch an analysis mir’s Sopore region, Ayyub spoke out of masculinities in the Indian digital eco- against the unlawful killing of a 65-year- system. By way of evidence, I draw from old man, Bashir Ahmed Khan. She was a multi-disciplinary corpus, moving from again inundated with hate messages an investigative account by the journalist online; a Twitter account called ‘Hindu Swati Chaturvedi (2016) to official BJP Rashtra’ (Hindu Nation) reminded her social media campaigns and to scanning of Gauri Lankesh—a journalist who was Twitter for a close reading of accounts4 shot dead in 2017 (Taskin 2020). that regularly participate in trolling. 2 Some of the accounts appeared to be generated by generic online bots. 3 By ‘traditional representations of manliness’, I am specifically alluding to socialized as well as culturally idealized representations of heteronormative masculinities, such as personality traits that refer to initiative, risk-taking, and physical prowess, among other things (Connell and Messerschmidt 2005; Reeser 2011). 4 This article mainly provides a study of masculinities as a heuristic to understand the online architecture. For security reasons, the names of personal profiles have been changed. 62 Amrita De MASCULINITIES IN DIGITAL INDIA Following the available scholarship on a revisionist history delineating a mythi- Hindutva masculinities (Banerjee, 2005; cal Hindu past, images and texts actively Chakraborty 2011; Vijayan 2019), my abound in the public imagination, affec- work primarily locates Hindutva mascu- tively generating Hindutva and, in turn, linities in the contemporary Indian dig- the Hindu Rashtra (Hindu nation) as the ital ecosystem, attending to its semiotic default logic and end-goal of contempo- dissemination in both real and virtual rary governance. Though Hindutva is by spaces. In the first section, I trace the par- no means synonymous with Hinduism, ticular constituents of Modi’s hyper-mas- right-wing leaders and their followers culine figuration, evident from his con- (both local and global) have ensured that stant social media use. I note how he has they appear as a singular, uniform entity emerged as the perfect embodiment of (Banaji 2018). From the Sabarimala Tem- a traditional ideal of Hindu masculinity, ple issue of 20185 to cow-vigilantes lynch- highlighting how his digitally mediated ing Muslim butchers on the suspicion masculine persona results from careful that they were trading beef, to the recent- semiotic branding. I then unpack the na- ly resolved Babri Masjid issue (November ture of its processual rendering by both 2019), where the Supreme Court per- individual and collective economies by mitted a Hindu temple to be built on the considering the role of pre-planned affect same site as the previously demolished and semiotics in the dissemination of the mosque—there is a repeated adherence Modi masculinity brand. It is necessary to Hindutva as the governing logic, right to note here that I have used masculini- down to the granular details at every level. ties mainly as a heuristic to observe dom- It is important to note here that Hin- inant practices in the digital ecosystem. dutva is not a monolithic cultural con- More specifically, I note how digitally struct (Banerjee 2005); it has undergone mediated masculinities are produced several mutations according to its cul- through a pre-planned affective deploy- tural context’s specificity. Though some ment, further enabling the construction organizations are depicted as key ancil- of a vigilante public culture. laries of the Hindu right like the Rashtri- ya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the Vish- 2. Vigilante Nation and Hindutva wa Hindu Parishad (VHP), and current Masculinity Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bhara- While the above two incidents appear tiya Janata Party (BJP), there are some to be isolated cases with varying degrees tactical, ideological differences between of harassment, they only provide a mi- them; however, all these organizations croscopic glance of what seems to be present a formidable meeting ground a seamless continuum in Indian digi- of Brahmanical patriarchy with virulent tal space, regardless of the specificity of nationalism.