Art in CAA NRC Student Protests in India

About the Research Scholar

Name: Srina Bose

Gender: Female

Country of residence: India

Srina is looking for national or international collaborators who are interested in Humanities!

In 2019, the Indian government introduced two controversial legislations: the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), which offered citizenship based on religion to persecuted minorities from neighboring countries, and the National Register of Citizens (NRC), designed to identify legitimate citizens of India. Both laws sparked nationwide protests, criticized for their communal bias. University campuses, including Delhi University, JNU, and Jamia Milia Islamia, became hotbeds of resistance. Students from diverse backgrounds protested, using art forms like poetry, music, visual art, and graffiti to amplify their cause. This research analyzes how these art forms were utilized during the protests, focusing on the politics of art production in times of political crisis. The theoretical framework incorporates Habermas's public sphere theory, production of culture theory, and cultural hegemony theory, to understand the dynamics at play.