Mediated Mobilities: India's Low Caste Revolution in the Media Age

An outstanding feature of Indian democracy in the last three decades has been the emergence of low caste and dalit (ex-untouchable caste) voices in all spheres of public life. This project is the first comparative and interdisciplinary history of multiple media print, literary, visual and digital through which lower castes have transformed public spheres in late modern India. It compares two regions, Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra, where lower caste mobilization has historically been most intense. This collective history will: 1. recast the story of Indian democracy in terms of the entry of lower castes into the nation's information age 2. advance global understanding of new media forms in politicization of the oppressed.