Downloads provided by UsageCounts
On Oct 31st, 2020, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi applauded a four-year-old girl from the state of Mizoram for singing a contemporary version of the national song Maa Tujhe Salaam from A.R. Rahman���s album ���Vande Mataram''. The music video uploaded on YouTube caught the attention of the audiences as it crossed 6.9 million views 4 months after its release (as of February 2021). Taking this context as the point of reference, the paper will contribute to existing scholarships on Baudrillard���s simulation and simulacra. At the same time, the same approach enables the possibility of critically analyzing the contemporary meaning of solidarity in media studies. Rather than looking at the music video exclusively as an ideological product in itself, or what it seeks to signify and what it signified, the paper seeks to problematize the relation between simulacra and solidarity, or the simulation of solidarity in the age where media encapsulates everyday life. It attempts to derive possibilities of simulating the absence of solidarity as presence, which hides the oppressive experience and the socio- cultural, historical, and political struggles of the subalterns in India. The simulacra precede the original, leaving it impossible to distinguish what is real and what representation is. The simulacra, as Baudrillard argues, conceals the fact that there exist none; it feigns what one hasn���t: it feigns to have solidarity. It argues that through simulation, there is a process of corrupting the notion of ���solidarity��� against its conventional application and understanding due to the intrinsic embodiment of the individual into the hyperreal. The question then is, does the media kill ���solidarity���?
Jean Baudrillard, New Media, Northeast India, Semiotics, Solidarity, Simulation, Mizoram
Jean Baudrillard, New Media, Northeast India, Semiotics, Solidarity, Simulation, Mizoram
| selected citations These citations are derived from selected sources. This is an alternative to the "Influence" indicator, which also reflects the overall/total impact of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network (diachronically). | 1 | |
| popularity This indicator reflects the "current" impact/attention (the "hype") of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network. | Average | |
| influence This indicator reflects the overall/total impact of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network (diachronically). | Average | |
| impulse This indicator reflects the initial momentum of an article directly after its publication, based on the underlying citation network. | Average |
| views | 2 | |
| downloads | 11 |

Views provided by UsageCounts
Downloads provided by UsageCounts