‘Every idea is an incitement’: Where is the line between democratic protest and sedition?

Recounting histories of courtcraft and judicial understanding on liberty for dissenters and freedom of expression.

Kalpana Kannabiran

· Oct 30, 2022 · 09:00 am

Bilkis Bano’s lonely battle for justice is a heartfelt cry for India to resurrect its secular values

The remission granted to men convicted of gangrape and mass murder is our defeat. It is our collective responsibility to resoundingly say ‘no more of this’.

Kalpana Kannabiran

· Sep 29, 2022 · 09:00 am

The fight to free pregnant student activist Safoora Zargar is a battle for India’s very soul

The legitimacy of constitutional courts is imperilled by their tacit deference to indefensible state action.

Kalpana Kannabiran

· Jun 11, 2020 · 11:30 am

To accuse activist Harsh Mander of hate speech is to fall prey to the barbarity of false equivalence

Is this the price we pay for dissent?

Kalpana Kannabiran

· Mar 17, 2020 · 06:30 am

Through the clouds of protest, sightings of hope

The young, the women of Shaheen Bagh, the people of Kashmir are schooling us all about what the Constitution tells us about who we are and what we should be.

Kalpana Kannabiran

· Jan 15, 2020 · 06:30 am

Babri Masjid revisited: No, we cannot just decide that it’s done and dusted and move on

We must not fall into the trap of disaggregating harms and gains by religious identity.

Kalpana Kannabiran

· Nov 15, 2019 · 06:30 am

Humiliation, suffering and impunity: Questions before India as a constitutional democracy

For any discussion on the meanings of justice in the country today, it is Kashmir that provides the context.

Kalpana Kannabiran

· Aug 18, 2019 · 06:30 am

Opinion: Supreme Court’s refusal to quash FIR against Anand Teltumbde damages the right to dissent

Slowly but surely the Indian state has shifted the burden of proof: we are all guilty until we prove we are innocent. Teltumbde stands for every one of us.

Kalpana Kannabiran

· Jan 25, 2019 · 08:00 am