Paper short abstract:

Glitch feminism points out to the convergence of physical and digital realm. The Internet removes the barrier to knowledge but can also be considered to be propagating Western knowledge. This paper will explore the effects of the internet on the ways of engendering a body and its identity in India.

Paper long abstract:

The Socio-Anthropological context of “Glitch” is to defy oneself from “Society of Control”(Deleuze, 1992). It can also be meant to identify one’s body and its journey towards embodiment (McLuhan,1994). So, Glitch Feminism in its Multimodal context talks about liberation and identification of body in Post-colonial settings. Glitch feminism as theorised by Russell (2013) points out to the ambiguities that there is no divide betweent physical and digital realms and the internet provides in expressing queerness and decolonisation. Therefore, this paper will investigate the ways in which the internet provides ways to express queerness and the effects of the same in the case of decolonial queer identities in India. The prevalence of doing queerness in the Indian subcontinent in the form of Hijras, Kotis, Khwaja siras, Aravanis, Shivashaktis etc. diverges from the Western ways of doing gender (Dutta, 2014). Although, in the era of the internet and global funding from the development sector, all these identities have been included under the transgender umbrella, but the word ‘transgender’ cannot capture the essence of these identities for eg, the kinship system that exists among the Hijra community. The internet has provided newer avenues of doing gender and along with it has brought the Western knowledge of gender identities and sexualities. This paper will explore the effects of the internet on Indian ways of doing gender and engendering a body from a neo-colonial lens.