Show and tell: soldiering and social media for the Indian Border Security Force

In an age of digital image-making and storytelling, state security institutions have turned to social media as platforms through which to communicate with citizenry and shape public perceptions, often bypassing traditional print news media. How can we understand digital militarism as both a site and a form of work in contemporary security regimes? This article examines how India's Border Security Force (BSF) deploys social media as a central tool of self-representation and institutional labour. Drawing on an original dataset of BSF tweets (2015–2022) and digital ethnographic research, the paper analyses the performative dimensions of online image-making to interrogate the intersection of soldiering, publicity, and digital militarism in postcolonial India. While security institutions are typically associated with secrecy, the BSF's social media presence foregrounds the imperative to show and tell – producing a visual archive, structured by gendered hierarchies, anxieties, and ambitions. Quantitative coding and qualitative discourse analysis reveal recurring themes of humanitarian service, populist soldiering oriented towards citizen engagement, and the construction of a heroic everyday through routine border work. The paper argues that social media functions not merely as a communication platform but as a site of labour and value production. By theorizing 'populist soldiering', the article situates BSF digital practices within global debates on digital militarism and humanitarianism, while grounding them in India's historical and political economic specificities.