In conversation with Alessandra Consolaro (University of Turin)

Movements of self-assertion by marginalised communities, through art, film, music or performance, often address the ‘tropes of unsayability’ (Gilroy 1993) produced in the context of exploitation by transforming relations of visibility / invisibility, sayability /… Read More »That which cannot be spoken

Worldwide, India under the rule of Narendra Modi, the BJP, and their Hindutva project since 2014 is seen as a classic case of ‘democratic backsliding’, authoritarianism and electoral autocracy, with repression of dissenters, Muslims and… Read More »“Too much democracy”: Popular Sovereignty in Contemporary India

As the Indian government has embarked on a policy of majoritarian Hindu nationalism over the past decade, verbal assaults against religious minorities, and Muslims specifically, have risen steeply. So-called hate speeches against Muslims have ranged… Read More »Phantom Law: Hate Speech, Digital Frontiers, and the Re-interpretation of Criminal Law in Nationalist India

In 2018 Prime Minister Narendra Modi realized his pet project to build the world’s tallest statue: the Statue of Unity, a 597 ft. figure of Sardar Patel overlooking the Sardar Sarovar mega-dam in the Narmada… Read More »Before and After the Deluge: The Production of Nature at Ekta Nagar

This talk examines the varied hermeneutical approaches to gender(ed) resistances in contemporary times — varied subversions and alike that builds on strong means of gender resilience and a culture of disenfranchised/subaltern, that escapes the potent… Read More »(Dis)enchantment of Women and Gender in South Asia: Hermeneutical Engagement to the Poetics of Protests

Using a material culture approach, and building upon a beautiful work created by Mumbai-based artist Atul Dodiya in 2011, I reflect on the overwhelming penchant for the creation of statues of Gandhi, the most among… Read More »“So Many Busts”: The Dilemmas of Being Turned into Statue