Population Meets Database: Aligning Personal, Documentary and Digital Identity in Aadhaar-Enabled India

Abstract This article traces the processes of making identities in digital India. By zooming into the two processes of enrolling in and using Aadhaar, it questions the distinction between identification and identity that pervades discussions of new technologies and shows that all Aadhaar-related procedures are productive of identity as a socially mediated process of creating or denying the condition for belonging. Following the introduction of Aadhaar, becoming a rights-bearing individual, for the most part, involves stitching together three types of identities: (1) a digital signature with (2) documentary proof of identity, both of which are based on (3) personal recognition. Aadhaar, then, does not change the ground on which official identity routines are built, but it alters the technical terrain people must navigate to become rights-bearing citizens. It adds a new layer of procedures on top of older techniques of recognition by insisting that persons must always be seen as unique individuals alongside being recognised as people holding a specific status.