Indian Politics Today: The Citizenship Act and COVID-19 Lockdown

The Social Movements Lab will hold two dialogues via Zoom on the current situation in India. Originally, the dialogues were conceived to address the Citizenship (Amendment) Act passed by the Indian government in December 2019, which sparked violent protests throughout the country.  The Act provides a pathway to citizenship for those belonging to many religions but not for Muslims.  In the meantime, India has been locked down to address the threat of the COVID-19 pandemic.  Our dialogues will thus treat both of these urgent issues.

We will have one dialogue (Tuesday, April 7th) with journalist Bharat Bhushan to discuss the situation in Delhi, and another (Tuesday, April 14th) with the political scientist Ranabir Samaddar from Kolkata. Both will take place from 9:30am to 10:30am EST.

In preparation for these dialogues, we will have a mapping session on Monday the 6th at 12pm to 1pm.  This discussion will be led by Jessica Namakkal. For this session, we suggest reading: 1. Ranabir Samaddar’s essay “An Insurgent Constitutionalism is Driving Popular Politics in India Today” (https://thewire.in/politics/an-insurgent-constitutionalism-is-driving-popular-politics-in-india-today) 2. a co-authored essay by Swati Chawla, Jessica Namakkal, Kalyani Ramnath, Lydia Walker, “Who Is a Citizen in Contemporary India?” (https://epicenter.wcfia.harvard.edu/blog/who-citizen-contemporary-india), which contextualizes India’s citizenship amendments within the history of imperial rule, mobility, and itinerancy in South Asia. How to Join the meetings: Join Zoom Meeting via computer: https://zoom.us/j/8138511398 Or by phone: +1 301 715 8592 US Meeting ID: 813 851 1398 Find your local number: https://zoom.us/u/abMsIzZCxk