ShodhPatra: International Journal of Science and Humanities

Algorithmic Governance and the Architectures of Exclusion : A Study of Bio-Politics in Contemporary Indian Speculative Fiction

This paper explores the chilling intersection of digital governance and social stratification in contemporary Indian Speculative Fiction. It investigates the emergence of “Digitised Sovereignty” in contemporary Indian Speculative Fiction specifically focusing on Prayaag Akbar’s ‘Leila’ (2017) and Lavanya Lakshminarayan’s ‘Analog/Virtual’ (2020). Michel Foucault’s paradigm of bio-politics synthesizing here with Ruha Benjamin’s concept of “New Jim Code” – recontextualized as a “New Caste Code” , this study argue that Indian Speculative Fiction maps a critical transition from physical state discipline to an automated and algorithmic governance. This study describes the term “Techno – Casteism” as a process by which modern data-driven architectures codify historical Brahminical preoccupations with ‘Purity’ and ‘Productivity’ into unassailable code. Through an analysis of the “sector walls” in Leila and the “Social productivity bell curve” in Analog/Virtual, the paper reveals how this fictional dystopias function as ‘architectures of exclusion’. These systems do not merely manage population, they automate social stratification, effectively creating a high-tech discrimination of traditional Indian hierarchies. Ultimately this study positioned speculative fiction as a vital tool of resistance to challenge the invisible violence of digital segregation. This intervention emphasizes the urgency of scrutinizing the ‘Code’ to prevent the permanent erasure of marginalized section.