Positioning Electronic literature as an Emerging Creative Industry in the Majority World: A Comparative Analysis with Video Games and Digital Arts
Proposal Type
Individual Talk
Location
Narratives & Worlds
Start Date
July 2026
End Date
July 2026
Abstract
This study situates Indian electronic literature within the broader ecosystem of India’s rapidly expanding creative industries through a comparative, interdisciplinary, and context-sensitive framework. Drawing on recent policy and industry reports, most notably Arts and Technologies in India: Reimagining the Future (Barua et al., 2024) and PwC’s From Sunrise to Sunshine (2024), it examines why digital art and video games in India have achieved far greater visibility, institutional support, and cultural traction than electronic literature, despite all three being grounded in computational and networked technologies.
While electronic literature emerged early as a global practice and has developed robust communities in Europe, North America, and East Asia, its growth in India has been comparatively slow and fragmented. By contrast, digital art and video games have thrived by aligning with broader economic narratives, audience engagement strategies, and policy frameworks. Barua et al. (2024) highlight how Indian digital art has expanded beyond traditional gatekeepers through interdisciplinary practices, hybrid media forms, and international collaboration, even while facing infrastructural and access challenges. Similarly, PwC (2024) documents the rapid expansion of India’s gaming industry, driven by localization, indie studios, governmental initiatives, and integration into national development agendas such as “Vikshit Bharat.”
Existing scholarship on Indian electronic literature identifies barriers such as the digital divide, limited infrastructure, and lack of awareness. While these factors remain crucial, this paper argues that they are insufficient without a comparative analysis of adjacent creative industries that have successfully navigated similar constraints. Electronic literature’s marginalization, the paper contends, stems less from inherent limitations than from its exclusion from creative-industry policy narratives and its continued confinement within print-centric and Western academic paradigms.
The study proposes reimagining electronic literature as part of a continuum of interactive, narrative-driven digital practices. It concludes by advocating the establishment of the Indian Consortium for Interactive Digital Narratives (ICIDN), a cross-sectoral platform designed to foster collaboration, institutional support, and sustainable growth, thereby securing electronic literature’s place within India’s evolving creative economy.
Keywords: Electronic literature, Creative industries, Creative economy, Indian Consortium for Interactive Digital Narrative (ICIDN)
References:
Barua, K., Rishi Gokharu, Afrah Mutaher, Nupur Singh, Hannah Andrews, Ruchi Das, Andrew Hawcroft, Radhika Rao, Aastha Sodhani, and Divya Sundara Raja. Arts and Technologies in India: Reimagining the Future. British Council, 2024.
Ensslin, Astrid, Samya Brata Roy. “Electronic LiteratureS as Postcomparative Media.” CompLit: Journal of European Literature, Arts and Society, 2023, pp.145-171, Classiques Garnier.
Mukherjee, Souvik. “No Country for E-Lit?--India and Electronic Literature.” Hyperrhiz: New Media Cultures, vol.16, 2017.
PricewaterhouseCoopers. From Sunrise to Sunshine: The Contribution of Online Gaming to the Viksit Bharat Journey and India’s Cultural Power. PwC India, 2024.
Roy, Samya Brata. “e-Sahitya, or the Contested Emergence of the Electronic within the Literary in India.” The New Review of Hypermedia & Multimedia, vol. 27, no. 3, 2025.
Shanmugapriya T., Nirmala Menon. “First and Second Waves of Indian Electronic Literature.” Journal of Comparative Literature and Aesthetics, vol.42, 2020, https://jcla.in/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/JCLA-42.4_E-Lit_Nirmala-Menon.pdf.
Positioning Electronic literature as an Emerging Creative Industry in the Majority World: A Comparative Analysis with Video Games and Digital Arts
Narratives & Worlds
This study situates Indian electronic literature within the broader ecosystem of India’s rapidly expanding creative industries through a comparative, interdisciplinary, and context-sensitive framework. Drawing on recent policy and industry reports, most notably Arts and Technologies in India: Reimagining the Future (Barua et al., 2024) and PwC’s From Sunrise to Sunshine (2024), it examines why digital art and video games in India have achieved far greater visibility, institutional support, and cultural traction than electronic literature, despite all three being grounded in computational and networked technologies.
While electronic literature emerged early as a global practice and has developed robust communities in Europe, North America, and East Asia, its growth in India has been comparatively slow and fragmented. By contrast, digital art and video games have thrived by aligning with broader economic narratives, audience engagement strategies, and policy frameworks. Barua et al. (2024) highlight how Indian digital art has expanded beyond traditional gatekeepers through interdisciplinary practices, hybrid media forms, and international collaboration, even while facing infrastructural and access challenges. Similarly, PwC (2024) documents the rapid expansion of India’s gaming industry, driven by localization, indie studios, governmental initiatives, and integration into national development agendas such as “Vikshit Bharat.”
Existing scholarship on Indian electronic literature identifies barriers such as the digital divide, limited infrastructure, and lack of awareness. While these factors remain crucial, this paper argues that they are insufficient without a comparative analysis of adjacent creative industries that have successfully navigated similar constraints. Electronic literature’s marginalization, the paper contends, stems less from inherent limitations than from its exclusion from creative-industry policy narratives and its continued confinement within print-centric and Western academic paradigms.
The study proposes reimagining electronic literature as part of a continuum of interactive, narrative-driven digital practices. It concludes by advocating the establishment of the Indian Consortium for Interactive Digital Narratives (ICIDN), a cross-sectoral platform designed to foster collaboration, institutional support, and sustainable growth, thereby securing electronic literature’s place within India’s evolving creative economy.
Keywords: Electronic literature, Creative industries, Creative economy, Indian Consortium for Interactive Digital Narrative (ICIDN)
References:
Barua, K., Rishi Gokharu, Afrah Mutaher, Nupur Singh, Hannah Andrews, Ruchi Das, Andrew Hawcroft, Radhika Rao, Aastha Sodhani, and Divya Sundara Raja. Arts and Technologies in India: Reimagining the Future. British Council, 2024.
Ensslin, Astrid, Samya Brata Roy. “Electronic LiteratureS as Postcomparative Media.” CompLit: Journal of European Literature, Arts and Society, 2023, pp.145-171, Classiques Garnier.
Mukherjee, Souvik. “No Country for E-Lit?--India and Electronic Literature.” Hyperrhiz: New Media Cultures, vol.16, 2017.
PricewaterhouseCoopers. From Sunrise to Sunshine: The Contribution of Online Gaming to the Viksit Bharat Journey and India’s Cultural Power. PwC India, 2024.
Roy, Samya Brata. “e-Sahitya, or the Contested Emergence of the Electronic within the Literary in India.” The New Review of Hypermedia & Multimedia, vol. 27, no. 3, 2025.
Shanmugapriya T., Nirmala Menon. “First and Second Waves of Indian Electronic Literature.” Journal of Comparative Literature and Aesthetics, vol.42, 2020, https://jcla.in/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/JCLA-42.4_E-Lit_Nirmala-Menon.pdf.
Bio
Mehulkumar Desai is a research scholar at Indian Institute of Technology, Dhanbad. His research centers at the intersection of Electronic Literature and Interactive Digital Narratives in the Indian context. To foster creativity and establish scholarship in Interactive Digital Narratives in India, he has co-founded Indian Consortium for Interactive Digital Narratives (ICIDN) with Dr. Shanmugapriya. He has experience in peer-review processes, academic writing and the curation of interdisciplinary scholarship. He has previously served as a Guest Editor for a Special issue titled, “Digital Futures: Archives, AI, and Access in Indian Digital Humanities” in the journal IJHAC (forthcoming), and currently serves as an Editor-at-Large for the journal DHNow.