On April 9th, 2021, the Asian Institute at the Munk School of Global Affairs hosted “Lives of Data: Computational Cultures from India.” The second instalment in the “Political Life of Information” series, this event hosted Sandeep Mertia, a PhD candidate at the Department of Media, Culture and Communication as well as a doctoral fellow at NYU, to discuss his recently published collection of essays discussing the impacts of big data and computing in modern Indian society, as well as its impacts on the nature of big data globally. Bringing together a number of scholars and practitioners dedicated to exploring how big data intersects with policymaking and the digital economy, Mertia discussed the foundations behind this collection and responded to comments and questions brought up by a number of experts. Namely, these consisted of Mariana Valverde, a legal scholar specializing in research regarding smart city initiatives in Canada; Sarah Sharma, the Director of the McLuhan Centre for Culture and Technology at the University of Toronto; and Tong Lam, a visual artist and an associate professor of History at the University of Toronto. Hosted and moderated by Francis Cody, the director of the Contemporary Asian Studies program at UofT, this panel allowed audience members to gain a greater understanding of the insights offered within the volume, as well as the broader nature of big data in the 21st century.
When discussing the book itself, Mertia delves into how he attempted to tell a “global story” regarding the emergence of big data and its impacts on the lives of everyday people through analyzing the case study of India. Through discussing the early days of how the project came about to going through each chapter of the project and describing the niche aspects of big data that were considered, Mertia painted for the audience how discussions about the likely paths big data research was likely to take culminated in a project discussing unprecedented global impacts through the lens of India. In particular, Mertia detailed the project’s fruition through outlining how it came about through discussions regarding the shift around data itself, as well as changing discussions regarding how the big data revolution would manifest, provided it occurred at all. Specifically with regards to India, Mertia noted how the state was adopting new means of technology at a significantly rapid pace, and as such, was adopting technology into practices of policy making and governance which thus led to ever changing notions of citizenship and rights. This was especially prominent given the expansion of the number of internet users in India, meaning that one’s ability to access public health projects and government projects was directly related to their ability to access the internet, and thus, to have their data stored with the state that could use this information to adjust projects in any capacity.
Upon first undergoing the project in 2015, Mertia’s interviews found that despite the various implications for policy making, there existed a huge gap between perceptions around big data and the real world manifestations of it, given that there existed a number of developmental failures leading to this overall disconnect. This point was further elaborated on by Lam, who when discussing the book, commented on the personification of data that was evident within it; namely, the attempts to bridge this aforementioned divide by discussing how despite the technical manifestations of data, human lives and experiences are embedded within it, ultimately resulting in big data containing a significant wealth of information compared to what meets the eye. Mertia explained this through further elaborating on the notion that big data cannot be analyzed in and of itself; drawing on the example of credit cards history, he discusses how while that individual history or credit score may not mean anything in and of itself, analyzing how it differs from others of its kind, as well as how it impacts the different future purchases various consumers make and how that reflects their interests, allows us to understand that big data is the truly most powerful when analyzed in tandem with various other institutions. This is further discussed by Valverde, who reflects on the book through commenting that with big data there exists a huge risk of seeing computational systems as existing independently; within the context of India, this is dangerous insofar as people may be disposed to looking at data in and of itself without taking into consideration the various policy-related impacts that such data has as discussed in the book.
In addition to how interconnected big data is with other institutions, Mertia discusses the various inequities present with data. This is pushed forward by Sharma, who notes her interest in the notion that data has a “social life,” that takes multiple differing forms which lead to different patterns within institutions and policy making. Specifically as this relates to companies, the book notes how data is “free” insofar as it does not follow strict conceptions of law and order, or intelligence models; as such, certain organizations with the necessary amount of money and resources were naturally disposed to emerges more dominant, thus weaponizing this data in an effort to shape perceptions of and access to knowledge and capital. This has led to the phenomenon of “data colonization” by many powerful western companies, which removes power from the hands of individual people and puts it in the companies that can control large-scale narratives with this data. Thus, despite the “social life” and various manifestations of big data, there still exists huge inequalities in the ability to access it.
Ultimately, Mertia’s discussions surrounding his research along with the contributions made by various panelists shed light on the sheer power of big data through analyzing its impact within India. Not only has the existence of big data allowed for the lived experiences of individuals to be conceptualized beyond what was once seen as possible, but it has played a monumental role in shaping state policy throughout India and the world as a whole.
Saara Meghji is an incoming third year student pursuing a degree in Political Science, Contemporary Asian Studies, and Urban Studies. She is particularly interested in understanding the effects of urbanization on the growth and development of urban centres in Asia, as well as the experiences of ethnic minorities in the Asia-Pacific region.
