This Is Her Game: Indian Video Games and Gender

Abstract

This article aims to contribute to academic discussions about mediatization and gender in general and video games and gender in particular. More specifically, it advances these themes in the regional context of India, which is understudied to date. 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. This article discusses portrayals of women and girls in two exemplary Indian video games, and it briefly touches on the public reactions to these games. The article briefly introduces Indian video games and their study and discusses the exemplary games Missing: A Game for a Cause (2016), developed to create awareness about the abduction and trafficking of girls, and Raji: An Ancient Epic (2020), which showcases a strong female main character and her journey.