Research by Dattani Discusses the Relationship Between India’s National Biometric Identity System and Data Colonialism
Posted: 2/2/2024 (CSDE Research)
CSDE Affiliate Dr. Kavita Dattani (Gender, Women & Sexuality Studies) released work in the Journal of Cultural Economy, titled “Spectrally shape-shifting: biometrics, fintech and the corporate-state in India“. Through a hauntological frame, this article investigates how the ghosts of colonial pasts are re-emerging in India’s national universal biometric identity system, Aadhaar, and a software infrastructure built on top of it, India Stack. It shows how Aadhaar and India Stack facilitate the extraction of data as a form of ‘data colonialism.’ Examining data colonialism through an enquiry of how the multifarious and unstable relations of colonialism are bound up with the extractive processes of digital data, the article uses a historical approach considering the shifting trajectories of identity ecologies in India to see what is dispossessed through Aadhaar and India Stack.