Is Twitter Indian in Character?

"Is Twitter Indian in Character?" was the theme of the First National Conference on Twitter held in India on January 9, 2010, which was organized by @IndiaTC and as a concept, it seems very interesting to ponder. I am sure most of you would think this to be a rather preposterous question and you might say, well, what's Indian about Twitter. Or what's Indian about technology? These are the first questions that might strike your mind as you try to grapple with the concept of Indian that you have in your minds with the concept of Twitter that you have right there. Even Indians might have a similar idea about Twitter and India. However, I might like to point out that Twitter has become one of the highest ranking websites in India and that the growth of Indian accounts on Twitter has been nothing short of phenomenal.

At the conference, one of the panelists spoke of Twitter as a joint family and someone spoke of it as a crowded Indian market. Interesting ideas.

Now, let us cut our frame to the most famous Indian tweep, Shashi Tharoor, the present Indian Foreign Minister of State, ex-UN Under Secretary General and author. His handle is @shashitharoor and he has unwittingly been at the center of controversy in Indian media and among Indian politicians because of his use of Twitter. Some of the reactions that Tharoor has got seem to indicate that people are rather against his use of Twitter. In fact, one of my students, a budding journalist, asked me in a lecture, 'Sir, why doesn't Shashi Tharoor help the situation of the poor Indian laborers in Dubai rather than mere tweeting?"

So, perhaps, there is this impression that tweeting is a very frivolous, a very non-serious activity. This is quite possible in India, where everything is quite hierarchical and anything technological is seen from the lens of suspicion. However, there is something else that has gone completely unnoticed. The attention that Shashi Tharoor has generated has also meant that his follower count has crossed 600,000 and I see it growing every day. As more and more people read about Tharoor in the mainstream media, they want to find out more about Twitter and then they log in and make new accounts and start following him.

Interesting indeed.

I still don't know if Twitter is Indian in character but there is one thing certain about Twitter-it allows Indians to talk, something that they do all the time!