The construction of national security against a propped-up other has been instrumentalised by the colonial and postcolonial Indian state’s enactment of certain laws and deployment of a range of punitive tactics against those it deems unruly and characterises as “criminal”, tortures, “disappears”, “encounters” as well as against entire communities who are further considered suspect, surveilled, and harassed. In this third and final panel of the webinar series, panellists Jenny Rowena, Mirza Saaib Bég, Abdul Wahid Sheikh put forth the current pressing issues of carcerality and security state including, arrests of academics, never-ending arrests, detentions, and killings in Kashmir in the name of national security, and illegal arrests and criminalisation of Muslim community.

About the Speakers

Jenny Rowena is a teacher at a college at Delhi University and the partner of Prof. Hany Babu, who has been unjustly imprisoned in the Bhima Koregaon case.

Mirza Saaib Bég is a Kashmiri lawyer, Kofi Annan and Weidenfeld-Hoffman scholar. He recently completed his postgraduate degree in Public Policy at the Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford. He regularly contributes through seminars, writing and organisation aimed at dialogue on legal and political issues of Kashmir.

Abdul Wahid Sheikh is a school teacher, lawyer, activist, and author of Begunah Qaidi (Innocent Prisoner), which recounts his experiences of his wrongful incarceration for nearly a decade and of others similarly implicated in terror cases. He works with the Innocence Network to support individuals seeking to prove their innocence in cases of wrongful conviction.

Track: Indigo — Nelvian [Audio Library Release]

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Watch: youtu.be/XCLmFyCPeqk

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This webinar will seek to engage with the feminist movement in India and its reliance on and opposition to the carceral State in its attempt to frame a critique of carceral politics from a feminist lens.  It will explore the relationship that the feminist movement in India has forged with the criminal justice system and the debates that have emerged  in the interrogation of this relationship owing to the resultant costs on women and gender-diverse persons who continue to face the disparate impact of such carceral practices.

About the Speakers:

Vqueeram is an independent researcher. They live and love in Delhi.

Ratna is a lawyer and legal researcher currently living and working in Delhi.

Safoora is currently pursuing MPhil-PhD in sociology from Jamia Millia Islamia. She is best known for her role in the anti-CAA protests and subsequent arrest under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1957.

Track: Indigo — Nelvian [Audio Library Release]
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Watch: youtu.be/XCLmFyCPeqk
Free Download / Stream: alplus.io/indigo

The carceral state encompasses incarceration as well as ‘a wide range of policies, practices, and institutions that scrutinize individuals and communities - both before and after their contact with the criminal justice system.’ This needs to be examined in the context of Indian caste society, that is, the role of caste in the creation of certain forms of criminality, and the ways in which institutions of policing work to maintain and promote the caste system. Through this panel, the conversations will seek to address how the establishment and evolution of the criminal justice system in India institutionalized caste prejudices, and in particular, how this has impacted Vimukta and Trans communities.

About the Speakers:

Sai Bourothu is a Bahujan transwoman and criminology researcher who works on accountable policing and incarceration systems in commonwealth countries. As the network coordinator, she is presently associated with the Queer Incarceration Project, a collective of trans* and Queer persons in conflict with law.

M. Subba Rao is the Convener of the DNT Political Front (DPF) that works across Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, facilitating DNT movements. He has three decades of experience as a grassroots organiser involved in participatory research methods and documentation in the development sector.

Shweta Goswami is a PhD candidate with the Philosophy Department at JNU. She founded Nirmal Initiative- A registered organisation working since 2015 on addressing caste and sexual violence against children.

Track: Indigo — Nelvian [Audio Library Release]
Music provided by Audio Library Plus
Watch: youtu.be/XCLmFyCPeqk
Free Download / Stream: alplus.io/indigo