Dissent Art in the Digital Age: Insights into the Culture of Artivism on Instagram in India

Abstract

The introduction of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) in 2019 marked a discernible change in the landscape of online protest art. As protests against the act gathered momentum, a surge in the art endorsing the movement dominated Indian social media and increased during the COVID-19 pandemic. This wave was propelled by a cohort of “artivists” with social and cultural influence who were positioned favorably on the digital spectrum. They used platforms such as Instagram to craft and share protest art, leveraging social media to express their dissent. The intensification of the online protests subsequently led to instances of individual and organized abuse directed at the artists, including mob attacks and threats of First Information Reports. This paper explores this phenomenon through extensive interactions with online “artivists” in India in order to understand the cultural shift and emphasize the similarities and differences between virtual dissent art and traditional forms of art activism. Adopting a qualitative methodology that combines digital ethnography and semi-structured interviews, the author—who also found her artistic voice amidst this movement—seeks to capture the artists’ approaches and subjectivity. The paper further delves into the limitations and constraints posed by social media platforms, addressing the issue of online harassment faced by artivists on Instagram. Lastly, it engages in a discourse on how social media commodifies dissent within the landscape of digital capitalism.

Keywords

• social movements
• social media
• artivism
• anti-CAA movement
• digital dissent
• online lynching