ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the ways in which race is imagined, negotiated, and mediated in the context of indigenous peoples of India’s northeastern borderlands. I want to ask whether the ways in which race and indigenous identity are articulated and narrated in public media forums are exclusionary or facilitate cultural and political democracy. New and digital media enable marginalised communities to mobilise supporters easily and quickly. Today there are new networks that are sustained by intense affective affiliation or common identity projects. The cases I will examine “inhabit micro-public spheres" (Quemener 2015) within which identities are fashioned and counter-hegemonic discourses formulated. This is a privileged space for alternative definitions but it is also, I will argue, a highly contested space.
