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- Convenors:
-
Benjamin Hildred
(Durham University)
Upul Wickramasinghe (University of Edinburgh)
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- Format:
- Panel
- Transfers:
- Open for transfers
Short Abstract:
Following recent political movements across South Asia, this panel asks how anthropologists can understand the recent shift towards direct democracy in the region, and how they can potentially play an active role in these movements. This panel also queries what this says about politics globally.
Long Abstract:
In 2022, mass protests across Colombo developed into a widespread movement known as Aragalaya, which eventually removed Sri Lanka's president from office. Various movements including the July Revolution in Bangladesh; unrest in Pakistan following Imran Khan’s arrest; and the faltering support for Narendra Modi’s BJP in India, all echo an increasing dissatisfaction with representative politics in South Asia. This shift towards direct democracy and rising collective consciousness in the face of long-standing political regimes suggests a reconfiguration of the political landscape across the region. In this panel, we ask how anthropologists can understand this shifting landscape, and what this tells us about politics globally. More importantly, we ask what this means for the individuals who are most affected by political regimes. For example, upcoming elections in Sri Lanka and the transition of power in Bangladesh pose new questions for a disenchanted electorate, who have lost faith in their prior political allegiances. Anthropologists can play a key role in addressing these questions. Thus, we also invite papers that examine the way individuals (re-)interpret their own political identity, understand their own aspirations for voting, and/or interrogate individual decision-making. Political movements in South Asia reflect a great deal about global politics, particularly within the broader context of the rise of the far-right, and increasing political instability in Europe and the Americas, Hence, this panel ultimately poses two fundamental questions: How can we as anthropologists anticipate changing political futures? – and more crucially – what roles can we play in this political reconfiguration?
Accepted papers:
Paper short abstract:
Drawing on the theory of subject formation developed by Jacques Rancière, this paper advances the concept of declassing, understood as an embodied language of renunciation and selflessness associated with the acquisition of left activist capital in contemporary Indian student politics.
Paper long abstract:
This paper examines the public relevance of educated youths’ experiments with politics on Indian campuses, centering specifically on the Marxist-leaning Jawaharlal Nehru University. I survey how reinterpretations of politics circulate from one micro-cohort to the next. Drawing on the theory of subject formation developed by Jacques Rancière, I advance the concept of declassing, understood as an embodied language of renunciation and selflessness associated with the acquisition of left activist capital—which also entails the ability to quickly mobilize and coordinate during social movements. By becoming declassed, activists acknowledge deprived sections of the Indian population and convey political sincerity, thus creating a space for a radical critique of mainstream politics and society.
The presentation explores how left-leaning student politics achieve political representation in conducive educational territories, and how this modality is resisted by those who cannot afford to declass due to their “low” sociological extraction. This tension is useful to characterize the relevance of self-work for the legitimation of political representation in the Indian context. I place the declassing genre within a wider set of practices I term un-bodiments. Un-bodying can be characterized as the operationalization of acquired dispositions and inscribed capitals (-bodying) that revolve around advertised deviations from expected selves (-un), which can be bound to assigned identities, partisan affiliations or ascriptive social makers. I argue that "departures from oneself" are useful to understand the success of contemporary populists in South Asia, which is tied to their departure from tinted political identities associated with corrupt, dynastic and anti-people party politics.
Paper short abstract:
By hacking big data from the bottom up, this paper examines how Sri Lanka social media activists interpret data visualizations of their interactivity on Twitter around the use of specific hashtags linked to the 2022 Aragalaya protests
Paper long abstract:
What is the relationship between big data & democracy, and how does the opaque phenomenon of Twitter data reflect the volatility of Sri Lankan politics? Following Hannah Knox’s call to conceptualize data as a thing to be “hacked” (Knox, 2021), this paper proposes a decolonial intervention by examining how highly active Sri Lankan social media users interpret data visualizations of their interactivity on Twitter around the use of specific hashtags linked to the 2022 Aragalaya protests (Aragalaya meaning “the struggle” in local language, Sinhala).
Transforming representation from a mode of description into a site of action, these visualizations, derived from data extracted via the Twitter API, reveal a digital landscape heavily influenced by bots and other nefarious agents, raising questions about the viability of Twitter as a platform for digital democracy. While big data carries an epistemological “aura of truth, objectivity, and accuracy” (boyd & Crawford, 2012), the Sri Lankan social media users’ engagement demonstrates the prevalence of alternative “data realities” (Knox, 2021). For some, the visualizations reveal truth and evidence about what really happened; for others, they signify machinations of surveillance and violence.
Paper short abstract:
In this paper, I discuss the impact of the transformation of JVP into National People’s Power (NPP) on latter's electoral success in the aftermath of 2022 Aragalaya in Sri Lanka and argue it is an example for the rising left populism in South Asia.
Paper long abstract:
2022 Aragalaya (popular uprising) is the most intense expression of popular frustration with the failure of representative democracy in Sri Lanka, which forced then President to step down. Aragalaya compounded of people’s frustrations and anger towards the corrupted political establishment paving the way for an alternative political force to capture the state power. This was culminated in 2024 presidential and parliament election victories of the National People’s Power (NPP) – a coalition of left-leaning political parties and civil society organizations led by the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), with a significant rise in popular support for the NPP from around 3% votes (3 seats in the parliament) in 2020 to around 61% votes (159 seats) in 2024.
Based on secondary data and literature, in this paper, I discuss the impact of the transformation of JVP into NPP vis-a-vis capture of state power. I argue that the metamorphosis of the JVP as a centralized Marxist-Leninist party into a more populist, center-left political movement in the form of NPP was a crucial factor, among many, in the electoral victories of NPP. In doing so, I suggest NPP’s electoral victory as a successful example of the “left populism” (Mouffe 2018) in South Asia.
Paper short abstract:
This paper engages with young Bengali Muslims and explores the possibilities of reforming Bangladesh, including the constitutional status of indigenous minorities and the demilitarisation of borderlands.
Paper long abstract:
Amidst the heterogeneity and complex realities, the formation of the Bangladesh nation-state in 1971 marked its declaration as the exclusive territory of Bengali Muslims, disregarding the presence of highlanders in the borderlands. Most importantly, the “tribalist mindset” (van Schendel 1992:103), played a significant role in categorising and governing the populace. As a result, the highlanders faced extreme forms of exclusion and violence that severely threatened their lives and livelihoods. Although the highlanders engaged in various forms of resistance—including a 20-year-long armed struggle for indigenous autonomy—the political situation remains far from favorable.
In this paper, I aim to engage with young Bengali Muslims, who recently ousted a 15-year-long one-party democratic regime, and explore the possibilities of reforming Bangladesh. This includes addressing the constitutional status of cultural and political identities beyond Bengali Muslims and advocating for the demilitarisation of borderlands. While actively observing these political upheavals as a "native anthropologist" living in Bangladesh, I find myself without a definitive theoretical framework but feel these young people embody both fear and bravery as they contemplate radically transforming identity politics and democratising their world.
Paper short abstract:
To ethnographically explore the aesthetic manifestations through which various forms of irreconciliation (briefly meaning non-forgiveness) is expressed in the context of the liberation war of 1971 and fall of the authoritarian rule of a ‘left-liberal’ government in Bangladesh in August 2024.
Paper long abstract:
Irreconciliation (Mookherjee 2022) focuses on the less examined but frequent ethnographic instances when survivors refuse to forgive in response to persistent impunity of past injustices, particularly, in the face of absence-presence of the rule of law and staged processes of justice which serve the powerful. In this paper I want to think through the various forms of irreconciliation that has manifested/are manifesting in Bangladesh following the brutal killing (officially 1500 killed, 19,931 injured) of predominantly student protestors by the ‘left-liberal’ authoritarian (Lacy and Mookherjee 2020) Bangladeshi state in July-August 2024 leading to the fall of the government on 5th August 2024.
Most post-conflict reconciliatory exercises make it incumbent upon survivors to forgive, and seek closure as an exhibition of ‘moving on’. Exploring various aesthetic manifestations linked to the war of 1971, I have argued that Bangladesh is a test case of irreconciliation (2019, 2022), of not moving on, in the context of its liberation war of 1971. What are the various instances of not forgiving, remaining irreconciled to the unresolved injustices of 1971 and the July 'revolution' of 2024? What forms does this position of not reconciling manifest in, apart from refusing to forgive? What are the limits of irreconciliation and how does it impact on the future configurations of Bangladesh? My attempt is to show how aesthetics captures the links between irreconciliation and political consciousness and how this debate is constituted through the engagement with the arts, in Bangladesh and beyond.
Paper short abstract:
This paper demonstrates how caste-based mobilization challenges building political consciousness and democratic reconfiguration in India through a case study transforming the political economy and caste consciousness of middle castes in Maharashtra, India.
Paper long abstract:
The middle castes in India have historically faced accusations of colluding with Hindutva forces and passively submitting to the Brahmins' religious dominance, despite not gaining equivalent benefits and remaining in subordinate positions. Contrary to the notion of passive acceptance, this study contends that Brahminical religious dominance has consistently faced challenges from middle castes, who have strategically tailored their responses to align with their own needs and interests. This research examines Pattankodoli village in Maharashtra, India, highlighting how middle castes have sought alternative religious and economic institutions to contest Brahminical (upper caste) hegemony. Their adaptability to changing circumstances is notable. In a post-colonial, post-liberalization context, these groups pursue identity-based politics for recognition and redistribution, reflecting Nancy Fraser's notion of ‘Neoliberal Progressivism.’
This paper analyzes the influences and conflicts among middle, lower, and upper castes in Maharashtra, examining their evolving caste consciousness within the changing political economy, especially focusing on contestation and adaptability. Furthermore, the paper investigates the intricate complexities of Hindu nationalism in light of the background provided. In this context, this paper seeks to analyze why, despite a growing dissatisfaction with representative politics in India and waning support for Modi’s BJP, the consciousness of the middle caste remains focused on caste identity and why this focus has not led to a broader transformation in political Consciousness. This paper seeks to demonstrate that caste-based mobilization poses significant challenges to the broader processes of democratic reconfiguration in India.