The Rise of Dalit-Bahujan Voices on Internet

The entertainment business in India, especially the cinema industry is more than 100 years old now. Cinema, as the mass entertainment medium, has often been criticised for its lowbrow popular cultural values and looked down on by the intellectual class as an art form that serves the entertainment demands of the average pedestrian.

Jai Bheem short video app

Though it performs under the taglines of mass-entertainment or popular cinema, it hardly depicts the social realities or presents the cultural values of the majority, especially the socially marginalised groups. Instead, mainstream cinema has often offered its audience mediocre dramas that revolve around an upper-caste hero. The hero is often shown as performingrowdydances on misogynist songs, uttering sexistdialogues or doing machoistic action scenes. The Dalit-Bahujans are merely the passive spectator and consumers of such banalentertainment material created by the ruling classes.

It was imagined that such an exclusive cultural industry may be democratised by the arrival of new social media innovations.The digital divide is reduced significantly in India as families with low-income groups can also afford cheaper smartphones and internet data. It was imagined that the average person will take the cradle of information and entertainment into their own hands and may create an alternative ?original? content with their active participation. Social media was a revolutionary innovation in this direction.

The new medium of entertainment media, especially the short video applications (remember Tiktok) had simply diversified the entertainment sector as it invited new talents and artists from different locations to showcase their abilities without much fear, prejudices and hurdles. In India, with massive Dalit-Bahujan viewership TikTok soon became a heavily popular app and generated more than two hundred million subscriptions in a very short time. It formed tie-ups with thousands of brands and generated a revenue of 100 crores per year in India.

Interestingly, TikTok had also ruptured the hegemony of the social elites over the social media platforms, as many participants on it belonged to the small cities or rural areas. Many of the TikTok ?influencers? and? viral video makers? belonged to the poor strata, low-class migrant workers, school dropout youths, housewives or the unemployed men. It became a source of entertainment to the wide subaltern and Dalit-Bahujan mass, for whom there was no exclusive content created by the mainstream entertainment industry.

The participants also found TikTok more accessible and egalitarian compared to other applications. Dalit-Bahujan groups utilized it to promote their local talents, creativities, and other social and cultural issues frequently and attracted lot many viewers. Many of these talented youngsters became national influencers, won rewards, and gained local popularity. However, because it was owned by a Chinese company and was dangerous for India's internal security, it was suddenly banned by the government. It put the users and influencers in disarray. The Indian alternatives to TikTok (like Takatak, Mauj, Chingari, etc.) entered into business with a loud noise but it is yet to make a groundbreaking impact on its viewers and users. Ironically, it soon became another extension of the elite-driven media culture.

The entertainment based short-video apps (like the Youtube shorts) has a huge viewership and mostly the Dalit-Bahujan mass were the prime consumers of its content. However, here too, the artistic content is not morally responsible or socially connected but mimics the mainstream cinema logic. Often, we witness content that is regressive, communal, misogynist, and full of hatred is also allowed without much scrutiny. Interestingly, the artists and content builders that challenge such banal entertainment values, especially the entertainers from the socially marginalized groups, face discrimination or trolling on these platforms.

The Dalit-Bahujan participantsoften feel alienated here as their content and creativity often invisibilized or deleted as they promote content that challenges the hegemonic cultural values of the social elites. The Dalit-Bahujan artists have to operate under the fear of backlash, offensive trolls and casteist slurs and their creativity is mocked with abusive trolls, slurs or demeaning slangs. Further, even the app administrators block or downsize the content made by Dalit-Bahujan groups as inflammatory, unworthy, poor taste or distasteful towards the civic moralities (remember the ?BrahmanicalPatriarchy? controversy on Twitter).

Often the platform reprimands, censures or ban the user for hurting the social sentiment or for nor following the media regulations. The? troll? trends also discourage many users to avail these platforms freely and fearlessly. Such restrictions and offensive cultural trends discourage the Dalit-Bahujan social activists to participate on these platforms with equal freedom. Though the social network platforms appear free and fair, however for the marginalized communities it is unwelcoming. Here too, the cultural tastes of the social elites dominate the environment.

The conventional platforms in India, though connected with diverse people, it operates under the hegemonic cultural values of the social elites and devalue the intellectual and creative content by the Dalit Bahujans. Against these odds, there is a small but influential Dalit-Bahujan groups on internet that spreads alternative version of mass media culture. On occasions, it tried to break the cultural hegemony of the social elites and has floated their own newspapers (Bahishkrit Bharat, Bahujan Nayak, Samrat, etc.) news channels (Lord Buddha, Awaaz India, National Dastak, Kanshi TV, etc.), web portals (Roundtable India, Dalit Camera, Velivada, Ambedkar Caravan, etc.) and news feeders (DalitDastak, Bahujan TV, Ambedkar org, etc.). Though these initiatives are impressive, they mostly cater to the political and social news and are restricted to communitarian issues. Further, it also lacked the necessary entertainment quotient that connects a large number of internet users. It shows that there is no media channel, portal or app that can serve the Dalit Bahujan demands for entertainment. The need to develop alternative media portals or infotainment apps emerged from such facts.

More Dalit-Bahujan interventions on social network platforms, especially over the segment of entertainment would bring the digital world closer to the idea of social justice. The recent launch of a new short-video app named? Jai Bheem? is the right step towards making the entertainment industry more democratic. This app is mandated to serve not only the communitarian values and socio-political interests but will provide enhanced space to the creative and artistic talents of diverse social groups. The entertainment industry will now have new creators, content builders, and performers that can challenge the conventional domination of social elites over this field. Importantly, it also promises the artists? hand-holding? support for developing their entrepreneurship skills in the entertainment market.

Alternative platforms like this would also reduce the anxiety of the Dalit-Bahujan artists and would help them to showcase their artistic talent and creativity without fear and discomfort. It will connect them with other social groups that struggle to find a comfortable space in the digital world. It is an apt time for the Dalit-Bahujan and other marginalized groups to stake a claim on the internet and utilize it for their social emancipation and economic prospects.