Join us to launch and discuss Alpa Shah’s new book, The Incarcerations: BK-16 and the search for democracy in India. As general elections fast approach in the world’s largest democracy, this event asks what democracy today must urgently ensure for our common future.
In her latest book, Alpa Shah pulls back the curtain on Indian democracy to tell the remarkable and chilling story of the Bhima Koregaon case, in which 16 human rights defenders (the BK-16) – professors, lawyers, artists – have been imprisoned, without credible evidence and without trial, as Maoist terrorists. The BK-16 were accused of inciting violence and plotting to kill the Indian prime minister. But Professor Shah finds a shocking case of cyber warfare - hacked emails, mobile phones and implantation of electronic evidence used to make the arrests. Diving deep into the lives of the BK-16, The Incarcerations shows how the case is a bellwether for the collapse of democracy and why these events matter to all of us.
This event is co-hosted by the Atlantic Fellows for Social and Economic Equity, LSE International Inequalities Institute, LSE Department of Anthropology, and LSE Human Rights.
Speaker
Professor Alpa Shah
Alpa Shah is Professor in Anthropology at LSE. She also leads a research programme at the LSE International Inequalities Institute on ‘Global Economies of Care’. Professor Shah's "Nightmarch: Among India’s Revolutionary Guerrillas” was winner of the 2020 Association of Political and Legal Anthropology Book Prize, shortlisted for the 2019 Orwell Prize for Political Writing and the New India Foundation Book Prize.
Discussant
Priyanka Kotamraju
Priyanka Kotamraju is an Atlantic Fellow for Social and Economic Equity and an independent journalist from India, with nearly a decade of experience in the media industry focused on issues of social justice, gender, and inequality. She is currently a PhD Candidate in Sociology and a Gates Scholar at the University of Cambridge.
Discussant
Professor Christophe Jaffrelot
Christophe Jaffrelot is Avantha Chair and Professor of Indian Politics and Sociology at the King's India Institute and also the Research Lead for the Global Institutes, King’s College London. He teaches South Asian politics and history at Sciences Po, Paris and is an Overseas Fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
Discussant
Professor Tarun Khaitan
Tarun Khaitan is the Professor (Chair) of Public Law at the LSE Law School and an Honorary Professorial Fellow at Melbourne Law School. Previously, he was the Professor of Public Law & Legal Theory at Oxford and the Head of Research at the Bonavero Institute of Human Rights, Oxford.
Chair
Professor Deborah James
Deborah James is Professor in the Department of Anthropology at LSE and a Faculty Associate at the International Inequalities Institute. She is a specialist in the anthropology of South and Southern Africa.
Banner Image: Photo by Ravigopal Kesari on Unsplash