Listen - The Polis Project

UK’s racialized immigration policies: Francesca Recchia in conversation with Helidah Ogude Chambert

In this podcast, Francesca Recchia sits down with Helidah Ogude-Chambert to discuss the racism and xenophobia inherent in the United Kingdom’s immigration policies, where it stems from and which communities are particularly vulnerable to it and why. Following is a bibliography of the references Ogude-Chambert used in the conversation Hall, Stuart. 1997. Representation: Cultural Representations … Read more

The Genocidal Gaze: A conversation with Elizabeth Baer

Suchitra Vijayan in conversation with Elizabeth Baer about her book “The Genocidal Gaze.” The first genocide of the twentieth century, though not well known, was committed by Germans between 1904–1907 in the country we know today as Namibia, where they exterminated hundreds of Herero and Nama people and subjected the surviving indigenous men, women, … Read more

Terror Capitalism – A conversation with Darren Byler

Suchitra Vijayan speaks to Darren Byler about his book Terror Capitalism: Uyghur Dispossession and Masculinity in a Chinese City. In Terror Capitalism anthropologist Darren Byler theorizes the contemporary Chinese colonization of the Uyghur Muslim minority group in the northwest autonomous region of Xinjiang. He shows that the mass detention of over one million Uyghurs … Read more

How home disappeared: Twenty years after the Gujarat pogrom

Twenty years after the Gujarat pogrom, Suchitra Vijayan speaks to Zahir Janmohamed about the moment, his experience on the ground and his work since. The conversation delves into the deep seated anti-Muslim sentiment in India and looks for ways to heal. The conversation was originally held as a Twitter Space session.

Reproductive Politics and the Making of Modern India: Urvi Khaitan in conversation with Mytheli Sreenivas

In this conversation, Urvi Khaitan sits down with Mytheli Sreenivas to discuss her book Reproductive Politics and the Making of Modern India. The book explores how colonial administrators, postcolonial development experts, nationalists, eugenicists, feminists and family planners all aimed to reform reproduction to transform both individual bodies and the body politics.

India’s Undeclared Emergency: Suchitra Vijayan in conversation with Arvind Narrain

In 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 … Read more

The judicial excesses of Pakistan’s military: Francesca Recchia in conversation with Ahmad Waqas Goraya

In this conversation with Francesca Recchia, Pakistani activist Ahmad Waqas Goraya speaks about the repercussions facing those who dare to criticize the military establishment in Pakistan, his own personal encounter with the institution and the subsequent experience of torture and exile.

Negotiating Survival: Francesca Recchia in conversation with Ashley Jackson

Francesca Recchia speaks to Ashley Jackson about her book Negotiating Survival: Civilian–Insurgent Relations in Afghanistan. Based on over 400 interviews with Taliban and civilians, this book tells the story of how civilians have not only bargained with the Taliban for their survival, but also ultimately influenced the course of the war in Afghanistan. While … Read more

Legacies of French colonialism in India: Suchitra Vijayan in conversation with Jessica Namakkal

Suchitra Vijayan sits down with author Jessica Namakkal to discuss her book “Unsettling Utopia”. The book presents a new account of the history of twentieth-century French India to show how colonial projects persisted beyond formal decolonization. Through the experience of the French territories, Namakkal recasts the relationships among colonization, settlement, postcolonial sovereignty, utopianism, and liberation, … Read more

Data privacy and surveillance in India: Suchitra Vijayan in conversation with Prasanna S.

Suchitra Vijayan speaks to Prasanna S. about data privacy in India, the state’s use of the Pegasus spyware to surveil voices of dissent and what it means for civil rights in the country. The discussion was originally held on Twitter Spaces.