An article for the 40th-anniversary issue of Frontline Magazine assessing Indian cinema between 1... more An article for the 40th-anniversary issue of Frontline Magazine assessing Indian cinema between 1984-2024
Indian Cinema and Human Rights: An Intersectional Tale, 2024
This chapter critically examines the unglamorous dimensions of the Indian film industry, traditio... more This chapter critically examines the unglamorous dimensions of the Indian film industry, traditionally synonymous with glamour. Despite its pervasive presence, the question of labor within this cinematic milieu has, paradoxically, remained largely invisible. The discourse surrounding workers’ rights, in the context of this star-centric industry, often tends to be articulated through the lens of either distress or benevolence displayed by the luminaries. This chapter directs its focus toward the legal struggles intrinsic to the enactment of three seminal legislations during the 1980s. Specifically, it looks at the history of the passing of the Cine-workers and Cinema Theatre Workers (Regulation of Employment) Act, 1981, the Cine-workers Welfare Cess Act, 1981, and the Cine-workers Welfare Fund Act, 1981.
Bulldozing Basic Structures: Legal– Spatial Dimensions of Constituent Power
Social Change
Using the lens of critical legal geography, this article examines the spatial consequences of leg... more Using the lens of critical legal geography, this article examines the spatial consequences of legal interpretation and doctrine alongside the legal effects of spatial practices. It argues that spatial practices in the form of protests often constitute the exercise of ‘constituent power’ with an actual people inscribing themselves into the virtual realm of ‘we the people’. This performative exercise of constituent power often comes into conflict with the legal horizons of constituted power. The article looks at Section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code (‘prohibitory orders’) as well as the use of bulldozers as a part of extra-legal mechanisms to control social protest and suggests that they collectively constitute a new ‘nomosphere’ that threatens to redefine constitutional rights and limits.
Using the lens of critical legal geography, this article examines the spatial consequences of leg... more Using the lens of critical legal geography, this article examines the spatial consequences of legal interpretation and doctrine alongside the legal effects of spatial practices. It argues that spatial practices in the form of protests often constitute the exercise of 'constituent power' with an actual people inscribing themselves into the virtual realm of 'we the people'. This performative exercise of constituent power often comes into conflict with the legal horizons of constituted power. The article looks at Section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code ('prohibitory orders') as well as the use of bulldozers as a part of extralegal mechanisms to control social protest and suggests that they collectively constitute a new 'nomosphere' that threatens to redefine constitutional rights and limits.
Protest and the Right to Freedom of Speech and Expression
Arrest of students in Jawaharlal Nehru University and resultant police intervention has kindled a... more Arrest of students in Jawaharlal Nehru University and resultant police intervention has kindled a debate on the legal and constitutional dimensions of the right to protest and freedom of expression. It is clear that freedom of speech and expression within the Indian legal tradition includes within its ambit any form of criticism, dissent and protest. It cannot be held hostage to narrow ideas of what constitutes “anti national” speech.
Social and material life of Media Piracy: A comparative study from South Asia - Year Three Final Technical Report
For the last few decades media piracy has been the reference around which global cultural debates... more For the last few decades media piracy has been the reference around which global cultural debates have materialized. Most of these debates have been West‐centered, there has been little attempt top reflect of the international effects of this, notably in the Global South, and the emerging areas of Asia, Latin America and Africa. The obsessive focus on enforcement by global media industries, has further narrowed the discourse, much of this was without any serious understanding of the new populations coming to new media in many parts of the world..
... See generally, Ravi Sundaram, Recycling Modernity: Pirate Electronic cultures in India, Sar... more ... See generally, Ravi Sundaram, Recycling Modernity: Pirate Electronic cultures in India, Sarai Reader 01: The Public Domain; Ravi Sundaram, Beyond the Nationalist Panopticon: the Experience of Cyberpublics in India, available at http://amsterdam.nettime.org/Lists-Archives ...
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Papers by Lawrence Liang