Shows
SynTalk#TEOR (The Effects Of Rights) --- SynTalkAre you a born criminal? Is genocide ever justified? Is meritocracy a ‘garbage’ concept? What are the entitlements that you have by virtue of being a human being? Do rights exist because the State exists, & vice versa? Are rights sometimes anti norms? Do nomadic and sedentary societies think differently of rights? Are rights always a product of struggle? Are you 42 and a communist? Are all rights inter-related? Can the right to dignity be limited? What gets transmitted across generations? Are the normative social structures of the past in our prefrontal cortex today? Does reservation come under the framework of equality? What...
2025-09-061h 15
BIC TALKSKuvempu Turns 120The text of Kuvempu's epic Kannada novel, Malegalalli Madumagalu (1967), and the recent translation, Bride in the Hills by Vanamala Viswanatha (Penguin Random House, 2024), will be discussed by an eminent panel of scholars, writers and the translator. Set in 1893 in the Malnad region of the Western Ghats with its majestic Sahyadri ranges, dense forests, and river Tunga, Kuvempu's Malegalalli Madumagalu (Bride in the Hills) describes the saga of not one young woman but many, of varied hues, who aspire for love and fulfilment in marriage, in a self-serving, male feudal order. An organic network of interrelated stories, the well-k...
2025-01-101h 18
What's your ism?What’s your ism? Ep 25 ft. Arvind Narrain on progressive isms for our timesOur guest this time is hard to define. President of PUCL Karnataka, law scholar, Constitutional expert, author, one of the country’s pioneering LGBTQ+ activists, co-founder of the Alternative Law Forum and the legatee of a family that laid the first foundation for secular education in Karnataka. Over two decades of human rights work and political organising, he has created his own unique ism combining Gandhi and AmbedkarSudipto Mondal discusses the anti caste legacy of one of Bangalore’s oldest charities, human rights law, the Constitution and the relevance of Gandhi and Ambedkar today with Arvi...
2024-10-221h 30
New Books in South Asian StudiesArvind Narrain, "India's Undeclared Emergency: Constitutionalism and the Politics of Resistance" (Context, 2022)Arvind Narrain is a lawyer and writer based in Bangalore. He is visiting faculty at the School of Policy and Governance, Azim Premji University. He is the co-editor of Law Like Love: Queer Perspectives on Law and co-author of Breathing Life into the Constitution: Human Rights Lawyering in India and The Preamble: A Brief Introduction. He was a part of the team of lawyers that challenged Section 377 of the IPC right from the High Court in 2009 to the Supreme Court in 2018.In 1975, the Indira Gandhi government declared Emergency in India, unveiling an era of State excesses, human right...
2022-11-1058 min
New Books in LawArvind Narrain, "India's Undeclared Emergency: Constitutionalism and the Politics of Resistance" (Context, 2022)Arvind Narrain is a lawyer and writer based in Bangalore. He is visiting faculty at the School of Policy and Governance, Azim Premji University. He is the co-editor of Law Like Love: Queer Perspectives on Law and co-author of Breathing Life into the Constitution: Human Rights Lawyering in India and The Preamble: A Brief Introduction. He was a part of the team of lawyers that challenged Section 377 of the IPC right from the High Court in 2009 to the Supreme Court in 2018.In 1975, the Indira Gandhi government declared Emergency in India, unveiling an era of State excesses, human right...
2022-11-1058 min
The Belongg Literature PodcastReimaginings Ep 3 | Reimagining the ConstitutionReimagining the scope of the Indian Constitution with Prof. Arun Thiruvengadam, Arvind Narrain and Aakash Singh Rathore. In this episode, we speak to three guests who have approached the Indian Constitution through different lenses in their writing and scholarship. The three discuss the scope of the constitution in accommodating evolution of different identities, the state of the constitutional principles in today’s world and the changing idea of India.About the Guests:Dr. Arun K. Thiruvengadam is currently a Professor of Law at the National Law School, Bangalore. His teaching and research interests lie in the ar...
2022-06-011h 01
Polis Project Conversation SeriesIndia's Undeclared Emergency: Suchitra Vijayan in conversation with Arvind NarrainIn this conversation, Suchitra Vijayan speaks to Arvind Narrain about his book India's Undeclared Emergency: Constitutionalism and the Politics of Resistance. They touch upon the provisions in the constitution that have been interpreted to shove India into an unofficial emergency situation, reflect on how this compares to India's emergency of the 1970s and imagine what the way forward can look like.
2022-05-1748 min
377: The legal battle against India’s anti-LGBTQ lawEpisode 12 - Finale Pt. 2 - CommunityAn individual may go to court, but a change to a law affects everyone. So who is this larger community and how do we ensure that legal activism empowers everyone? What does the judgement really mean and what can we hope for in the future?
Show Notes
All clips and voices used in this podcast are owned by the original creators.
The following guests appeared in this episode:
Anand Grover
Saurabh Kirpal
Chayanika Shah, member of LABIA, an LBT collective
Tarunabh Khaitan
Arvind Narrain
Anjali Gopalan
References
NDTV news clip...
2021-11-0826 min377: The legal battle against India’s anti-LGBTQ lawEpisode 08 - An astrologer reverses timeWhile most of India lauded the progressive verdict, and debated the future, an astrologer named Suresh Kumar Koushal successfully petitioned the Supreme Court to turn back the clock. He used a Special Leave Petition that allowed him to appeal the Delhi High Court decision in a higher court.
The courtroom atmosphere was very different this time around. The focus shifted from a discussion about fundamental rights to one about the wording of law. We look at its impact on three important articles: Article 14 (equality), Article 15 (non-discrimination) and Article 21 (liberty). And we also learn about a legal principle...
2021-10-1128 min377: The legal battle against India’s anti-LGBTQ lawEpisode 06 - A good argument and some ginger juiceSo far we have looked at the side fighting against 377. But what were they up against? Apart from the Union Government who was required to be there, a few other individuals joined the defense of their own volition.
In this episode we take a look at the other side. Journalist Shivam Vij recounts his meeting with Mr. BP Singhal, a hindutva writer and with Joint Action Council, Kannur founder, Purushottaman Mulloli. We also get to see how poorly those views translate into actual court proceedings. The result is a resounding victory for the gay community—homosexuality is de...
2021-09-2626 min377: The legal battle against India’s anti-LGBTQ lawEpisode 05 - “We don’t wish to be normal”The Delhi High Court dismisses the petition, but the coalition against 377 is ready—all the discussion and collective planning has made the movement resilient. They fight back and have the case reinstated by the Supreme Court. Things start to heat up and many more voices join the cause, bringing personal stories, affidavits and testimonies about the horrors of 377.
How do you get a large coalition of activist groups to come together? How do you ensure disagreements are positive and that feedback turns actionable?
Anand talks us through the meetings they had and we meet some of...
2021-09-1926 min
BIC TALKSK Balagopal: The Conscience of the Collective SelfThis episode of BIC Talks remembers an individual who has been described as "the conscience of the collective self known as Andhra society". Arvind Narrain in a conversation with Aishwarya Ravikumar provides a primer and an insight into the inner workings of a profound and rare mind of clarity and action, as we mark his birth anniversary on the 10th of June. K Balagopal (1952-2009) was a trained Mathematician who became one of the country's most important human rights activists. He was initially with the Andhra Pradesh Civil Liberties Committee and then went on to found the H...
2021-06-1158 min
Let's Talk AboutLet’s Talk About Big Data Ep 3: Privacy (Teaser)The right to privacy is our right to identity. And as human experience has evolved over time, privacy has changed with it.In this episode, we discuss with Arvind Narrain, cofounder of the Alternative Law Forum, how our understanding of privacy has evolved over time. We talk to Rega Jha about how the internet subverts our privacy without even intending to. We also speak to Rishabh Poddar, who is building a privacy-preserving technology at the University of California, Berkeley. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
2021-01-1502 min
Gender Question29: Chroniciling the Queer movement | Part-2In this episode, we’ll listen to Arvind Narrain, an advocate and one of the founding members of the Alternative Law Forum talk about the struggle against 377, the same-sex marriage petitions and the other issues that confront marginalised gender and sexual identities.
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2020-11-0244 min
The Nagrik PodcastRunning a grassroots lawyer network: Nupur SinhaWe learn from Nupur Sinha, the Executive Director of the Centre for Social Justice (“CSJ”), about the work that goes into using the justice system to fight for the rights of marginalised people, through a network of grassroots lawyers and paralegals. Nupur and the team at CSJ have nurtured this network to provide legal support in several communities, through riots, natural disasters, and even the current pandemic, and also to make systemic interventions through the justice system in relation many problems such as securing the rights and entitlements of adivasis and stopping violence against women.
Who are thes...
2020-05-231h 01