Radha D'Souza
University of Westminster, School of Law, Faculty Member
- International Relations, Human Rights, International Law, Globalization, Social Movements, Science, Technology and Society, and 15 moreInternational organizations, Sociology of Law, Law, Political Science, Public Administration and Policy, Political Economy and History, Colonialism, Imperialism, Empire, Theory of Law, History, Political Philosophy, Development Studies, Rule of Law, and Political Economyedit
- I am Professor of International Law, Development and Conflict Studies at the University of Westminster. Before joinin... moreI am Professor of International Law, Development and Conflict Studies at the University of Westminster. Before joining the University of Westminster in early 2007, I taught law at University of Waikato in New Zealand, and development studies, sociology and human geography at the University of Auckland. I practiced law in the High Court of Mumbai in the areas of labour rights, constitutional and administrative law, public interest litigation and human rights.
I am a social justice activist from India where I worked with labour movements and democratic rights movements as organizer and as activist lawyer. I am a writer, critic and commentator. I have worked with social justice movements in the Asia-Pacific region to focus attention on the effects of international economic policies on developing countries.
I read philosophy for my undergraduate degree from Elphinstone College, University of Mumbai,I read Law at New Law College, University of Mumbai and completed my PhD in Geography at the University of Auckland.edit
At DCFA, we talk about cities all the time – but what are the origins of the concept of the city? Radha D’Souza critically reflects on urban life and lays the history of its existence along a lengthy timeline of imperialism, oppression... more
At DCFA, we talk about cities all the time – but what are the origins of the concept of the city? Radha D’Souza critically reflects on urban life and lays the history of its existence along a lengthy timeline of imperialism, oppression and patriarchal thought.
Research Interests:
In Introduction to the Court for International Climate Crimes (CICC): A Conversation between Radha D’Souza and Jonas Staal D’Souza and Staal discuss a wide range of issues from law, art, philosophy and social movements for the special... more
In Introduction to the Court for International Climate Crimes (CICC): A Conversation between Radha D’Souza and Jonas Staal D’Souza and Staal discuss a wide range of issues from law, art, philosophy and social movements for the special issue of the Errant Journal focusing on their project. The Court for Intergenerational Climate Crimes (the CICC) is a project they initiated jointly and produced in collaboration with Framer Framed. The conceptual framework for the project is based on D’Souza’s book What’s Wrong With Rights? Social Movements, Law and Liberal Imaginations (Pluto Press, 2018), which draws on her research project on “Rights and Social Movements”; and Staal’s visualisation of large-scale art installation and art works. The exhibition was hosted by the art space Framer Framed in Amsterdam from 25 September 2021 to 13 February 2022. It included a performative component in the form of a tribunal presided over by four judges including D’Souza which hear evidence on intergenerational climate crimes committed by corporations and states which was presented by prosecutors and witnesses from the Netherlands, Mongolia, Peru, Bolivia, India, Kenya, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Indonesia, Republic of Cameroon, Federative Republic of Brazil, MedWatch, Global Legal Action Network, Libya and Yemen.
Research Interests:
This article describes how the liberal orthodoxy informing the field known as “Law and Development” (L&D), as a field of knowledge, obscures contemporary imperial and neo-colonial governance practices. Through the metaphor of the... more
This article describes how the liberal orthodoxy informing the field known as “Law and Development” (L&D), as a field of knowledge, obscures contemporary imperial and neo-colonial governance practices. Through the metaphor of the disciplinary ‘picket fence,’ and engagement with three nodes of tension from colonial governance reproduced today, it reveals L&D’s limited and partial production of knowledge on governance by two key actors - transnational corporations and capitalist states. This article argues for a new, more explicitly critical, trajectory of research that foregrounds the corporation-nation governance nexus within a more
radical international Law & Development (ILD) field of research.
radical international Law & Development (ILD) field of research.
Research Interests:
This chapter is a reflective essay on the ramifications of corporate land ownership for relationships between lands, peoples and places, a relationship that is, I argue, fundamentally ontological. Dystopic visions are evidenced in recent... more
This chapter is a reflective essay on the ramifications of corporate land ownership for relationships between lands, peoples and places, a relationship that is, I argue, fundamentally ontological. Dystopic visions are evidenced in recent times in the fractious arguments about the environmental and ecological crisis on the one hand and the ethical dilemmas presented by mass migrations of poor people on the other. The former amplifies the deterioration of human relationships with nature whereas the latter amplifies the deterioration of relations between people. Both implicate our capacities to produce and reproduce the conditions necessary for human life, driving people in rich countries to challenge scholars and statesmen alike to address the continued destruction of nature as exemplified by the strident opposition to climate change in recent times. The social chasms, divisions and vitriol in the West against mass human migrations challenge basic notions of human solidarity which also constitutes an essential social condition for human life. Together, the nature–people chasm in theories and practices produce what I shall call ontological angst, a cognitive dissonance that is articulated as dystopia in our times.
Research Interests:
Marxism trifurcated into Western, Soviet, and Third World Marxism after the end of the Second World War. The trifurcation has produced a theoretical landscape for Marxism that invisibilises national oppression as a specific type of... more
Marxism trifurcated into Western, Soviet, and Third World Marxism after the end of the Second World War. The trifurcation has produced a theoretical landscape for Marxism that invisibilises national oppression as a specific type of oppression. National oppression is the nub of imperialist-neocolonial relations. In the theoretical landscape, Marxists have succumbed to disciplinary fetishisms of mainstream, capitalist epistemologies. Disciplinary knowledge is inconsistent with Marxist epistemology. This chapter considers the ways in which legal fetishism, state fetishism and market fetishism invisibilise neocolonialism in the ‘epoch of imperialism’ understood as the era of transnational monopoly finance capitalism that emerged after the end of Second World War. The chapter concludes by reflecting on the insights that different strands of Lenin’s thoughts provide, and their relevance for developing an explanatory critique of international law and neocolonialism from Marxist perspectives in the current ‘epoch of imperialism’.
Research Interests:
This chapter argues that the destinies of South Asian peoples are necessarily entwined such that a democratic and stable India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Nepal and Maldives is contingent on the emergence and... more
This chapter argues that the destinies of South Asian peoples are necessarily entwined such that a democratic and stable India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Nepal and Maldives is contingent on the emergence and consolidation of regional peace movements against war and militarisation within each South Asian state. The necessity of regional peace movements in South Asia is something more than conventional ‘internationalism’ or universal humanism or conscientious objections to war. The fused destinies of the peoples of South Asia arises from the specific historical experiences of British colonialism in which South Asia had a pivotal position. The entwined destinies of peoples arise because of the specific historical positionality of South Asia in the architecture of imperialism past and present, the geopolitical location of South Asia, the instrumental role of the region in the history of the British Empire, the trajectory of the formation of each state in the region, and the hiatus between ‘nations’ and ‘states’ in South Asia.
Theoretically, the chapter argues that: (a) the state-centric framework for understanding internal militarisation is inadequate as problems of internal militarisation in each state are deeply entwined with external imperialist geopolitics; (b) the form and substance of colonialism must be distinguished and engaged with, as colonialism is much more that a temporal feature characteristic of nineteenth century empires; and lastly (c) critical scholars and activists must pay greater attention to the international legal order which is a structuring mechanism for reconstituting imperial/colonial relations. The chapter considers the continuities and changes in militarism in South Asia by juxtaposing key features of South Asia under the empire system led by the British empire and the UN system led by the American empire since the end of World War II.
Theoretically, the chapter argues that: (a) the state-centric framework for understanding internal militarisation is inadequate as problems of internal militarisation in each state are deeply entwined with external imperialist geopolitics; (b) the form and substance of colonialism must be distinguished and engaged with, as colonialism is much more that a temporal feature characteristic of nineteenth century empires; and lastly (c) critical scholars and activists must pay greater attention to the international legal order which is a structuring mechanism for reconstituting imperial/colonial relations. The chapter considers the continuities and changes in militarism in South Asia by juxtaposing key features of South Asia under the empire system led by the British empire and the UN system led by the American empire since the end of World War II.
Research Interests:
This chapter interrogates the widely accepted idea that international law was diffused from the European centre to the colonial periphery through economic and political processes. The chapter examines legal principles of colonial... more
This chapter interrogates the widely accepted idea that international law was diffused from the European centre to the colonial periphery through economic and political processes. The chapter examines legal principles of colonial governance and shows how those principles are elevated to principles of global governance after the end of the world wars. It maps the trajectory of certain founding concepts in international law from colonial rule to the present. Viewed from the standpoint of colonial histories, the present period based on sovereign equality of states is not less imperial than past empires. The ‘diffusion thesis’ abstracts legal consciousness from social consciousness and removes the anti-colonial resistances from accounts of histories of international law. Besides, by dating the histories of international law from the nineteenth century, the diffusion thesis leaves out the role of trading corporations in the development of international law. By abstracting legal relations from the materiality of social relations and side-stepping more fundamental questions about the nature of so-called ‘development’, the diffusion thesis obscures the ways in which the economic power of corporations and the political powers of capitalist states coalesce in imperial governance during different periods of capitalism and (neo) colonialism.
Research Interests:
Reflections on meeting with Committee Against Torture, European Council for Human Rights, Strasbourg for the release of Abdullah Öcalan.
Research Interests:
The central question in this book: ‘what we did/didn’t, should/cp learn from activist/movement experiences of security operations, surveillance, infiltration’ and such activities, presupposes some understanding of the architecture of... more
The central question in this book: ‘what we did/didn’t, should/cp learn from activist/movement experiences of security operations, surveillance, infiltration’ and such activities, presupposes some understanding of the architecture of power within which state surveillance operates. The architecture of power is always a concrete historical question. The world wars have formative influence on the architecture of power in the Allied states. At the turn of the twentieth century, faced with the collapse of capitalism and the world wars, the Allied states mobilized all of society to survive the existential threat to economy and state. In the process militarism became the organizing mechanism for the Allied states. Militarism integrated economic institutions, military and civilian arms of the state and civil society organizations to create a ‘warfare’ state. The warfare state forged during the world wars was not dismantled after the end of World War II. Instead the warfare state expanded to become gigantic military- industrial-technology-media complexes with global outreach and dependent on perpetual warfare. Surveillance in such a state is much more than an appendage of the state’s military and police functions. Rather it is embedded in the constitutional structures of post-War Allied states. Limiting understandings of the surveillance state to experiences of opposition movements and protests within the Allied states not only limits our understanding of surveillance but misdirects our understanding of militarism as the organizing mechanism characteristic of imperialism in the post-War era.
Research Interests:
Through mapping the rights discourse and the transformations in transnational finance capitalism since the world wars, and interrogating the connections between the two, Radha D’Souza examines contemporary rights in theory and practice... more
Through mapping the rights discourse and the transformations in transnational finance capitalism since the world wars, and interrogating the connections between the two, Radha D’Souza examines contemporary rights in theory and practice through the lens of the struggles of the people of the Third World, their experiences of national liberation and socialism and their aspirations for emancipation and freedom.
Social movements demand rights to remedy wrongs and injustices in society. But why do organisations like the World Bank and IMF, the G7 states and the World Economic Forum want to promote rights? Activists and activist scholars are critical of human rights in their diagnosis of problems. But in their prognosis, they reinstate human rights and bring back through the backdoor what they dismiss through the front.
Why are activists and activist scholars unable to ‘let go’ of human rights? Why do indigenous peoples find the need to invoke the UN Declaration on Rights of Indigenous People to make their claims sound reasonable? Are rights in the 20th and 21st centuries the same as rights in the 17th and 18th centuries?
This book examines what is entailed in reducing rights to ‘human’ rights and in the argument ‘our understandings of rights are better than theirs’ that is popular within social movements and in critical scholarship.
Social movements demand rights to remedy wrongs and injustices in society. But why do organisations like the World Bank and IMF, the G7 states and the World Economic Forum want to promote rights? Activists and activist scholars are critical of human rights in their diagnosis of problems. But in their prognosis, they reinstate human rights and bring back through the backdoor what they dismiss through the front.
Why are activists and activist scholars unable to ‘let go’ of human rights? Why do indigenous peoples find the need to invoke the UN Declaration on Rights of Indigenous People to make their claims sound reasonable? Are rights in the 20th and 21st centuries the same as rights in the 17th and 18th centuries?
This book examines what is entailed in reducing rights to ‘human’ rights and in the argument ‘our understandings of rights are better than theirs’ that is popular within social movements and in critical scholarship.
Research Interests:
Through mapping the rights discourse and the transformations in transnational finance capitalism since the world wars, and interrogating the connections between the two, Radha D’Souza examines contemporary rights in theory and practice... more
Through mapping the rights discourse and the transformations in transnational finance capitalism since the world wars, and interrogating the connections between the two, Radha D’Souza examines contemporary rights in theory and practice through the lens of the struggles of the people of the Third World, their experiences of national liberation and socialism and their aspirations for emancipation and freedom.
Social movements demand rights to remedy wrongs and injustices in society. But why do organisations like the World Bank and IMF, the G7 states and the World Economic Forum want to promote rights? Activists and activist scholars are critical of human rights in their diagnosis of problems. But in their prognosis, they reinstate human rights and bring back through the backdoor what they dismiss through the front.
Why are activists and activist scholars unable to ‘let go’ of human rights? Why do indigenous peoples find the need to invoke the UN Declaration on Rights of Indigenous People to make their claims sound reasonable? Are rights in the 20th and 21st centuries the same as rights in the 17th and 18th centuries?
This book examines what is entailed in reducing rights to ‘human’ rights and in the argument ‘our understandings of rights are better than theirs’ that is popular within social movements and in critical scholarship.
Social movements demand rights to remedy wrongs and injustices in society. But why do organisations like the World Bank and IMF, the G7 states and the World Economic Forum want to promote rights? Activists and activist scholars are critical of human rights in their diagnosis of problems. But in their prognosis, they reinstate human rights and bring back through the backdoor what they dismiss through the front.
Why are activists and activist scholars unable to ‘let go’ of human rights? Why do indigenous peoples find the need to invoke the UN Declaration on Rights of Indigenous People to make their claims sound reasonable? Are rights in the 20th and 21st centuries the same as rights in the 17th and 18th centuries?
This book examines what is entailed in reducing rights to ‘human’ rights and in the argument ‘our understandings of rights are better than theirs’ that is popular within social movements and in critical scholarship.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
The rise of new social movements has produced an emerging discourse on activist scholarship. There is considerable ambiguity about what the term means. In this article I draw on my work as a trade unionist, political activist, and... more
The rise of new social movements has produced an emerging discourse on activist scholarship. There is considerable ambiguity about what the term means. In this article I draw on my work as a trade unionist, political activist, and activist lawyer in Mumbai, and later as a social justice activist in New Zealand to reflect on the meaning of activist scholarship, interrogate the institutional contexts for knowledge, and the relationship of knowledge to emancipatory structural social transformations. Although based on personal experiences, this article provides a theoretically oriented meta-analysis of activist scholarship.
Research Interests:
Abstract: India's constitutional democracy is premised on philosophical liberalism. In legal theory liberalism presupposes the separation of powers between the three arms of the state: the legislature, the executive, and the... more
Abstract: India's constitutional democracy is premised on philosophical liberalism. In legal theory liberalism presupposes the separation of powers between the three arms of the state: the legislature, the executive, and the judiciary. Legal liberalism accepts that there is ...
Research Interests:
Introduction to Special issue on the Ghadar Movement.
Research Interests:
The Ghadar movement is framed by scholars variously as socialist or proto-communist, anarchist, secular or religious nationalist. These theoretical frames developed in the European historical contexts to oppose liberalism and modernism.... more
The Ghadar movement is framed by scholars variously as socialist or proto-communist, anarchist, secular or religious nationalist. These theoretical frames developed in the European historical contexts to oppose liberalism and modernism. Framing historical experiences of colonialism and resistance to it by using theories developed in radically different conditions of European capitalism and Enlightenment, disrupts history-writing and the historical consciousness of people in the Third World. This paper examines the historical consciousness that guided Ghadar resistance to colonial rule. How are we to understand the distinction between system and ‘lifeworld’ that Jurgen Habermas makes in a context where the ‘system’ is capitalist /imperialist/ modernist and the ‘lifeworld’ is South Asian/ Indian Enlightenment/ colonial? What was the ‘lifeworld’ of the Ghadar leaders that informed their understanding of nationalism and state, secularism and religion, liberation and justice? Theories c...
Research Interests:
Introduction to Abdulla Öcalan Capitalism: The Age of Unmasked Gods and Naked Kings
Research Interests:
Contemporary world order rests on a fault-line. On the one hand it is an interstate system founded on the legal equality of all states. On the other hand it establishes institutions that privilege a small number of states in economy and... more
Contemporary world order rests on a fault-line. On the one hand it is an interstate system founded on the legal equality of all states. On the other hand it establishes institutions that privilege a small number of states in economy and politics. This article examines the fault-line, which has widened in recent times and threatens to destabilise the order established after the end of World War II. The ‘world’ in World wars is because of the global scope of the inter-European wars. The world wars were fought over colonies, in colonial territories, with the manpower and material resources of the colonies. Yet dominant narratives about the world wars speak about the wars as a European war between European nations and write-out colonial questions, colonial contributions and more importantly for this article the colonial impulses in the writing of contemporary international law and establishment of international organisations. This paper examines the human, monetary and material contribu...
Research Interests:
The histories of the revolutionary anti-colonial movements in South Asia and their engagement with the October Revolution are reflected upon, in this article. Accompanying these reflections is a sensitivity to contemporary problems of... more
The histories of the revolutionary anti-colonial movements in South Asia and their engagement with
the October Revolution are reflected upon, in this article.
Accompanying these reflections is a sensitivity to
contemporary problems of Islamophobia, the
manipulation of popular protests by imperial powers
and the internal ethnic and cultural divisions that
invariably prise open the doors for imperialist
interventions. The relationship between South Asian
anti-colonial movements and the October Revolution
was reciprocal.
the October Revolution are reflected upon, in this article.
Accompanying these reflections is a sensitivity to
contemporary problems of Islamophobia, the
manipulation of popular protests by imperial powers
and the internal ethnic and cultural divisions that
invariably prise open the doors for imperialist
interventions. The relationship between South Asian
anti-colonial movements and the October Revolution
was reciprocal.
Research Interests:
Introduction to Special Issue of Socialist Studies journal.
Research Interests:
The Ghadar movement is framed by scholars variously as socialist or proto-communist, anarchist, secular or religious nationalist. These theoretical frames developed in the European historical contexts to oppose liberalism and modernism.... more
The Ghadar movement is framed by scholars variously as socialist or proto-communist, anarchist, secular or religious nationalist. These theoretical frames developed in the European historical contexts to oppose liberalism and modernism. Framing historical experiences of colonialism and resistance to it by using theories developed in radically different conditions of European capitalism and Enlightenment, disrupts history-writing and the historical consciousness of people in the Third World. This article examines the historical consciousness that guided Ghadar resistance to colonial rule. How are we to understand the distinction between system and " lifeworld " that Jurgen Habermas makes in a context where the " system " is capitalist /imperialist/ modernist and the " lifeworld " is South Asian/ Indian Enlightenment/ colonial? What was the " lifeworld " of the Ghadar leaders that informed their understanding of nationalism and state, secularism and religion, liberation and justice? Theories contribute to creating historical consciousness and identity by showing us a view of the world that we can identify with, by providing a sense of continuity with the past. Disruption of South Asia's historical consciousness has had profound consequences for the people of the subcontinent. This article locates Ghadar consciousness in the structural transformations of South Asia after the end of the First War of Independence in 1857 known as the Great Ghadar. The paper takes common theoretical lenses used to analyse the Ghadar movement in academic scholarship: secular and ethno-religious nationalism, anarchism and socialism as its point of departure to sketch the theoretical and philosophical routes through which Ghadar leaders arrived at comparable values and political positions. It shows how they could be secular, religious, anarchist and socialist simultaneously. The Ghadar movement is important because it is the last major resistance movement that saw South Asia through South Asian lenses and attempted to address problems of colonialism and national independence in ways that was consistent with Indian historical consciousness and cultural and intellectual traditions.
Research Interests:
Contemporary world order rests on a fault-line. On the one hand it is an interstate system founded on the legal equality of all states. On the other hand it establishes institutions that privilege a small number of states in economy and... more
Contemporary world order rests on a fault-line. On the one hand it is an interstate system founded on the legal equality of all states. On the other hand it establishes institutions that privilege a small number of states in economy and politics. This article examines the fault-line, which has widened in recent times and threatens to destabilise the order established after the end of World War II. The 'world' in World wars is because of the global scope of the inter-European wars. The world wars were fought over colonies, in colonial territories, with the manpower and material resources of the colonies. Yet dominant narratives about the world wars speak about the wars as a European war between European nations and write-out colonial questions, colonial contributions and more importantly for this article the colonial impulses in the writing of contemporary international law and establishment of international organisations. This paper examines the human, monetary and material contributions of India in World War II. Britain was the preeminent Empire during the world wars and India the 'jewel in the British Crown'. India was crucial to British conduct of the world wars. At the same time racism and repression during the interwar period fuelled powerful anti-colonial movements in India. Those struggles ended the British Empire. The irony of racism against millions of people who fought and died for Britain presents many perplexing questions about the legacies of World War II for racism and international law. This article examines the responses of different European powers to the independence movements in India during the world wars and argues that the responses of different Empires of the time to the anti-colonial struggles holds the cues to understanding the widening fault-line in the international order today.
Research Interests:
Adding a meaningful edge to the ongoing discourses on development, globalisation and imperialism, Interstate Disputes over Krishna Waters engages the larger issue of water conflicts in India. It anchors these discourses in the... more
Adding a meaningful edge to the ongoing discourses on development, globalisation and imperialism, Interstate Disputes over Krishna Waters engages the larger issue of water conflicts in India. It anchors these discourses in the arbitrations of the Krishna Water Disputes Tribunal (KWDT) as a point of departure. Legal principles such as “equitable apportionment” and “dependable yield” are impugned in the contentious subject of water sharing by contiguous states in India. Radha D'Souza views the disputes themselves as related to key issues in development, issues that bear indelible marks of Law, Science and Imperialism. Interstate Disputes over Krishna Waters is the first ever attempt to put river water conflicts in a larger context of India's federal constitution and to critically examine the connections between the constitution and imperialism in the post-Independence era. Law and Science are theoretically reconfigured and pragmatically realigned with development issues in thi...
A distinctive feature of Marxist method is that analysis of ideas and theories go hand in hand with social relations that produce them. The encounter between Critical Realism and Historical Materialism needs to be located in the... more
A distinctive feature of Marxist method is that analysis of ideas and theories go hand in hand with social relations that produce them. The encounter between Critical Realism and Historical Materialism needs to be located in the transformations of capitalism into transnational monopoly finance capitalism in the beginning of the 20th century, a change that Lenin referred to as a new ‘epoch’. The trajectory of Marxismis also subject to historical materialist methods of analysis. Not taking a historical materialist approach to developments within Marxism renders Marxism into an ideology rather than a living guide to emancipatory political action.
Going by the demands made by social movements it would seem that in the nineteenth century people demanded political fixes to problems, in the twentieth century they demanded economic fixes and the twenty-first century is the century for... more
Going by the demands made by social movements it would seem that in the nineteenth century people demanded political fixes to problems, in the twentieth century they demanded economic fixes and the twenty-first century is the century for legal fixes. No matter what the problem, social justice movements demand a corresponding right as the solution. The demand for expansion of rights mirrors the core values of neo-liberalism and public choice theory. This essay examines the problems that activists face when they invoke rights to organise. The essay argues that there is a temporal tension in the use of rights for social change in that action mediates between past and future and therefore becomes the site where questions of ethics, higher principles, ideas, social relations and human purpose present themselves to social justice activists.
Research Interests:
The Ghadar movement holds the clues to unravelling two paradoxes of modern India. First, India remains a constitutional democracy even when authoritarianism is embedded in the architecture of the state. The second paradox is that... more
The Ghadar movement holds the clues to unravelling two paradoxes of modern India. First, India remains a constitutional democracy even when authoritarianism is embedded in the architecture of the state. The second paradox is that internationally India is a model for "democratic-development" even though the country has regressed into an abyss of poverty, dispossession, internal strife, ecological precariousness, rising fundamentalisms and militarism since Independence. The Ghadar centenary year is an opportune moment to reflect on the constitutive nature of the rebellion-repression-reform cycles that is formative of the Indian state and Constitution.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
ABSTRACT Many people consider Martinique-born Frantz Fanon to be one of the most important anti-colonial thinkers of the twentieth century. Aziz Choudry, one of the co-editors of this issue of Interface, initiated a discussion with three... more
ABSTRACT Many people consider Martinique-born Frantz Fanon to be one of the most important anti-colonial thinkers of the twentieth century. Aziz Choudry, one of the co-editors of this issue of Interface, initiated a discussion with three colleagues – David Austin, Radha D’Souza, and Sunera Thobani - after many conversations about the legacy of Fanon in the course of collaborations in both academic and activist milieus. These four short pieces discuss the relevance of Fanon’s writings for thought and action in struggles today. In doing so, they draw upon the writers’ personal, political, activist and academic engagements with Fanon’s writings and the questions which he grappled with, in a life cut short by leukemia at the age of 35 in December 1961.
Spanning a vast, multicontinental area-from Asia to Africa, and including the Middle East and Australia-the Indian Ocean Region represents a diverse and historical network of cultures, economies, and environments. It has been described as... more
Spanning a vast, multicontinental area-from Asia to Africa, and including the Middle East and Australia-the Indian Ocean Region represents a diverse and historical network of cultures, economies, and environments. It has been described as the" heart of the Third World" and, in precolonial times," a crucible for a first global economy." Today, it is a crucible for global survival. In this collection, Timothy Doyle and Melissa Risely bring together an international group of environmentalists, political scientists, and international relations ...
It will not be an overstatement to say that postcolonial theory remains the single most influential theoretical approach to the study of non-Western societies or the Third World, after Marxism. Trawling through past issues of JCR, and... more
It will not be an overstatement to say that postcolonial theory remains the single most influential theoretical approach to the study of non-Western societies or the Third World, after Marxism. Trawling through past issues of JCR, and publications in various Critical Realism series by Routledge, what stands out is the absence of engagement with postcolonial theory in critical realism. Conversely, Third World Marxism has produced a sustained and engaging critique of postcolonial theory from realist perspectives, but remains, by and large, distanced from critical realism. The absence of engagement in critical realism with a theoretical orientation that has a profound influence on the way we see the Third World constitutes a problematic in its own right that calls for interrogation. My aim in this editorial is a more modest one. I propose to identify certain key concerns raised by postcolonial theory and the critique of those concerns in Third World Marxism in the hope that it will open up possibilities of a fuller, more nuanced critique of postcolonial theory in critical realism in the future.
Research Interests:
The Ghadar movement holds the clues to unravelling two paradoxes of modern India. First, India remains a constitutional democracy even when authoritarianism is embedded in the architecture of the state. The second paradox is that... more
The Ghadar movement holds the clues to unravelling two paradoxes of modern India. First, India remains a constitutional democracy even when authoritarianism is embedded in the architecture of the state. The second paradox is that internationally India is a model for “democratic-development” even though the country has regressed into an abyss of poverty, dispossession,internal strife, ecological precariousness, rising fundamentalisms and militarism since Independence. The Ghadar centenary year is an opportune moment to reflect on the constitutive nature of the rebellion-repression-reform cycles that is formative of the Indian state and Constitution.
Research Interests:
This chapter argues that one reason for the intellectual crisis on the ‘Left’ since the emergence of ‘globalisation’ is their inability to develop conceptual resources to advance ideas about human emancipation, liberation, and... more
This chapter argues that one reason for the intellectual crisis on the ‘Left’ since the emergence of ‘globalisation’ is their inability to develop conceptual resources to advance ideas about human emancipation, liberation, and self-determination to re-envision new forms of social orders and revolutionary social transformations. Accounts of expropriation under ‘globalisation’, typically, name, blame, and shame three actors: corporations, states, and international organisations. There is ambivalence, however, about the geographies of expropriation. These conceptual building blocks used to critique ‘globalisation’, and the structure of thought that they produce, mirror the conceptual repertoire of philosophical liberalism.
The chapter draws on social movements in India to develop the above arguments. The arguments have wider reach for oppressed nations elsewhere in the ‘Third World’. The global reach and influence of intellectuals in the wake of ‘global justice movements’ on the one hand, and the increased social inequities and tensions in Indian society on the other, calls for a closer scrutiny of the adequacy of the concepts, theories, and ideologies, to meet the challenges that confront the people. The chapter assess the ideas produced by anti-globalisation movements and argues that what is at stake are meta-concepts like nation, society and structural social change.
Key words: liberalism, Third World, global social movements; social movements in India, North-South, intellectuals, globalisation, peasant uprisings, adivasis, social change, knowledge in social movements.
in Social Movements and the Postcolonial: Dispossession, Development, And Resistance In The Global South. S. C. Motta and A. Nielsen (eds). Basingstoke, Hampshire Palgrave Macmillan. The final print version may not be identical to this version of the paper.
A copy of the article can be accessed from SSRN at:
http://ssrn.com/abstract=1656904
The chapter draws on social movements in India to develop the above arguments. The arguments have wider reach for oppressed nations elsewhere in the ‘Third World’. The global reach and influence of intellectuals in the wake of ‘global justice movements’ on the one hand, and the increased social inequities and tensions in Indian society on the other, calls for a closer scrutiny of the adequacy of the concepts, theories, and ideologies, to meet the challenges that confront the people. The chapter assess the ideas produced by anti-globalisation movements and argues that what is at stake are meta-concepts like nation, society and structural social change.
Key words: liberalism, Third World, global social movements; social movements in India, North-South, intellectuals, globalisation, peasant uprisings, adivasis, social change, knowledge in social movements.
in Social Movements and the Postcolonial: Dispossession, Development, And Resistance In The Global South. S. C. Motta and A. Nielsen (eds). Basingstoke, Hampshire Palgrave Macmillan. The final print version may not be identical to this version of the paper.
A copy of the article can be accessed from SSRN at:
http://ssrn.com/abstract=1656904
Research Interests:
Abstract: The Rights discourse has exhausted itself. Yet the discourse continues to haunt like a disembodied ghost. The discourse has worked itself out through a number of familiar dualisms: moral rights versus legal rights,... more
Abstract:
The Rights discourse has exhausted itself. Yet the discourse continues to haunt like a disembodied ghost. The discourse has worked itself out through a number of familiar dualisms: moral rights versus legal rights, economic rights versus human rights, institutionalized rights versus right claims in praxis, rights under capitalism and socialism, Eurocentric rights concepts versus non-Eurocentric rights, the Asian values discourse or indigenous discourses for example, but whatever the starting point for the discourse or the preferred theoretical framework, attempts to ground it in the materiality of contemporary world order entangles the discourse in conundrum of one type or the other. Yet, if not grounded in the materiality of contemporary world, the Rights discourse loses its meaning as the very idea of Rights is tied inextricably with its sociality. Dr D’Souza argues that we face an acute poverty of philosophy amidst widespread poverty. The connection between the two types of poverty is explored by interrogating the relationship between displacement and rights. She argues that if we look further afield away from European philosophical traditions we might be able to come to grips with the poverty of philosophy amidst poverty. Her paper examines the concept of 'dukkha' in South Asian philosophical tradition as a possible way out of the Rights conundrum.
Keywords: Rights, human rights, economic rights, displacement, dukkha, karma, dispossession, Marxism, emancipation, freedom
in RIGHTS IN CONTEXT: LAW AND JUSTICE IN LATE MODERN SOCIETY, Reza Banakar, ed., Ashgate, Forthcoming
University of Westminster School of Law Research Paper
The Rights discourse has exhausted itself. Yet the discourse continues to haunt like a disembodied ghost. The discourse has worked itself out through a number of familiar dualisms: moral rights versus legal rights, economic rights versus human rights, institutionalized rights versus right claims in praxis, rights under capitalism and socialism, Eurocentric rights concepts versus non-Eurocentric rights, the Asian values discourse or indigenous discourses for example, but whatever the starting point for the discourse or the preferred theoretical framework, attempts to ground it in the materiality of contemporary world order entangles the discourse in conundrum of one type or the other. Yet, if not grounded in the materiality of contemporary world, the Rights discourse loses its meaning as the very idea of Rights is tied inextricably with its sociality. Dr D’Souza argues that we face an acute poverty of philosophy amidst widespread poverty. The connection between the two types of poverty is explored by interrogating the relationship between displacement and rights. She argues that if we look further afield away from European philosophical traditions we might be able to come to grips with the poverty of philosophy amidst poverty. Her paper examines the concept of 'dukkha' in South Asian philosophical tradition as a possible way out of the Rights conundrum.
Keywords: Rights, human rights, economic rights, displacement, dukkha, karma, dispossession, Marxism, emancipation, freedom
in RIGHTS IN CONTEXT: LAW AND JUSTICE IN LATE MODERN SOCIETY, Reza Banakar, ed., Ashgate, Forthcoming
University of Westminster School of Law Research Paper
"The neoliberal restructuring of higher education everywhere is accompanied by a distinctive branch of knowledge known as ‘activist scholarship’. Drawing from a number of disciplines including education, sociology, social anthropology,... more
"The neoliberal restructuring of higher education everywhere is accompanied by a distinctive branch of knowledge known as ‘activist scholarship’. Drawing from a number of disciplines including education, sociology, social anthropology, social theory, law, human rights, and others, activist scholarship proclaims as its core mission Marx’s imperative that philosophy should transform the world. Activist scholars affirm human emancipation as the goal of scholarship and set themselves the task of building bridges between theory and practice. There is a spectrum of views on the theory practice nexus. At one end are those who emphasise the primacy of practice and at the other end of the spectrum are the Critical Realists. With realist philosophy as their point of departure, critical realists argue that theory informs social practices, implicitly or explicitly; and that ideas of emancipation and freedom are necessary to sustain accounts of society and history, and the dialectics between structures, agents, and emergence. These developments from different ends of the theory-practice spectrum nevertheless share certain common grounds. The shared grounds affirm (1) a nexus between theory and practice; (2) a relationship between knowledge and action; (3) knowledge as a condition for emancipation and freedom; (4) affirmation of love and solidarity for social change; (5) importance of everyday life; (6) the role of the activist scholar in social change. These themes form the subject matter of this essay.
These themes form part of a long and entrenched tradition in dissident Eastern philosophies in particular the poet-saint traditions. In this essay each of the themes in activist scholarship mentioned above are interrogated using the works of Malulana Jalal-u-din Rumi, the thirteenth century Persian poet. What can activist scholars learn from Rumi if at all?
Key words: activist scholarship; Rumi; theory and practice; knowledge and action; love and solidarity; social change; everyday life; research methods; ontology and epistemology;
In Philosophy East and West, vol 64:1 2014 pp. 1-24"
These themes form part of a long and entrenched tradition in dissident Eastern philosophies in particular the poet-saint traditions. In this essay each of the themes in activist scholarship mentioned above are interrogated using the works of Malulana Jalal-u-din Rumi, the thirteenth century Persian poet. What can activist scholars learn from Rumi if at all?
Key words: activist scholarship; Rumi; theory and practice; knowledge and action; love and solidarity; social change; everyday life; research methods; ontology and epistemology;
In Philosophy East and West, vol 64:1 2014 pp. 1-24"
In the wake of the Fukuyama’s ‘end of history’: liberal theory’s triumph over its soviet/communist other, and the subsequent march of ‘globalisation’ and the ascendancy of neo-liberal ideology, this article interrogates the theoretical... more
In the wake of the Fukuyama’s ‘end of history’: liberal theory’s triumph over its soviet/communist other,
and the subsequent march of ‘globalisation’ and the ascendancy of neo-liberal ideology, this article
interrogates the theoretical developments on the ‘Left’, the academic and activist led critiques of liberal
triumphalism, by analysing the demands for recognition of water rights as human rights particularly in
regard to the Global Justice Movements that arose from disenchantment with globalisation and
neo-liberal ideology. In the context of water-justice and human rights, the article investigates the
substantial underpinnings of both liberal theory and the languages of the ‘Left’ tradition in regard to the
development of the human right to water to reveal the shared foundations that divorce them both from the
geo-historical terrain of emancipatory politics today.
and the subsequent march of ‘globalisation’ and the ascendancy of neo-liberal ideology, this article
interrogates the theoretical developments on the ‘Left’, the academic and activist led critiques of liberal
triumphalism, by analysing the demands for recognition of water rights as human rights particularly in
regard to the Global Justice Movements that arose from disenchantment with globalisation and
neo-liberal ideology. In the context of water-justice and human rights, the article investigates the
substantial underpinnings of both liberal theory and the languages of the ‘Left’ tradition in regard to the
development of the human right to water to reveal the shared foundations that divorce them both from the
geo-historical terrain of emancipatory politics today.
The rise of new social movements has produced an emerging discourse on activist scholarship. There is considerable ambiguity about what the term means. In this article I draw on my work as a trade unionist, political activist, and... more
The rise of new social movements has produced an emerging discourse on activist scholarship. There is considerable ambiguity about what the term means. In this article I draw on my work as a trade unionist, political activist, and activist lawyer in Mumbai, and later as a social justice activist in New Zealand to reflect on the meaning of activist scholarship, interrogate the institutional contexts for knowledge, and the relationship of knowledge to emancipatory structural social transformations. Although based on personal experiences, this article provides a theoretically oriented meta-analysis of activist scholarship.
I am looking through a crystal ball. The crystal ball is quintessentially European. I am seeing through it with black oriental eyes. In the Biblical story the Red Sea parted to allow persecuted people to escape, to live, to survive. Two... more
I am looking through a crystal ball. The crystal ball is quintessentially European. I am seeing through it with black oriental eyes. In the Biblical story the Red Sea parted to allow persecuted people to escape, to live, to survive. Two thousand years later, the “invisible hand of the market”, using various divisions: the digital divide, the knowledge divide, the cultural divide, the political divide, the economic divide and others, has parted human seas. Simultaneously it creates “civil society” on one side of the divide and “wasted humans”, as Zymunt Bauman’s describes, on the other. Given this context in what sense can we speak of “civil society” and “humanity”?
This essay reflects on the meaning of “civil society” for the oppressed peoples of the “Third World” and where discourses of “civil society” are leading them. The essay reflects on the question drawing from philosophical, political, cultural, historical and activist insights in an informed but non-disciplinary way.
[In German].
This paper can be downloaded from SSRN.
This essay reflects on the meaning of “civil society” for the oppressed peoples of the “Third World” and where discourses of “civil society” are leading them. The essay reflects on the question drawing from philosophical, political, cultural, historical and activist insights in an informed but non-disciplinary way.
[In German].
This paper can be downloaded from SSRN.
India’s constitutional democracy is premised on philosophical liberalism. In legal theory liberalism presupposes the separation of powers between the three arms of the state: the legislature, the executive, and the judiciary. Legal... more
India’s constitutional democracy is premised on philosophical liberalism. In legal theory liberalism presupposes the separation of powers between the three arms of the state: the legislature, the executive, and the judiciary. Legal liberalism accepts that there is invariably a constitutive tension between the subjects/people and the laws and institutions but believes that by policing the boundaries of the division of powers between the legislature, the executive and the parliament effectively, it is possible to reconcile the tension and create a stable nation. The process of reconciliation occurs through all three limbs of the state—the legislature, the executive and the judiciary—and is effectuated by the different types of roles and responsibilities they discharge.
What happens if one of the three pillars collapses? Or, what happens if the legislative system and the executive pull in different directions creating a stalemate? Can the third limb, the judiciary, be immune to the imbalance in the architecture of law and its institutional underpinnings? If the executive were to step in to replace the other limbs, we would call the republic a dictatorship, but can the judiciary step in to fill the gaps if the executive limb becomes dysfunctional? This chapter examines the tension between the ideas of “nation” and “people” and the way the Supreme Court of India has addressed the question in decisions on interstate water conflicts, an issue that touches on federalism, democracy, law and science.
Keywords: Indian federalism, interstate water conflicts, Indian democracy, Narmada, Krishna, Ravi-Beas, Cauvery, Kaveri, Supreme Court of India, Nation and People.
What happens if one of the three pillars collapses? Or, what happens if the legislative system and the executive pull in different directions creating a stalemate? Can the third limb, the judiciary, be immune to the imbalance in the architecture of law and its institutional underpinnings? If the executive were to step in to replace the other limbs, we would call the republic a dictatorship, but can the judiciary step in to fill the gaps if the executive limb becomes dysfunctional? This chapter examines the tension between the ideas of “nation” and “people” and the way the Supreme Court of India has addressed the question in decisions on interstate water conflicts, an issue that touches on federalism, democracy, law and science.
Keywords: Indian federalism, interstate water conflicts, Indian democracy, Narmada, Krishna, Ravi-Beas, Cauvery, Kaveri, Supreme Court of India, Nation and People.
Understandings of structure-agency relations in social theory point to the ways in which social structures and social agency constrain and enable social change. What is less understood is the role of concepts and ideas that mediate the... more
Understandings of structure-agency relations in social theory point to the ways in which social structures and social agency constrain and enable social change. What is less understood is the role of concepts and ideas that mediate the actions of social agents in structural change. For example critical responses to neo-liberal transformations from scholars and activists juxtapose states and markets as antithetical institutions. In doing so, do they mirror the conceptual frameworks of neo-liberal transformations albeit from different ends of the binaries? And, do they end up facilitating the very neo-liberal regime changes that the critical voices oppose? This wider question is examined in this chapter by interrogating two events: the setting up of World Commission on Dams in March 1997 and the adoption by the UN General Assembly of the Convention on Non-navigational Uses of International Watercourses in May 1997. The two events occurred during a critical moment in the neo-liberal transformations of water regimes for the ‘Third World’ in the context of critical voices and protests for water justice and access to water. This chapter interrogates the contexts within which the two events occurred, the conceptual frameworks that informed the two discourses about the two events and the social outcomes in the water sector that followed for the ‘Third World’.
Forthcoming: book chapter in P. Cullet, U. Ramanathan et al (Eds) Water Law at the Crossrods in India: National and International Perspectives (Cambridge University Press, New Delhi)
This paper can be accessed from my SSRN site. Link is provided.
Keywords: Law and development, social agency, regime changes, state regulation, market regulation, water regimes, World Commission on Dams, UN Convention on Non-navigational Uses of International Watercourses, neo-liberal transformations, international organisations. social movements
Forthcoming: book chapter in P. Cullet, U. Ramanathan et al (Eds) Water Law at the Crossrods in India: National and International Perspectives (Cambridge University Press, New Delhi)
This paper can be accessed from my SSRN site. Link is provided.
Keywords: Law and development, social agency, regime changes, state regulation, market regulation, water regimes, World Commission on Dams, UN Convention on Non-navigational Uses of International Watercourses, neo-liberal transformations, international organisations. social movements
A terse, brief order of the Supreme Court of India in the Networking of Rivers case in September 2002 impugns the role of public interest litigation in the wake of neoliberal reforms. At a poignant moment in India’s ‘tryst with destiny’,... more
A terse, brief order of the Supreme Court of India in the Networking of Rivers case in September 2002 impugns the role of public interest litigation in the wake of neoliberal reforms. At a poignant moment in India’s ‘tryst with destiny’, socio-legal studies in India stand disarmed and disempowered without adequate conceptual and theoretical tools to analyse and interpret the event in emancipatory ways. The case inaugurates a new phase in judicial activism and Public Interest Litigation in India, a subject that has been written about extensively both in India and elsewhere. In this article the Networking of Rivers case is used as a vehicle to explore the trajectories of developments in socio-legal studies in India and the ways in which it may have contributed to the present theoretical and conceptual impasse. The article argues for a more geo-historically differentiated understanding of the theoretical underpinnings of socio-legal studies in India and the ‘Third World’ generally.
Democratic development' comprises two ideas: the idea of democracy that calls for devolution of power to communities and the idea of development that calls for conceding power to global institutions public and private. The post-war world... more
Democratic development' comprises two ideas: the idea of democracy that calls for devolution of power to communities and the idea of development that calls for conceding power to global institutions public and private. The post-war world has witnessed the simultaneous decentralisation of political power and the centralisation of economic power. Recent movements against large dams draw attention to developmental conflicts that embody this tension but do not theorise the underlying dynamic. Taking the award of the Krishna Water Disputes Tribunal as a point of departure this paper examines the centralisation-decentralisation dynamic in water conflicts in the Krishna basin in Southern India. The paper argues that there is a hiatus in our understanding of legal and institutional relationships in the 'the economic' and 'the political', 'the national' and 'the international' and 'the colonial' and the 'post-colonial' in relation to problems of river basin development. It challenges some conceptual underpinnings of the development paradigm.
Keywords: Democratic development; Dams; Law and society; Development planning; Krishna water dispute; Federalism
Keywords: Democratic development; Dams; Law and society; Development planning; Krishna water dispute; Federalism
Research Interests:
A report prepared by Neville Robertson, Ruth Busch, Radha D'Souza, Fiona Lam Sheung, Reynu Anand, Roma Balzer, Ariana Simpson and Dulcie Paina of the University of Waikato (School of Law and the Māori and Psychology Research Unit),... more
A report prepared by
Neville Robertson, Ruth Busch, Radha D'Souza, Fiona Lam Sheung,
Reynu Anand, Roma Balzer, Ariana Simpson and Dulcie Paina
of the University of Waikato (School of Law and the Māori and Psychology Research Unit), commissioned by the Ministry of Women's Affairs, August 2007
This report examines the experiences of 43 Māori, Pakeha, Pasifika and other ethnic minority women who were victims of male partner violence, the impact of the violence on them and their children, and their experiences of the justice system when they reached out for protection. The objectives of the project were to:
identify and describe the experiences of a sample of women in obtaining protection orders, the impact of protection orders and the response to breaches of protection orders;
identify those aspects that are working well (that is, positive experiences of protection orders); and
identify areas for improvement including barriers that prevent women from applying for and obtaining protection orders.
The full report is published in two volumes:
Executive Summary also available in pdf format
Volume 1: The Women's Stories (Chapters 1 - 6) and Executive summary
Volume 2: What's To Be Done? A Critical Analysis of Statutory and Practice Approaches to Domestic Violence (Chapters 7 - 15 and Appendices)
Neville Robertson, Ruth Busch, Radha D'Souza, Fiona Lam Sheung,
Reynu Anand, Roma Balzer, Ariana Simpson and Dulcie Paina
of the University of Waikato (School of Law and the Māori and Psychology Research Unit), commissioned by the Ministry of Women's Affairs, August 2007
This report examines the experiences of 43 Māori, Pakeha, Pasifika and other ethnic minority women who were victims of male partner violence, the impact of the violence on them and their children, and their experiences of the justice system when they reached out for protection. The objectives of the project were to:
identify and describe the experiences of a sample of women in obtaining protection orders, the impact of protection orders and the response to breaches of protection orders;
identify those aspects that are working well (that is, positive experiences of protection orders); and
identify areas for improvement including barriers that prevent women from applying for and obtaining protection orders.
The full report is published in two volumes:
Executive Summary also available in pdf format
Volume 1: The Women's Stories (Chapters 1 - 6) and Executive summary
Volume 2: What's To Be Done? A Critical Analysis of Statutory and Practice Approaches to Domestic Violence (Chapters 7 - 15 and Appendices)