Send message to Author

Paper short abstract

This paper analyses the experiences of survivor families of political violence and traces the emergent methods undertaken by Muslim-led civil society groups. It analyzes how these actors reconfigure justice beyond legal frameworks through everyday practices and community-based interventions.

Paper long abstract

In this paper, I situate narratives from survivor families of political violence in India, who have varied experiences and articulations of justice, which are not strictly conceptions of ‘legal justice.’ In the last decade, violence against Muslims in India has taken different forms - lynchings, demolitions, physical assaults, and pogroms. Some have been carried out by state actors, and others by vigilante groups (non-state actors). Through the gradual Hindu right-wing consolidation within institutions of the country, pursuing a legal battle against perpetrators of violence has not just turned difficult, but also an act that brings repercussions and retaliatory measures on a day-to-day basis for the families. It is within this context that the paper draws from my ethnographic work, done over a period of six months in Uttar Pradesh (the state with the largest number of hate crimes against Muslims) and New Delhi, India. The analysis traces emergent, Muslim-led civil society initiatives and kin-based practices of care, documentation, archival methods, counter-strategies, articulations of religiosity, and advocacy as crucial arenas in which alternative, community-situated projects of justice are articulated and enacted.