Today’s Hindustan Times has a story assessing the state of blogs written by Indians – or that are about India. “Can India ever achieve superpower status in the blogosphere?” asks the HT.
My own view is yes – absolutely. Though based on this story, it appears that India’s blogging community has not yet reached critical mass. The HT quotes blogger Amit Agarawal: “There are various factors that currently prevent India from being a blogging superpower. We do not have enough people blogging and more importantly, there aren’t enough people reading blogs. To add to this, the majority of Indian blogs are personal diaries that would only be interesting to the family and friends of the blog’s author.”
That’s an apt description of blogging in the United States about four years ago (and look at how things are now). And yet, Indian blogs have made international headlines at least twice this year. Last July, in the hours after the Mumbai train attacks, blogs brought people together and filled a critical information gap. The same month there was the strange and still not fully explained shut down of certain web sites – ostensibly to avoid offending certain religious groups.
Will India’s blogging community continue to grow and become more relevant? You can bet on it.
