By Inderjit Badhwar
The great political struggles of history have often revolved around control—of land, trade routes, natural resources, and strategic infrastructure. The twenty-first century presents a new variation of that old contest. The battleground is digital. The resource is data. And the stakes may be no less consequential than those that shaped the colonial era.
For decades, technology was viewed largely through the lens of innovation and economic opportunity. The internet promised openness. Digital platforms promised connectivity. Artificial intelligence promised efficiency and progress. Yet, as the digital economy has matured, a more complex reality has emerged. A handful of corporations and countries now exercise unprecedented influence over the infrastructure, platforms, algorithms and data that increasingly shape modern life.
This concentration of power has given rise to a critical debate: whether the digital order is reproducing forms of dependence that echo older colonial structures. The term “digital colonialism” may be contested, but the questions it raises are difficult to ignore. Who owns the data generated by billions of users? Who determines the rules that govern digital spaces? Who benefits from the economic value created by the information economy? And who ultimately shapes the technologies that influence public discourse, commerce and governance?
For India, these questions carry particular significance. As one of the world’s largest digital societies and one of its fastest-growing technology markets, India stands at the centre of the global debate over digital sovereignty. The challenge is not to retreat from globalisation or technological collaboration. It is to ensure that participation in the digital economy does not come at the cost of strategic autonomy, democratic accountability or citizens’ rights.
This week’s cover story examines how nations are responding to these challenges and explores the emerging movement for digital decolonisation. It is a debate that extends beyond technology policy. At its heart lies a larger question about self-determination in the digital age: whether countries will remain consumers of systems designed elsewhere or become active architects of their own technological futures.
The answer may shape not only the future of governance and economic development, but the very distribution of power in the century ahead.
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