Digital Media and Women’s Political Participation in India

Abstract

Digital platforms have opened up new avenues of political participation for women across the globe, including India. The digital media facilitated by the Internet has revolutionised the social and political landscape. It is argued that digital tools like social media platforms have democratised women’s political participation in India. The digital platforms have provided accessibility to women to raise their voices on these platforms through social and political mobilisation as well as community building. Cyberspace has offered newer forms of participation for women in India. From Nisha Susan-led Pink Chaddi campaign in 2009 to another women-led movement, #MeToo, which gained momentum in 2018, women in India have utilised the digital space to raise their voices against sexual violence, oppression and gender-based discrimination. Building on the large scholarship on media, democracy and participation, in this article, I look at how digital media has offered newer forms of political participation in India. Looking at the wide literature on this subject, I also discuss how digital media has led to the construction of feminist counter-publics in India. It is not that digital media has only offered the spaces to women to counter or challenge the dominant discourse; these spaces have also become hotbeds of trolling and online harassment.