Online misogyny and pedagogies of Hindutva digital subjectivation: Reflections from the Indian manosphere

Positioned within the wider political, socioeconomic and cultural context of contemporary India's regressive and anti-feminist trajectory, this article examines the ‘Indian manosphere' and how it contributes towards the Hindutva digital subjectivation of young men – a pedagogical process that shapes their understanding of self, identity, history, and future aspirations. We propose that the overlapping pedagogies explored in this article engender assumptions about historic and ongoing Hindu victimhood, Hindu civilizational supremacy, and a reimagination of India (and Indianness) through a neoliberal emphasis on entrepreneurship and technological innovation. We map out three distinct but overlapping subjectivation pedagogies: a superiority affirming pedagogy; a pedagogy of self-reliance; and a (neo)liberal Hindutva pedagogy. Via critical discourse analysis, we then show how the three pedagogies are deployed by three types of misogynistic Indian ‘manfluencer': the entrepreneurial misogynist, the vigilant misogynist and the ‘liberal' Hindu misogynist. These pedagogies of Hindutva digital subjectivation ultimately serve to construct a ‘new' story about India and Indians that breaks away from its post-colonial Third world identity, and moves towards a neoliberal Hindu supremacist authoritarianism. Finally, we argue that the Indian manosphere's pedagogical reshaping of young men enables India’s slide towards authoritarianism by re-packaging it as a story of national re-renewal.