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Paper short abstract:

We will illustrate how the authoritarian government in India represses people's movements by curbing information and curtailing critical media and how the movements counter this by making use of digital and independent media platforms.

Paper long abstract:

India is becoming an increasingly authoritarian state. One of the significant markers of (as well as a tool to ascertain) its democratic backsliding has been the curbing of information and the spread of disinformation by the government. This has meant a takeover of mainstream communication media, curtailment of independent and counter media, and discrediting and gaging the institutions that collect and provide credible data in the public domain.

The curbing of information has also been a tool for repressing people’s movements, for instance, how the representation of people’s movements in dominant media remains either negligible or unsupportive and even hostile. To counter this, people’s movements have developed ways to reach out to the wider public and global platforms by using digital and independent media. Digital media, specifically social networking websites, remains a double-edged sword as it is controlled by big business corporations and extensively used by authoritarian powers. However, it has also proven to be the media of alternative information and ideas that has strengthened people’s movements.

In this paper, we will dwell on how the authoritarian government represses people’s movements by curbing information and spreading disinformation, and how people use digital media to counter this repression. We will illustrate how people’s movements have countered the disinformation tools of authoritarian repression to reach out to their supporters, by taking the examples of the farmers' movement against three farm laws (2020-21/ongoing) and the people’s struggle for rehabilitation after the 2022-2023 subsidence/sinking of the historical Joshimath town in Uttarakhand state, India.