ABSTRACT
This article aims to develop the understanding of new media and social change by examining how mobile phones mediate kinship and gender in rural India. Mobile phone users in developing countries have emerged as iconic figures signifying change and progress as mobile telephony has triumphed unexpectedly rapidly. Ninety percent of the world is currently covered by mobile networks and the ownership of mobile phones practically tripled in developing countries between 2002 and 2006 (International Telecommunication Union 2010). The growth of India’s mobile phone density has been among the fastest: teledensity increased in India from less than 1 per 100 persons to 78 per during 1991-2012 (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India 2012). Few studies (Tenhunen 2008a; Doron 2012; Tacchi Kathi, and Crawford 2012; Jouhki 2013) have shown that women in different parts of India have experienced the opportunity to use mobile phones as a major asset although, in comparison to men, their access to mobile telephony tends to be more restricted. I aim to provide a nuanced picture of the contested nature of kinship and gender in the village based on long-term fieldwork in order to explore how mobile phones mediate relationships and ongoing processes of social change.
