Abstract
India’s digital transformation has expanded opportunities for public expression, yet increased connectivity does not necessarily produce equal communicative participation. This article examines how vernacular language practices, platform visibility mechanisms, and historically embedded social inequalities interact to shape participation in India’s digital public sphere. Drawing on a critical integrative review of scholarship on digital publics, platform governance, multilingual communication, political messaging, and digital inequality, the article develops a framework that distinguishes connectivity, expressive capacity, visibility, credibility, and consequential participation. The analysis argues that digital inclusion is multidimensional: individuals may gain access to communication technologies while remaining disadvantaged in the ability to produce platform-compatible content, attract attention, establish credibility, or influence collective decisions. Vernacular communication can challenge linguistic hierarchies and strengthen local identities, but its democratic potential depends on platform design, unequal digital capabilities, and the social relationships through which messages circulate. Private messaging networks further complicate conventional accounts of the public sphere by combining interpersonal trust with limited public accountability. The article proposes the concept of communicative voice inequality to explain how expanded opportunities for expression can coexist with persistent inequalities in public influence. It concludes that equitable digital communication requires more than infrastructure and content moderation: it also demands multilingual design, transparent visibility governance, contextual media literacy, and stronger institutional accountability. The framework provides a basis for comparative research on digital participation in multilingual societies.
