In this article we seek to nuance our understanding of the technologically mediated relationship of state and citizen, first, by framing these relations in terms of Michel Foucault's ideas about state power and governmentality, and, second, by using case studies drawn from the Indian experience to highlight particular risks associated with digital governance and biopolitics. An overview of state and social technological interventions in India shows multiple intersections of sovereign and disciplinary powers. Together, these intersections give new meanings to biopower while also sketching a familiar story of the attenuated character of technological citizenship, notwithstanding numerous examples of popular resistance. To address biopolitics, however, a novel set of challenges emerges: The first is to outline a genealogy of Indian biopolitics, going back to the colonial period. The second is to acknowledge the tension between biopolitics and geopolitics: the state's need to distinguish between citizens and residents for the provision of welfare. The third is the neoliberal turn in governance, with the state increasingly withdrawing from direct involvement in the public sphere and turning to the private sector to take its place. We find that the digitization of identification and benefit provision produces new costs and barriers for the poor to access the entitlements of citizenship, leaving them in some cases worse off than before. Moreover, the visibility produced by entry into digital governmentality is accompanied by a new set of risks, including the expropriation of benefits and the loss of existing assets.Acknowledgments We would like to thank Kavita Philip and Lilly Irani, in particular, for their help in formulating the conceptual terms of this article. We would also like to thank three anonymous reviewers for their comments and suggestions and, in particular, the EASTS editors for their patience and support as this article was revised. We acknowledge the support of the Asia Research Institute at the National University of Singapore for providing the space for the conversations that culminated in this joint article.
One film out of every five made anywhere comes from India. From its beginnings under colonial rule through to the heights of Bollywood, Indian cinema has challenged social injustices such as caste, the oppression of Indian women, religious intolerance, rural poverty, and the pressures of life in the burgeoning cities. Indian Cinema: A Very Short Introduction delves into the political, social, and economic factors which have shaped Indian cinema into a fascinating counterculture. Covering everything from silent cinema through to the digital era, it examines how the industry reflects the complexity and variety of Indian society through the dramatic changes of the 20th century, and into the beginnings of the 21st.
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