Dissertation Title:

Hokkolorob and beyond: Investigating Modalities of Deliberation and Discourse Formation

Abstract

In this research, I try to understand the discursive practices of the various political tendencies within
the Hokkolorob movement. Using textual and critical discourse analysis as the analytical tools, I try to
understand the ideological standpoints of each of these tendencies, how these standpoints conflicted
or converged with those of other tendencies as well as the disjunctures between stated ideologies or
political views and practices, both during and beyond the movement. These disjunctures revolve
around several themes including gender, class and caste, civility, anti-authoritarianism and the claims
of the movement being "elitist", "independent" and "apolitical". Using Facebook status updates from
participants of the movement as well as from pages and groups related to the movement, obtained
through virtual ethnography, the aforementioned themes as well as the social media practices for
political activism were analyzed and placed in the existing debates over the role of social media in
protests. Qualitative data collection methods like focus group discussions and in-depth interviews
were also carried out to get an understanding of what the participants of the movement felt about the
various themes like gender, civility, participation, role of social media and so on. An online survey of
40 activists was also carried out to put the results from the qualitative research methods in a broader
canvas. The main finding of this research is that the existing debates about Hokkolorob often tended
to place it within neat binaries, when the reality was more complex because of the highly fragmented
nature of the discursive practices.