Paper
Visibilising relations of CAA [Citizenship Amendment Act (2019-2020)] protests through artifacts in India
presenters
Dilshaad Hossain
Nationality: Indian
Residence: United Kingdom
Durham University, UK
Presence:Face to Face/ On Site
Keywords:
Art, Protests, Anti-Authoritarian, Marginalization
Abstract:
Artists and designers have developed ways to effectively proliferate their messages throughout the history of political demonstrations, from pamphlets to radical publishing in the 20th century to today’s dissemination of protest art. In this context, my presentation would focus on the anti-CAA (Citizenship Amendment Act) protests in India in 2019-20 and explore how artists contributed to the protest, together with social media. To help place the context, the amended Citizenship Act in 2019 explicitly stated that illegal migrants living in India from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh belonging to Hindu, Buddhist, Sikh, Jain, Parsi and Christian religious communities would be eligible for Indian Citizenship. The Act particularly excluded Muslim migrants and legislations like these go against the basic and secular democratic framework of the Indian Constitution further creating uncertainty in the lives of the minority Muslims. At this juncture of my research, while conducting an ethnography in India, I am employing the ethnographic approach of interviews and observations amongst the Muslim women who protested and the artistic community who impacted the protests, the study would gain a deeper understanding of the complex social and political contexts in which my prospective participants mobilize. The protestors took to the streets to voice their agitations and present forth the uncertainties that pose a threat when one’s citizenship is taken away from them. The presentation would specifically focus a part of my ethnographic work on how aesthetic artefacts like graffiti, digital art on social media, and murals give rise to social and cultural life, consciousness, and subjectivity during a political crisis. In short, what is the relationship between the protests of that of artists and the Muslim women and how does this abstract mode of relationship become visible through images?