Note 061
The right to protest: Article 19 and its limits
India's Constitution does not use the exact phrase "right to protest." Instead, peaceful protest is generally understood to flow from the freedoms in…
Indian Democracy in 100 Notes · Theme 7 of 10
✊ Civil society & protest
The right to protest and its limits, and the movements of farmers, students, workers, women, environmentalists, Adivasis and Dalits, and how protest becomes policy.
Note 062
Farmers' movements: how agrarian protest shapes policy
Farmers' movements in India have repeatedly turned questions about prices, markets, debt and land into national political questions. Farming is not only…
Note 063
Student movements: campuses as democratic spaces
Campuses are places of learning, but in India they have also been places where young people first practise democratic organisation: forming unions…
Note 064
Workers, unions, and the gig economy
Workers' movements in India have historically been organised through trade unions in factories, mines, railways, banks and public services. Unions bargain…
Note 065
Women's movements: from safety to representation
Women's movements in India have worked on two connected fronts: safety from violence and discrimination in daily life, and equal representation in public…
Note 066
Environmental movements and the right to a clean environment
Environmental movements in India often begin with a very local concern — a forest, a river, a dam, a mine or air in a city — and grow into a question…
Note 067
Adivasi and Dalit movements: rights, land, and dignity
Adivasi and Dalit movements address a shared democratic question from different histories: whether constitutional equality is real in daily life, not only…
Note 068
NGOs, FCRA, and the space for civil society
Non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and other civil society groups fill roles that governments and markets do not always cover: running schools and…
Note 069
Peaceful protest vs disruption: where is the line?
Most people agree that peaceful protest is legitimate in a democracy. The harder question is what counts as peaceful, and how much disruption a peaceful…
Note 070
From protest to policy: when movements change law
Not every protest changes law, and not every legal change comes from protest. Movements influence policy through several routes: persuading public…