This Is Her Game: Indian Video Games and Gender

What is it about?

This article’s wider aim is to contribute to academic discussions around mediatization and gender in general, and video games and gender in particular. More specifically, it wishes to move these themes ahead in the so-far understudied regional context of India. The study of video games and gaming as related to India is still an emerging field, and research on games and gender in India is largely amiss to date. In order to contribute to filling this gap, this article discusses portrayals of women and girls in two exemplary Indian video games, and briefly touches on the reactions these games triggered. The article opens with a brief introduction to Indian video games and their study, pointing out regional Indian characteristics. In the main part, this article uses game, online news media and interview data to discuss the games Missing: A Game for a Cause (2016), developed to create awareness for girl abduction and trafficking, and Raji: An Ancient Epic (2020), showcasing a strong female main character and her journey. The article ends with a concluding discussion.

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