Making Worlds Screening and Discussion: Political Repression in India: On the Delhi 18 and Democratic Resistance
Join us on Friday, October 28th at 5pm to learn about political repression in India, and express support with anti-CAA protestors battling terrorism charges under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) and detention without trial as part of global solidarity with defendesr of the Indian Constitution.
This screening and discussion on the Delhi 18 will bring light to the circumstances of their arrest two years ago and explore the conditions facing the wider field of democratic resistance to anti-Muslim, casteist, patriarchal, and Hindutva political formations in the country.
The documentary film “Delhi Riots Case : The Unknown Faces Behind Bars Under UAPA” by The Quint, will be screened. The film poignantly and powerfully profiles some of the protestors to share both personal and other challenges their family members face.
The event marks two years of unjust incarceration of eighteen students and activists in India who were charged with terrorism for protesting against changes to the citizenship law that threatened to disenfranchise Indian Muslims. Twelve of them, all Muslim, are still in prison.
Powerful protests against the Constitutional Amendment Act 2019 (CAA), led by Muslim women erupted across India has been met with an outpouring of support including from the world over. By using the draconian anti-terrorism law, the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA), which allows suspects to be incarcerated for long periods without trial, the Indian State sought to crush the protests.
The eighteen students and activists were charged with conspiracy to start riots in Delhi, in time for the visit of then-US President Donald Trump. We have clear evidence of inflammatory speeches by senior elected representatives of the ruling party in India, the BJP, against the anti-CAA protestors, including on the very day of the violence, which left 53 dead, of which forty were Muslim.
The film screening and discussion is part of a series of global solidarity events being organized by diaspora groups across South Africa, Japan, USA, Canada, UK, Europe, Australia and New Zealand to reiterate our strong support for these eighteen students and activists.
With Ania Loomba, literary scholar and professor of English and Suchitra Vijayan, author of Midnight's Borders: A People's History of Modern India and founding director of the Polis Project.
Cosponsored by DSA, Philly Socialists, and India Civil Watch International
Resources
A Congressional briefing on the subject was organized recently by Indian American Muslim Council as part of coalitional effort to suppor the Delhi 18.
