From Visible Walls to Invisible Data: Surveillance and Spatial-Informational Segregation in Prayaag Akbar's Leila and Samit Basu's Chosen Spirits

Author(s)	Ms. Arisha Habib
Country	India
Abstract	This paper compares Prayaag Akbar's Leila (2017) and Samit Basu's Chosen Spirits (2020) to argue that Indian speculative fiction tracks a historical shift in the logic of surveillance and social sorting, from a visible, architectural regime of exclusion built on walls, gates, and identity checks, to an invisible, informational one built on drones, biometric wristbands, livestream algorithms, and failed social-credit systems. Reading the two novels through Michel Foucault's theory of disciplinary power, Gilles Deleuze's societies of control, David Lyon's concept of social sorting, and Shoshana Zuboff's surveillance capitalism, the paper argues that Basu's data-driven Delhi does not simply replace Akbar's walled city but absorbs it, reinforcing rather than dissolving the older architecture of exclusion. Both novels root their surveillance regimes in the same underlying ideology of purity and caste, suggesting that new surveillance technology in Indian speculative fiction gives old forms of exclusion a faster and less visible delivery mechanism.
Keywords	Surveillance, Spatial Segregation, Social Sorting, Surveillance Capitalism, Indian Speculative Fiction
Field	Sociology > Linguistic / Literature
Published In	Volume 8, Issue 4, July-August 2026
Published On	2026-08-14

About IJFMR Fees & Payment Current Issue Publication Archive	Submit Research Paper Track Submission Status Publication Guidelines Publication Ethics Peer Review & Plagiarism	Join as a Reviewer Editors & Reviewers Reviewer Referral Program Get Reviewer Membership Certi.	Website/Journal Policies Usage Policy Content Policies Privacy Policy

Contact Us		+91-9687-828-838	editor@ijfmr.com

International Journal For Multidisciplinary Research