Undignified People and Their Society in the Age of Digital Technology and AI

Rahul Ramya

11th September 2025

Preface: My Dedication

I write this essay as an act of self-assertion. I dedicate it to Shoshana Zuboff, who exposed the hidden empire of surveillance capitalism; Madhumita Murgia, who gave voice to those excluded by digital systems; Amartya Sen, who taught us that freedom lies in our real capabilities, not just in formal rights; John Rawls, who argued that fairness is the true measure of justice; Karl Marx, who unmasked the anatomy of power and exploitation; and Hannah Arendt, who reminded us that politics lives in human dignity and collective action. Their works are my compass. To them, and to the countless unnamed voices in slums, villages, and cities who resist humiliation, I owe this conviction: knowledge is not submission but resistance, and democracy cannot survive if people are left debased, entranced, and undignified in the age of digital technology and AI.

Democracy in the Digital Age: Aspirations and Realities

Democracy has always been measured by the space between aspiration and reality. People aspire to dignity, fairness, and opportunity; governments promise to bridge these hopes into lived conditions. But today, digital technology and AI—hailed as modernization’s shining tools—are widening, not narrowing, this gap.

India’s Digital India campaign promised every villager connectivity, every farmer data, and every poor family swift welfare. But in practice, biometric machines fail, ration cards stop working, internet shutdowns silence regions, and private contractors profit while citizens beg. This is not empowerment—it is dispossession disguised as efficiency.

In the United States, democracy itself has been reshaped by AI-driven platforms. Facebook’s algorithms tilt elections; Amazon’s systems determine labor rights; Google governs not just search but knowledge itself. Democracy becomes a commodity auctioned to bidders. In the UK, automated welfare flagged thousands of families as fraudulent, cutting them off from food and housing. In France, AI-driven video surveillance during protests turned streets of liberty into streets of suspicion.

The story is similar in Bangladesh and Nepal. In Bangladesh, digital IDs excluded entire communities. In Nepal in 2025, the government banned 26 social media platforms for failing to register under new laws. What followed was not compliance but revolt: thousands of young people took to the streets, shouting “Stop corruption, not social media.” Police clashed with crowds; at least 19 people died. The ban was reversed, but the message was clear: when digital power denies aspiration, democracy cracks.

The true test of democracy today is this: are aspirations being honored, or are citizens being entrapped in systems they cannot navigate?

Philosophy Made Everyday

Philosophy is not abstract here. It breathes in broken ration lines, in surveillance cameras, in app-based gig work, and in silent exclusions.

• Rawls and fairness: If a welfare app only works for the educated, the poor are excluded. Justice, Rawls argued, must serve the least advantaged first. Digital exclusion is therefore not just inefficiency—it is injustice.

• Sen and capabilities: A farmer in Bihar may “have access” to a kiosk. But if it fails during sowing season, if he cannot use it in his language, if bribes are demanded, his real freedom is zero. Sen insists development means real choices, not hollow slogans.

• Zuboff and surveillance: Using Google Maps or Facebook seems harmless. But every click is monitored, sold, and used to predict behavior. Surveillance capitalism robs not money but independence—the quiet theft of autonomy.

• Arendt and power: When Sri Lankans protested digital taxes or French workers resisted algorithmic policing, they showed that real power lies in collective action. Digital systems that atomize us into data points destroy the essence of politics: appearing together.

• Marx and exploitation: Gig workers in New York or Delhi learn this daily. Their labor is controlled by invisible algorithms. No boss is seen, but exploitation is total—what Marx would call a new mode of capitalist domination.

• Eastern traditions: Indian dharma warns that governance without dialogue is adharma. Buddhism urges balance between efficiency and compassion. Greek philosophy cautioned that technē without ethos dehumanizes. All converge: technology without accountability becomes tyranny.

Governments, Contracts, and the Drift to Authoritarianism

Digitization was sold as the cure for corruption. Instead, it has mutated corruption. Officials award lucrative contracts to private tech firms, outsource responsibility, and reap silent rewards. The language is modernization; the reality is rent-seeking.

In Bihar, legal land records (jamabandi) held by farmers disappeared after digitization. Citizens with lawful claims were told to “prove” themselves again. Contractors profited, middlemen flourished, and government agencies took no blame. What was sold as efficiency became a machine of humiliation.

In Kenya, thousands were denied services due to digital ID mismatches. In Mexico, welfare transfers went digital but left no human officials to contest errors. In Bangladesh, digital IDs became tools of exclusion. In Nepal, the 2025 protests revealed that governments can wield digital power as censorship. In the USA and France, digital surveillance blurred lines between democracy and control.

This pattern is universal: digitization becomes the stage on which democracy drifts toward authoritarianism.

Inequality, Division, and the Fracturing of Trust

Digitization and AI are not neutral. They exacerbate every pre-existing fault line in society—class, caste, color, sex, and region—turning them into sharper divides.

• Class: The educated elite master apps and platforms; the poor stumble through failed biometric systems. The result: wealthier citizens gain speed and access, while the marginalized wait in lines that lead nowhere.

• Caste: In India, upper-caste groups use digital literacy and networks to consolidate opportunities, while Dalits and Adivasis face algorithmic invisibility in hiring, welfare, and representation.

• Color and race: In the US and Europe, facial recognition misidentifies Black citizens at higher rates, leading to wrongful arrests and discrimination.

• Sex: AI recruiting tools have repeatedly downgraded women’s resumes, reinforcing patriarchal biases under the guise of objectivity.

• Region: Urban centers thrive on connectivity, while rural areas remain digitally starved. This asymmetry fractures national unity and deepens resentment.

At each level, trust in democracy fractures. People begin to see not a shared society, but many societies within one: an elite society of those empowered by technology, and a dispossessed society of those dehumanized by it. This fragmentation becomes fertile ground for authoritarianism, as leaders exploit divisions, promise order, and centralize power in the name of efficiency.

The Global Cost of Technology and the Divide Between North and South

Behind these divides lies another force: the sheer cost of digital technology and AI. Advanced tools, from machine learning infrastructure to biomedical AI platforms, remain concentrated in the Global North because their development and deployment demand billions in investment. Universities in the US and Western Europe build cutting-edge AI labs, while many in the Global South struggle with outdated computers and poor connectivity.

This cost barrier deepens inequality at three levels:

• Access: Citizens in the South often cannot afford the devices, data, or electricity required to participate in the digital world on equal terms.

• Scientific development: Researchers in India, Africa, or Latin America rarely access the same computational power or funding as counterparts in Silicon Valley or London. This widens the innovation gap.

• Intellectual understanding: Even educated citizens find AI systems opaque because they are designed in distant labs with little concern for cultural or linguistic accessibility. If tools were cheaper, open, and easier to understand, educated populations across the South could have engaged, adapted, and innovated. Instead, they remain users of black boxes, not creators of knowledge.

Thus, high cost entrenches dependency: the Global South becomes a consumer of technology built in the North, not a partner in shaping it. This dependency hollows democratic sovereignty itself.

People’s Stories

• Bihar, India: Ramesh, a farmer, held a lawful jamabandi. When land records went digital, his plot vanished. To reclaim what was already his, he had to bribe clerks for months. Modernization felt like robbery.

• Kenya: Citizens without digital IDs were barred from banks, hospitals, and even voting. Their lives froze because a number was missing.

• Chile: A rise in metro fares under “smart” ticketing reforms sparked a mass uprising in 2019. Technology’s promise of fairness revealed its cruelty instead.

• Sri Lanka: In 2022, digital taxes amid crisis ignited the Aragalaya movement. Citizens stormed the streets not only against poverty but against a system that mocked their dignity.

• France: Protesters discovered AI cameras watching them in 2018–19. Liberty’s homeland became a monitored square.

• United States: A gig worker woke to find his Uber account deactivated by an algorithm. No explanation, no appeal. His livelihood vanished overnight.

• Nepal: In 2025, a sweeping social media ban silenced millions. Within days, streets erupted, and at least 19 were killed. The protestors demanded dignity, not just data.

These are not stories of technology—they are stories of bread, dignity, and survival.

Protest as Democracy’s Last Refuge

Wherever digital systems deny aspirations, protests erupt. Chile’s uprising in 2019, Sri Lanka’s Aragalaya in 2022, France’s Yellow Vests in 2018–19, India’s anti-CAA protests in 2019–20, Black Lives Matter in the USA in 2020, and Nepal’s 2025 protests—all are cries against the humiliation of digital and political systems.

They prove that democracy does not die silently. When aspirations are crushed, people resist. Protest becomes the final language of dignity.

The Global Contrast

In developing countries, digital failures mean starvation, exclusion, or dispossession. In the Global North, they mean biased policing, election manipulation, welfare cuts, and surveillance. But the common thread is this: digital systems, without democratic accountability, widen inequality and hollow human dignity.

The irony is sharp. Nations like the USA and France, once symbols of revolution and freedom, now normalize surveillance. Developing nations like India and Kenya, promised leapfrogging progress, are used as laboratories of untested digital experiments.

Conclusion: The Hollowing of Democracy

Democracy is not measured by apps or portals. It is measured by whether aspirations find reality. In the digital age, the gulf is growing. Citizens are left dehumanized, debased, undignified—entranced by promises but excluded from justice.

Rawls teaches fairness, Sen capabilities, Zuboff resistance, Marx critique, Arendt dignity, and ancient traditions compassion. Together, they insist: technology must serve people, not rule them.

The test of our age is clear. Will digital technology and AI become tools of empowerment or weapons of humiliation? The answer will not come from algorithms or corporations but from people—asserting their dignity, resisting inevitablism, and demanding that democracy mean more than promises.

The future is not fixed. It is fought for. And in that fight, the undignified will rise—not as data points, but as citizens.