‘North Indians’ and ‘south Indians’ online: a discursive psychological study of the use of membership categories on social media

Abstract

This thesis examines the use of categories ‘north Indian’ and ‘south Indian’ by social media users in online conversations. Anecdotal evidence shows that people use these categories in everyday conversations with friends, family members, colleagues, and peers, to discuss differences of language, geography, race, ethnicity, and caste between peoples of India. However, they are elusive categories in academic literature. My review of India’s social and cultural history of the 19th and 20th century suggests that current scholarship has not examined the use of the explicitly labelled categories ‘north Indian’ or ‘south Indian.’ There have instead been studies of the peoples of north India and south India through accounts of other socially constructed categories like language, caste, region, or race. In the 20th century these other constructed categories and the peoples of north India and south India were also mobilised in political movements such as state reorganisation on linguistic basis in 1956 and were therefore of academic interest for political scientists. Despite serving such varied purposes, the specific use of ‘north Indian’ and ‘south Indian’ has not been systematically investigated in social psychology. Moreover, the interest in these groups has seemingly declined in these other fields such as history, political science, and anthropology.

While these categories have not been extensively investigated in academic literature, I reviewed some work from media and culture studies; my analysis of films and popular culture shows that descriptions of ‘north Indian’ and ‘south Indian’ people are depicted in films and media through storylines, song lyrics, dialogues, costumes, and food. Interactions from social media also reveal that people use these categories in mundane conversations with each other. Drawing on Conversation Analysis’ (CA) and Discursive Psychology’s (DP) interest in and assumptions about categories that they are mobilised for local purposes in interactions, I systematically examine how, when, and for what purposes these categories (‘north Indian’ or ‘south Indian’) are used in such mundane, social media interactions.

The data collected for analysis includes ‘threads’ from Twitter and Question-and-Answer ‘posts’ from Quora. By taking a CA/DP approach, I identify and examine four contexts in which the categories ‘north Indian’ and ‘south Indian’ are invoked. The first is that of agreeing or disagreeing with a food assessment of a south Indian food, idlis. The analysis shows that membership of the category ‘south Indian’ was used as an epistemic resource to agree or disagree with the food assessment. I also present some instances wherein the category ‘south Indian’ is invoked as a resource to question the legitimacy of proffering the assessment; this is done by treating the assessed food (idlis) as a cultural object that is tied to membership of the category ‘south Indian.’

The second context in which the categories are invoked is that of complaining about someone’s use of the categories ‘north Indian’ or ‘south Indian.’ This is identified as the complainable matter because the complainer infers it as morally condemnable and criticisable. The complainer also constructs the complainable conduct as a recurring pattern of behaviour and as intentional, which marks the criticism of category use as a complaint.

The third context is that of asking ‘loaded’ questions and answering them. I present two questions posted on Twitter that are phrased as information-seeking questions. These questions are also ambiguous, which is exploited by those answering them. This is demonstrated by looking at the answers because they construct the question as doing more than merely seeking information. I argue that the questions are treated as being ‘loaded’ with unfair expectations category members. Users reply to these questions with indirect answers, by posing counter questions, or by invoking alternative (more ‘appropriate’) categories and category-bound attributes.

The fourth context analysed in this thesis is also of Question-and-Answers, but these data are from Quora. The categories ‘north Indian’ or ‘south Indian’ are invoked within questions seeking descriptions of members of these categories. The answers contain detailed descriptions or lists of attributes or characteristics. In some instances, the answers also contain hedging or disclaimers, which may allow those answering to manage the delicateness of producing general lists and inoculate themselves against accusations of sounding biased or harsh in producing the descriptions of categories ‘north Indian’ or ‘south Indian.’

This examination of the categories allows me to draw some important conclusions. First, ‘north Indian’ and ‘south Indian’ are treated by users as meaningful categories in describing recognisable characteristics of people. I argue that invoking the category ‘north Indian’ or ‘south Indian’ serves critical purposes in an ongoing interaction, like allowing Twitter and Quora users to accomplish actions like agreeing or disagreeing with an assessment, complaining, or asking and answering different types of questions. The discursive analysis also allows me to examine phenomena, like assessing, complaining, and question-answering, and to situate my findings within the existing literature. I also show that social media users make use of various features, like replying, mentioning, liking or upvoting, and adding emojis, to aid in accomplish the various discursive actions identified. This adds to the ongoing conversation analytic study of interactions in the virtual space, particularly on social media. Importantly, I argue that the categories ‘north Indian’ and ‘south Indian’ are very much ‘alive’, meaningful, and functional to the people using them and this thesis is a novel study to examine members’ use of these seemingly ‘elusive’ categories.