Abstract
First-generation Asian Americans are noted to be more involved in the politics back home than in the politics of the United States. The studies invested in analysing the causes for such attitudes have so far neglected examination of material interests that the recent immigrants might have in their homelands. This study analyses the politically active Telangana online community, which was involved in a struggle for separation. This article argues that the complex patterns of resistance and hegemonic co-option in the Telangana movement can be understood by situating the texts within the wider context of social and institutional practices both in the home and host societies. This article identifies five key frames with which to analyse the political engagement of the Telangana diaspora: identifying victims and enemies, asserting cultural difference, articulating relations with the host country and transnational actors, negotiating globalization, and conflicts over resources. The article concludes that critical scholarly engagement with the diaspora requires theorization that goes beyond the study of marginal voices in the public sphere and forges new connections between globalization, political processes, state and the media.
Introduction
Immigration is transforming Asian America. With fresh batches of immigrants come renewed memories of homeland. Asian Americans, composed mainly of Japanese, Chinese and Filipinos, made up a miniscule fraction of the total population. A spectacular surge in immigration since the late 1960s brought forth a greater diversity of ethnicities under the Asian American umbrella (Zhou and Gatewood, 2007). Though still a minor group consisting of around 5 per cent of the total US population, they are an assertive presence in the economic, social and cultural milieu of America. Asian Indians, almost entirely composed of the immigrants who moved to the United States after the 1960s, account for about 15 per cent of the total Asian American population. They are a highly skilled group of professionals, with over 64 per cent having a bachelor’s degree or more, and most of them are employed as doctors, computer programmers and small entrepreneurs. This has led to the framing of Asian Americans in general as a model minority in the mainstream media discourse: But, I do not intend to limit discourse to only these particular textual forms; by discourse, I intend to rather extend the meaning – a network that includes not only texts and cultural documents but social practices, formal and informal laws, politics of inclusion and exclusion, and institutional forms of organization, for example, all of which constitute and regulate knowledge about the object of that discourse, Asian America. (Lowe, 2007: 514)
The texts generated by South Asian online diasporas need to be read against the context of their production. The various visions of cyberspace and online technologies need to recognize that the individual is embedded in the cultural practices, power hierarchies and discourses of awareness that constitute the community (Gajjala, 2008). Thus, the shifting of political discussions online does not necessitate any ontological transformations (Dahlgren, 2005). These discourses of awareness span both the public and the private. With diasporic communities, these discursive practices assume further complexity due to their position in both host and imagined communities. It is thus pertinent to ask how does their position as racial and ethnic minorities in ‘Western nations interact with the caste, class, and immigrant status of diasporic Indians?’ (Gajjala, 2008: 37). A related question that has consumed most scholarship invested in Asian American studies is to see how being embedded in the US impacts Asian Americans (Kim, 2007; Zhou, 2007). However, first-generation Asian Americans’ participation in the politics of their homeland creates aspersions regarding their assimilation in America. The persistence of memories of the homeland influences the various narratives of nation that emerge and submerge based on the political opportunities provided to it within a historical juncture.
India’s diaspora is remarkably large with around 25 million members. What perhaps is even more remarkable is its diversity in terms of language, religion, ethnicity, caste and class (Thussu, 2013). The Indian diaspora’s presence in a host country and its sense of belonging to the homeland triggers complex negotiation of identities across religion, class, caste, race and gender. Appadurai (1990, 2001) offers a theorization to understand the diverse ways in which online diasporas negotiate the politics of the host and home countries. To explain the persistence of memories of nation within diaspora, Appadurai (1990) connects the presence in the host culture with an accentuation of longing for the homeland. The distinction between participation in the host country versus participation in the politics of the homeland can be a useful analytical distinction in order to categorize the emphasis of academic investigations of online South Asian diaspora. Furthermore, in so far as the diasporic negotiation of the Western host nation’s culture goes, studies on the South Asian diaspora intersect with research on ethnic minorities in Western nations such as Asian American studies.
Most of the critical research on online diaspora has been focused on marginalization in the core (see Mallapragada, 2013; Nair and Balaji, 2008; Sharma, 2010; Thangaraj, 2012). Only a few have examined the connections with the marginalization in the periphery (Kumar, 2004; Ranganathan, 2002). This article is an attempt to advance this important strain of scholarship. This case study looks into excerpts from the Telangana Association of North America (TeNA) forum, an online diasporic group originating from the Telangana region in India. The mineral-rich Telangana region is located in the Deccan plateau in the south-central Indian peninsula. For over five decades, this region has been agitating for statehood. Statehood here does not imply cessation from India but a provincial self-government. The provincial government of Telangana was formed in June 2014. This article looks at the narrative of the diaspora during the agitations for statehood in previous years.
A brief history of the Telangana movement
The newly decolonized Indian union annexed Hyderabad in 1948 through military action. Between 1946 and 1951, Telangana was the site of a peasant rebellion. Local peasants had spontaneously erupted against oppressive landlords. The rebellion mutated into an armed communist insurgency. 1 Military action that seized the state and annexed it into the Indian union continued to quell the rebellion and fight communist influence in the region.
In 1953, the States Reorganization Committee (SRC) set up by the Government of India recommended that states be constituted on a linguistic basis. This meant that Hyderabad state (in existence from 1952 to 1956 as a state in India) was broken up and various linguistic regions joined the adjoining states of Maharashtra, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. It is the merger of Telangana with Telugu-speaking Andhra that has proved to be the most controversial. The Andhra region is composed of the fertile Krishna–Godavari delta known for its high agricultural productivity. Also, as Andhra was under direct British rule, the region benefitted from English education.
The SRC cautioned against a hasty merger of the two Telugu-speaking regions with wide disparities (Weiner, 1978). Nevertheless, the issue was left to the two merging states to sort out. In 1956, Telangana was merged with Andhra Pradesh subject to a series of conditions labelled a ‘Gentleman’s Agreement’ (Horowitz, 1985: 673). The agreement was centred around mulki rules, which prohibited the people of Andhra from owning agricultural land in Telangana and legislated preferential allotment of civil services to those from Telangana. But the gentleman’s agreement was never implemented in letter and spirit. After the merger, as skilled workers were hard to find in Telangana, the higher civil services were filled by those from Andhra (Horowitz, 1985). Loopholes were found to help those from the Andhra region get backdoor entry to jobs and private property, including agricultural land. In the course of time, frustrations grew among the Telanganites who were losing government jobs and agricultural land to the Andhras.
In 1969, students, and later non-gazetted 2 employees, agitated for jobs and eventually for separation. Police firing on students killed around 400 students that same year. The movement crystallized around a political party, the Telangana Praja Samithi (TPS), which in the 1971 elections went on to win 11 out of 14 parliamentary seats in the region. The figure is particularly significant because it was a year when Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was at the height of her popularity: India had just won the war against Pakistan that led to the creation of Bangladesh, following which the Congress party went on to secure a landslide victory in the national elections. The separate Telangana movement led to the internal displacement of people from Andhra and was eventually suppressed when the political party merged with the Congress.
Again in 2001, another political party, the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS), emerged to fight for the cause of a separate state. The Indian Constitution grants the federal parliament the authority to create new states. Following massive unrest in the region triggered by a TRS-led agitation, on 9 December 2011, the federal government agreed to create the separate state of Telangana. The celebrations were short-lived as 20 days later, the federal government reversed its stand. On 3 October 2013, the Union cabinet approved the proposal to bifurcate Telangana and Andhra. A few days later, the government refused to set a deadline to introduce the AP reorganization bill in parliament. This led to intense speculation regarding the future of Telangana both in the region and among its diaspora. This article will explore the narratives of nation in the Telangana diaspora in the United States during this phase.
The Telugu Association of North America (TANA) was founded in 1977. This was the association of expatriates from Andhra and Telangana who spoke Telugu. Articulating a different identity, the Telangana Development Forum (TDF) was formed in 1999, much before TRS came into being in Andhra Pradesh, to provide a separate forum for non-resident Indians hailing from Telangana districts. As a parallel to TDF, the TeNA was formed in 2007. It is not uncommon for South Asian diaspora to form parallel bodies. The North American Telugu Association (NATA) came into being as a body competing with TANA. Organizational politics and community assertions are among the various reasons that prompt the formation of parallel bodies. As of now, TDF and TeNA share cordial relations and the founding members of the TDF post actively on the TeNA web forum.
The nation and the diaspora
Bhaba (1990) argues that a nation’s emergence as a symbolic force is necessitated by cultural compulsions. The nation is constantly renewed through narratives of progress and narcissism. The persistence of nation in the context of globalization suggests that the rhetoric of global presupposes the power of a nation within its area of influence. Nationalism opens up a whole range of possibilities from totalitarian closures to critical oppositional pluralism. While the textual closure of national culture leads to problematic totalization, its progressive potential lies in the wide dissemination of its associated symbols and meanings based on common memories. From the ‘recess of national culture … alternative constituencies of people … emerge – youth, the everyday, nostalgia, new “ethnicities,” new social movements, “the politics of difference”’ (Bhaba, 1990: 3).
Georgiou and Silverstone (2007) argue that since diasporas are located on the fringes of national and global diasporic media, they operate outside of national and global media and national and international political arenas. This implies that diasporic media give voice to the excluded and constitute contra-flows. Furthermore, the voices of diaspora are also imbricated in power. The complex relationships of power that exist within diaspora too need to be interrogated and problematized. These relationships are played out in media spaces and the counterflows of communication or in the everyday life of ‘symbolic engagement’ (Georgiou and Silverstone, 2007).
Between 1970 and 1990, the Indian state had ambivalent and contradictory relations with its diasporas (Mallapragada, 2006). For instance, the flight of highly skilled scientific and technological labour was framed within the narrative of brain drain. There have been considerable anxieties regarding loss of investment on highly skilled expatriates whose education was subsidized by the state. In 1975, the Indian state allowed Indians living abroad to open non-resident accounts in US dollars or UK sterling (Mallapragada, 2006). It was hoped that creating a category of non-resident Indians (NRIs) would bolster foreign exchange reserves. Virtually, by the end of the 1990s, every sector of the economy was opened to NRI investment (Mallapragada, 2006).
Starting with the mid-1990s, new discourses of diaspora began to emerge with the success of Bollywood in the West. These discourses were framed within the sentiment of nostalgia for the homeland. In the context of increased cultural flows from India to the West, the Indian state sought to redefine its relations with the diaspora (Govil, 2006; Punathambekar, 2013; Thussu, 2009). In 1999, India introduced the Person of Indian Origin (PIO) card extended to second, third, and fourth generation Indians with foreign passports.
The diasporic movement is being constructed as an east to west contraflow (Thussu, 2007). A new rendering of contraflows calls for shifting the focus from ‘economic structuration’ to ‘cultural negotiations and identity politics’ (Kavoori, 2007: 58). ‘Diaspora’ and ‘hybridity’ are the key concepts in post-colonial and transnational cultural studies. The hyphenated identities do not necessarily lead only to cosmopolitanism, but also to problems such as terrorist violence (Kavoori, 2007).
Online diasporic Indians ‘are voicing themselves through electronic discourse on the internet and thus transforming the group’s identity and image, and challenging some of the naturalized images produced by the dominant’ (Mitra, 2001: 33). Mitra (2001) attributes the apparent liberatory use of media space to the ‘prolific presence’ of Indians on the net that enables them ‘to represent themselves in their own voice and articulate a call’ and that ‘the utterances of the dispossessed and the powerless took possession of the virtual discussion space opened up by CNN’ (p. 35). With these new identities, ‘the marginal can crystallize their oppositional ideologies and call into question the dominant world view’ (Mitra, 2001: 45). Problems with Mitra’s conceptualization of ‘the marginal’ start to unravel as we look into the aggressive aspects of nationalism in South Asia on the net when the contextually marginal becomes the locally or nationally dominant.
Ranganathan (2002) understands the media’s role in identity formation as the process of construction of meaning on the basis of a related set of cultural attributes and memories. These processes apply to new media as well as old media. Based on a case study of the Eelam diaspora, she argues that the delineation of the differences between the people of different nations, that is, ‘us’ and ‘them’, takes the form of demonizing of the ‘other’.
Critical trends examining the South Asian diaspora
In a technologically mediated world, the local is inserted into a rapidly globalizing web of interconnections. Interconnections between media, capital flows and migrations add to a sense of pliability. Cross-border linkages have been noted for creating a sense of fluidity around the notions of identity, nation and culture. The diasporas have an influential role in promoting nationalism both discursively and materially. As we understand, the narratives of diaspora, technological and cultural shifts mandated by the emergence of online media become increasingly important. The discourses of online media emphasize the destabilization of producer and consumer relations, the nationalist optics of television and cinema stand challenged online as underrepresented groups begin to articulate themselves (Mallapragada, 2013).
Kumar (2001), taking a critical perspective, argues for insertion of women and alternative collectives to problematize stereotypical representations of the South Asian American diaspora in the network age as Indian male, tech-savvy, elite model minorities. Mallapragada (2006) argues that changing notions of citizenship ‘is absolutely critical to understanding the contemporary cultural practices shaping the discourses of identity and belonging within the “Indian diaspora” in the US’ (p. 209).
Recent scholarship on the South Asian diaspora highlights the diversity of the mobilization of the group to foreground race, class, sexuality, religion to problematize middle-class heteronormative representations (Mallapragada, 2013; Nair and Balaji, 2008; Sharma, 2010; Thangaraj, 2012). These trends problematize a model minority framework by bringing out the issues of illegal South Asian immigrants, many of whom faced incarcerations and deportations after 9/11 (Mallapragada, 2013).
Study of the TeNA online forum
Despite the theoretical possibilities of the democratic citizenship associated with online public spheres, Dahlgren (2005) laments that they have not displayed the ‘high ideals set for deliberative democracy’ (p. 156). The lament highlights that hierarchies of the real world and exclusive definitions of citizenship permeate discourses in the virtual world. Hence, even as diasporas are separated from homelands, through online practices, they continue to reinvent the structures and discourses of home. While it is true that the mainstream ideology behind the ‘global information highway’ envisages the formation of virtual communities that are cut off from their backward hinterlands and brought into an advanced virtual world, it is also a fact that ‘social relations and interpersonal exchanges’ of online diasporic imagination cannot ‘escape their connection with real-life political, economic, social and cultural material practices’ (Gajjala, 2008: 41).
Documents offer ways to decipher culture, process, objects and the meanings that create social reality. Our ability to read documents is based on theoretical orientation about what is of value and the technological ability to achieve it (Altheide, 1996). In order for research to critically assess the role of media texts, both context and process are important. Context implies the social conditions under which the document was produced. Process implies that everything is under construction and subject to contestation. Context and process together contribute to the gradual emergence of meaning and interpretation. Interpretative processes are ‘characterized by abductive thought’ where one draws ‘a new principle from established facts’ (Lindlof and Taylor, 2011: 243). Abductive thought notes the cyclic nature of critical research where themes are recurring thesis, typical thesis runs through a lot of reports. Key notions emerging from literature review informing identification of themes were cultural difference, memories of nation, globalization, negotiating home and host cultures, and linkages between offline and online practices. The author went through several cyclic iterations of themes and frames before consolidating the findings as presented below.
The article analyses the TeNA online forum postings from 1 September 2012 to 15 October 2013. There were 912 messages posted during this period. Posts on the forum offer links to articles published on other domains. It is through these hyperlinks that discussions are generated. Several messages commented very briefly on blogs and newspaper articles. It is interesting to note that intertextuality generated through hyperlinking is framed by the participants’ brief comments. On 30 September 2012, a massive protest march was organized in Hyderabad to demand a separate Telangana state. 3 The TeNA online forum was created on 13 February 2010. It has more than 900 members. The members include recent migrants, green card holders and American citizenship holders from Telangana. Typically, the group is composed of computer programmers and small entrepreneurs. Their professional world spans boundaries as they engage with both host and home countries. There are three moderators who define their function as gate-keeping against any infringement of free speech. They get around 130 new posts every month. Posts on the TeNA online forum follow five broad frames:
Mobilizing victims against enemies;
Asserting cultural difference;
Articulating relations with the host country;
Negotiating globalization;
Conflicts over resources.
Mobilizing victims against enemies
I think, Lagadapati is much worried after seeing the Telangana March … his recent statement says, only 10% of T- people seeking Telangana. Shame on you Lagadapati … All the seemandra politicians showing affection towards samaikyandra only because they are afraid about their assets in Hyderabad, their love towards samaikyandra none [sic] other than to save their assets in Hyderabad. (Kakkerla, 2012)
This post reiterates a popular theme among Telangana activists, which seeks to frame Seemandhra politicians as investors concerned primarily about their investments in the region. 4 The massive protest march by pro-Telangana activists in Hyderabad galvanized the online community into discussing the implications of a separate state. The success of the march lies in arousing the fears of the interest groups that have benefitted from the merger of the two regions. This theme leads to the identification of an external exploiter.
Progressive movements can be co-opted by reactionary forces. At the same time, it is not enough to classify movements as progressive or reactionary, structural hierarchies and organizational practices need to be considered by social movement scholarship. Contemporary literature on social movements conceptualizes the process of narrow mobilization, whereby actors are tested on purity to stay in the movement (Atkinson and Berg, 2012). The process entails periodic purges of the movement to weed out undesirables.
A blog post arguing that Telangana would be a weak state in need of financial assistance triggered an intense round of discussion on the forum. A strategy of the Telangana protagonists has been to discount suggestions of inadequacy of the new state. Any discussion on financial and social viability of the state is perceived as a threat. The issue is countered by reminding Telanganites how being in a unified state did not help them. An excerpt from the blog states, Here there are … people, those from other parts of India, foreigners, Hindus, Muslims, Christians, Buddhists, Parsis, those who speak Hindi, English, Telegu [sic]. Andhra Pradesh through design has invested in making Hyderabad a home for all people, a safe place for women, a safer place for dalits, a place for entrepreneurships, for MNCs, information technology and pharmaceutical companies … Breaking states down to smaller sizes does not guarantee good governance or even better economic development. (Fernandez, 2012)
The issues relating to the fate of various business interests, religious minorities, women and lower caste Hindus in the new state are brought into question. Online forum responses recognize that the blog is framing issues and an argument against statehood to Telangana. It is imperative for some within the movement not to address such wider discussions that are deemed as divisive and distractive to the cause. For example, Telangana’s feudal elite who are leading the movement do not like to answer questions of marginalization based on caste, gender and religion. Instead, loyalty to the cause is emphasized as a means to achieving separation. A member writes, At the outset I am more worried about the Internal enmenies [sic] who disguise themselves as real Telangana representatives/forces. It is easy to expose and fight against external enemies [sic] as external enemy is quite visible. Internal [sic] enemies are invisible and cause more damage. (Mothkuri, 2012)
As a response to the blog, this post calls for purging the internal enemies. These internal enemies are present inside Telangana and cannot be identified easily as those from Andhra. The radical rhetoric requires these elements to be purged from the movement. In the immediate context of the protest march, it is the elected representatives of the other political parties in the region who are being targeted. The party leadership for delay blames the elected representatives not belonging to TRS the formation of the new state.
Even as diasporas are separated from homelands, through online practices, they continue to reinvent the structures and discourses of home. The offline politics clearly influences political articulations online. The members of the forum are privileged members of a well-to-do diaspora, some of whom see their interests as being tied with the Telangana leaders.
Asserting cultural difference
New social movements are often conceptualized as being primarily concerned with identity formation, while old social movements fought for favourable legislation (Huesca, 2001). Post-industrial society is characterized by the decline of class conflicts typically embodied by trade unions. The contest is symbolic rather than material and outside the institutional framework provided by political parties and trade unions. The Telangana movement provides us with a complex array of legislative demands for a separate state combined with the necessity to forge an identity between disparate groups with conflicting interests. Since the 1960s, the search for a distinctive cultural identity has been an important feature of the Telangana movement. Weiner (1978) has noted that this identity seeks to separate the Telugu-speaking people of Andhra and Telangana into two different groups while forging linkages of Telugu-speaking Telanganites with non-Telugu speakers including Urdu-speaking Muslims in the region. One way in which the Telangana movement articulated cultural difference between the Telugus of Andhra and Telangana is through the celebration of festivals endemic to Telangana: It was another great Bathukamma festival in boston last Saturday. Perfect weather and lovely Hopkinton State Park’s Telangana-village-like atmosphere became a great venue for Bathukamm festival. Thanks to all those who participated and volunteers who made it happen. Here are some videos and pictures of the event. (Maroju, 2013)
The Bathukamma festival has been an important means of affirming authentic Telangana identity. 5 These celebrations are a potent way to break the home and away binary by affording a means to participate in rituals that forge a sense of belonging to the community. The common cultural practices of the people of Telangana are renewed overseas to emphasize oneness. Cultural, agitational, folk-singing and public-speaking rituals serve to further the cause of a separate Telangana. Important practices of identity construction involve reviving old rural traditional festivals of the region. These festivals mark an important separation from the Telugu speakers of the ‘othered’ region. The Bathukamma and Bonnalu festivals are framed as natural, historical and cultural markers of separation. The TeNA online forum invites members to congregate offline to celebrate these events. The members, especially from cities like Boston, Chicago and San Francisco, upload pictures of their congregations. Another means of coagulating identity is the celebration of birth anniversaries of Telangana ideologues.
Articulating relations with the host country and transnational actors
Social movements are faced with strategic choices which include soliciting transnational actors. The choices leading to undertaking risky mobilization that attracts foreign support could lead to severe state repression (Clifford, 2002). Social movement actors need to be able to evaluate the costs of flirting with transnational actors who have their own agendas in backing them. The leaders of these movements need to understand the mechanisms that attract international support and evaluate the impact of international support on the local outcomes. For instance, environmental concerns and human rights issues are often attractive to transnational non-governmental organizations (NGOs): A letter from TeNA to US DOS highlighting the suicides in Telanagana would have any effect on … No. I would not encourage such writings to out side (sic) countries. You can write to an agency that is within our country, but not to other countries. Perhaps, it may be OK [sic] to write to Human Rights agencies (within /outside of our country) … If there is a fight within our own house, do we go out tell all outsiders [sic]? (Dyavanapalli, 2013)
A participant demanded a letter be written to the US Department of State highlighting the situation in Telangana as a means of putting pressure on the central government in India and the ruling Congress party. This argument does not find favour with other participants who view the US as an outsider and a colonial power. The participants’ condemnation of this idea is based on the memory of the colonial subjugation of the subcontinent by a Western power. While going to the United Nations or human rights agencies is considered acceptable, involving foreign states is not.
The Telangana leadership, like those of most other social movement networks in India, considers soliciting transnational support inapt. Various factors that influence this attitude range from colonial experience to awareness of the repressive power of the Indian state. Moreover, the leadership and the populace are aware that there are constitutional means for achieving their ends. Environmental narratives, which find easy acceptance among the transnational organizations, are quite marginal in the minds of the leadership of the struggle for statehood. The public rhetoric of the leadership shows its concern for seeking a fair share for the region, but does not indicate radical transformation of the modes of production in the region.
Negotiating globalization
In December 2012, news media reported on a close vote in the Indian parliament that opened the retail sector to foreign direct investment (FDI). TeNA members posted news media reports and YouTube videos of the news media coverage on the issue. They posted videos from leading national news channels such as Times Now to show the arguments of the government that prices will drop with the single buyer and single seller model (the Walmart model) being challenged by members of the opposition (especially the communists) in parliament. The news media narratives also problematized the assumptions of increased workers’ safety standards as a result of the ‘Walmartization’ of the retail sector in India. Fears that street hawkers would be squeezed out of business are expressed in the newspaper coverage and highlighted on the forum. Some members listed the government arguments on FDI’s advantages and the fears against opening up retail to Walmart. Several posts in the following days argue against allowing foreign players like Walmart into India. The positionality of the diaspora, its physical location in the United States, and its familiarity with the retail giant led to threads specifically against Walmart. Walmart is perceived as a threat to millions of street hawkers, who might now be squeezed out of the market. A member posted a link to a web-log expressing popular sentiment against opening up of retail to foreign players to encourage a debate over globalization and Telangana. In the ensuing discussion, explicit connections are sought to be made with the Telangana agitations: The role of 3 TDP MPs in the recent vote for FDI has again bought into fore the clandestine politics that are now underway in Andhra Pradesh. The 3 MPs Sujana Chowdary, Devender Goud, G Sudharani are from financially strong background and none have them have the UPA’s CBI breathing down their neck for any case. Therefore, there isn’t a reason for them to get either tempted or intimidated by the UPA. (Nath, 2012)
The post notes a pact between the ruling United Progressive Alliance-led government and the Telugu Desam Party (TDP), a pro-Andhra party which helped pass the FDI bill narrowly in parliament. The post also alludes that this coming together was not a result of intimidation, but convergence of interests. International developments, in most cases, have marginal direct impact on domestic politics where national opportunity structures dominate (Clifford, 2002). But globalization inserts local into global. The social movement actors can interpret international developments from their unique standpoint. An involvement in the national politics flows from the position of local nationalism. The role of the federal government in opening doors to foreign investment and in creating the Telangana state centres the debate on the politics of nation-state in the context of economic globalization. 6 A common interest group controlling power in crucial interstices is believed to be working for the capitalists against public interest.
Conflicts over resources
Frantz Fanon argues that nationalism in the Third World is a vestige of colonialism. Colonial elites are replaced by bourgeoisie neo-colonial elites while the social and economic structures remain intact. This form of government gets easily distorted into territorialism, separatism, rule by a tribe or a region as it reproduces the structures of cultural dominations. Regional disparities privilege those from rich regions to ‘look upon others with hatred, and find in them envy and covetousness, and homicidal impulses’ (Fanon, 1963: 159). Fanon’s (1963) arguments regarding tensions involving colonization and uneven development in the Third World extend beyond immediate post-colonization contexts and refer strongly to the material conditions of development: We are expecting over 500 public representatives from all parties … We have also invited all the MLAs /MLCs of this area & expecting Sri G.Prasad Kumar Honble Minister representing Vikarabad & who took this project to the C.M for the final approval. It is PITY [sic] that TREF Engineers are trying hard to get RS [sic] 5.00 Crores only for the Survey of the Project since YSR days i.e., 2008 onwards.We [sic] have A.P.Budget of Rs 1.00 Lakh crores,but the Andhra CMs starting from YSR,Rosaiah to Kiran not willing to grant Rs 5.00 Crores only. We [sic] have to blame ourselves & our leaders only. (Reddy, 2013)
This post laments under-allocation of funds to engineering projects in Telangana. Budgetary allocations often top the list of grievances that the proponents of Telangana place in support of their demand. Powerful regions tend to corner central government resources, leaving out the most backward regions that might in fact be rich in natural resources (Clifford, 2002). A struggle over resources has been central to the demand for separation. The resources include agricultural land, irrigated water, government jobs and educations: Andhra and Telangana cultures seem to be conflicting in Hyderabad not because they: are different, but because one culture tries to dominate the other … Conflicts arise not because of diversity, but because of inequality and the fear of losing one’s identity … Now cultural conflicts in the city do not express themselves only on religious lines, but more and more on regional and caste lines. The reason for this may be the increased social and spatial differentiation which took place in Hyderabad after the massive migration of more advanced people from Andhra and the development of the new economy. (Benbabaali, 2012)
The Telangana activists have for long noted that educationally advanced and entrepreneurially minded caste groups from the Andhra region pose a threat to the identity of the region. Tensions based on caste have been at the forefront of political struggles in India. The powerful caste groups vie for regional domination in the democratic structure. Conflicts between these groups leads to demands of territorialism, regionalism and separatism. These various expressions of micro-nationalisms can be traced to conflicts for control of resources. Those left out of the processes of globalization, including many who have faced further marginalization as their lands are being sold to corporate bidders, or as traditional arts and crafts lose their place in a market dominated by multinational consumer durables, have organized to resent and demand their fair share. 7 The student agitations in the region have continued unabated for almost five decades, mirroring the grievances of a vocal section of dissidents. While Telangana’s political leadership may not be articulating the concerns of those at the margins, resource conflicts at the grass-root levels have fuelled the movement (Thirumali, 2013).
Discussion
This study seeks to problematize discourses of globalization. Liberal perspectives tend to highlight the novelty of globalization. David Held (1999) argued that globalization would transform parochial traditional identities rooted in nation-states in favour of a cosmopolitan world order. Rolland Robertson (1992) describes the eventual outcome of the process of globalization as glocalization. Glocalization is characterized by the co-presence or simultaneity of universalizing and particularizing tendencies. However, as this study demonstrates, it would be a mistake to not recognize the struggles involved in the periphery and conceptualize glocalization as a smooth process.
The study reveals that neo-liberal economic policies benefit those on top, increasing the divide between the haves and the have-nots and thus creating a fissure between them and others. The beneficiaries and discontents of globalization exist across caste, ethnic and regional groups. Those without capital and land resources, and without support from the political establishment, are left to fend for themselves. Political mobilization of such people seeks to alter their living conditions for the better by staking a claim in the state. This also reflects the need for policy to protect vulnerable sections of society from sweeping economic reforms.
The separate Telangana movement embodies complex patterns of resistance and hegemonic co-option, a pattern that can only be understood with reference to the political aspirations of those involved in the movement. Furthermore, in the post-colonial context, culture is problematized by the politics of race, religion, region and gender (Hegde, 2006). This article highlights the struggles to bring to the fore the marginalization of a region and the struggles of its people to regain their voice.
Media’s often coercive ways of creating a Telugu identity are resisted through symbolic acts of resistance and through the development of alternative media. Social movements based on caste, gender, tribal and regional solidarity emerged to shape the consciousness of the people of Telangana. The new consciousness makes them acutely aware of difference and injustice. The symbols, like the Bathukamma festival, also help create fissures in a seamless Telugu nationalism.
The processes of marginalization have a disproportionate impact on the disadvantaged. However, the goal of the movement – a separate state – is also believed to be more conductive of the diasporic business interests. The TeNa diaspora contribute materially and discursively to the media outlets in Telangana. The online forum can be construed as forming a continuity with emerging Telangana media. Together they are in an agonistic disagreement with the mainstream Telugu media controlled by Seemandhra. Even as a welcome new voice is emerging, this essay argues for reconsidering the structural factors that have allowed this new voice. For instance, a strong student movement fuelled by growing economic disparities and contracting space of opportunities set in by adoption of neo-liberal reforms have fuelled the movement at the grass-roots level.
The Telangana identity struggle allows us to explore the struggle for resources that has characterized processes of globalization. The problematization of existing literature on globalization, identity and cultural authenticity/hybridity allows us to draw new connections with media, state and political processes. These new connections are fertile ground for theory building in media and communications research, especially in the study of digital diasporas. Examining linkages between diaspora and grass-roots movements for social justice provides one such opportunity for advancing knowledge in media and communications. The cultural and the material cannot be studied in mutual isolation. This study seeks to further the integrated epistemology that recognizes the need to examine the cultural and the structural in unison in the context of a mediated information age.
Footnotes
Funding
The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.