Polis Project Conversation Series

Francesca Recchia in conversation with Francesca Mannocchi. Francesca Mannocchi is a freelance journalist who covers migration and conflicts and contributes to numerous Italian and international newspapers (L'Espresso, Stern, Al Jazeera English, The Guardian, The Observer). She has produced reports in Syria, Iraq, Palestine, Libya, Lebanon, Afghanistan, Egypt and Turkey. She received the Premiolin...

On 12 December 2019, the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 - rightly referred to as India’s Nuremberg Law - was passed, leading to widespread protests across the country. Millions of Indian citizens are protesting against this fundamentally discriminatory law and many, including students, have been met with severe repression and criminalization at the hands of the Police, particularly in the state...

Since December 2019 millions of Indians have protested the contentious “Citizenship Amendment Act” (CAA)-- rightly called the Nuremberg laws of India.  Since the protest started there as been brutal police actions against those protesting especially students in Jamia Milia Islamia University in Delhi. An organic peoples protest is now blooming across India.  Along with protests come poetry and art...

The sustained assaults on universities and schools in Kashmir, the long-standing discrimination against Dalits and minorities at Indian universities, and the recent armed attacks on students and faculty at Jawaharlal Nehru University, Jamia Millia Islamia and Aligarh Muslim University in India all draw attention to the way in which questions of knowledge—its production and dissemination—are fundam...

Prof Nilsen discusses the attacks on students and faculty at JNU in relation to the ongoing conflict and its significance to the protests that have been ongoing across India since the middle of December, against the introduction of citizenship laws that are widely – and correctly – perceived to be both anti-Muslim and a threat to the secular fabric of the Indian Constitution. The talk was organize...

Yesterday, Twitter was awash with posts about events at the Indian Historical Congress in Kannur. The eminent historian Irfan Habib has disrupted proceedings as Kerala Governor Arif Mohammed Khan, as part of his speech to the delegates, quoted Maulana Azad in relation to the CAA/NRC controversy. Habib told the Governor that he had no right to quote Maulana Azad, and that he should quote Nathuram G...

"Our education system produces people that are either indifferent to caste oppression or oblivious to it" - Conversation with Pradyumna Jairam

Suchitra Vijayan speaks to author Hassan Ghedi Santur about his new book The Youth of God, representation and diversity and what it means to be a writer.

The Power To Gaze; Consent, Coercion and Consumption in Photograph by The Polis Project

For this episode, Suchitra Vijayan spoke to activist and theorist A.K.Thompson A.K. Thompson got kicked out of high school for publishing an underground newspaper called The Agitator and has been an activist and social theorist ever since. Currently a Professor of Social Movements and Social Change at Ithaca College, his publications include Sociology for Changing the World: Social Movements/Socia...

"Crisis of the Republics” is a meditation on the nature of borders, camps, and carceral citizenship in the aftermath of 9/11. The keynote returns to fundamental questions about citizenship, statelessness, and the future of nation-states. It links the many crises facing republics around the world and provocatively asks if we can dare dream of citizenship that exists as “collective freedom”, outside...

"Crisis of the Republics” is a meditation on the nature of borders, camps, and carceral citizenship in the aftermath of 9/11. The keynote returns to fundamental questions about citizenship, statelessness, and the future of nation-states. It links the many crises facing republics around the world and provocatively asks if we can dare dream of citizenship that exists as “collective freedom”, outside...

In this episode of In Your Face podcast series, Francesca Recchia sits down with artist and activist Alaa Satir to discuss the ongoing revolution in Sudan and the key role that art has played in it.

In this episode of the Polis Project’s Podcast series Suchitra Vijayan speaks to Nitharsan, the coordinator of Puradsi Media, who is part of the collective that edited and published “Structures of Tamil Eelam”, a book that documents how the de –facto Tamil State was built and run during the long years of fight against the Sri Lankan government. The book is a collection of texts and rare photograph...

“You speak to many upper class people and they will tell you, caste is not an issue in my house, we never talk about it. That’s the fundamental problem” – Francesca Recchia in conversation with T.M. Krishna TM Krishna, is a leading vocalist in Carnatic music. The extraordinary rendition of music paired with the originality of his interpretation of it, Krishna is one of the most distinctive voices...

"Hope comes from the knowledge, and the confidence that is enough of us who will continue to stand up, reach out and resist." - A conversation with Publisher Naveen Kishore.

Our second episode of War, No War—a Polis podcast series hosted by journalist Parvaiz Bukhari—features Indian civil rights activist and Supreme Court lawyer Prashant Bhushan. Bhushan is known for his public interest litigations and anti-corruption work. He is associated with various organisations including the Centre for Public Interest Litigation, People's Union for Civil Liberties, and India cha...

Suchitra Vijayan speaks to Alana Hunt, an award-winning artist and writer, For this episode Alana chose Queen Liliuokalani's Quilt Statues also Die by Chris Marker 1953 MSS Pandian's course The Politics of Nation Making Gija and Miriwoong people and places Kashmir, my first visit, and more after

In Your Face is a podcast series where each episode will feature a conversation with an author, artist, activist whose research focuses on under-represented or misrepresented conflicts. We investigate the roots of the struggles, examine research methods and bring out voices that are rarely heard.

Episode 2 | In Your Face featuring Lorenzo Tugnoli by The Polis Project

"Once the Balakot effect winds down, then economic issues resurface": In Conversation with Gilles Verniers In this podcast, Vasundhara Sirnate Drennan speaks to Prof. Gilles Verniers about the upcoming electoral contest in Uttar Pradesh, the Balakot effect and people’s response to vigilante violence and encounter killings.

“Silent unrest about violence and local issues is going to be translated in the voting patterns, but we don’t know to what extent”: In Conversation with Sarthak Bagchi In this conversation with Vasundhara Sirnate Drennan, Professor Sarthak Bagchi explains what is important to voters in Bihar as they make their decisions for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections and what is different about the electoral bat...

“Billionaires are being produced at the same time that people are actually dying from lack of food”: In conversation with Balmurli Natrajan As the world’s largest democracy goes to the polls with 900 million voters getting ready to decide the future of the Republic, The Polis Project is speaking to scholars, writers, artists and activists about some of the most critical issues affecting India toda...

Presenting War, No War—a brand new podcast series hosted by journalist Parvaiz Bukhari—starting with a conversation with human rights lawyer Kartik Murukutla Is Kashmir under military occupation? Why that’s not rhetoric and why it’s important to answer the question

Zillah Eisenstein is one of the foremost political theorists and activists of our time. Her groundbreaking book “The Female Body and the Law” has been re-issued. In this conversation, we return to questions that have occupied her remarkable scholarship –the intimate relationship between neoliberal imperial politics, white supremacy, misogyny, and racism. The Polis Project’s Suchitra Vijayan spoke...