Examining the relationship between sedition and liberal democracies, particularly in India, this book looks at the biography of sedition laws, its contradictory position against free speech, and democratic ethics. Recent sedition cases registered in India show that the law in its wide and diverse deployment was used against agitators in a community-based pro-reservation movement, group of university students for their alleged 'anti-national' statements, anti-liquor activists, and anti-nuclear movement, to name a few. Set against its contemporary use, this book has used sedition as a lens to probe the fate of political speech in liberal democracy. The lived reality of the law of sedition in changing anthropological sites is juxtaposed with its positivist existence. Anushka Singh uses a comparative framework keeping in focus the Indian experience backed by fieldwork in Haryana, Maharashtra, and Delhi, and includes a comparative perspective from England, the USA, and Australia to contribute to debates on sedition within liberal democracies at large, especially in the wake of the proliferation of counter-terror legislations.
By:
Anushka Singh ( Ambedkar University Delhi)
Imprint: OUP India
Dimensions:
Height: 220mm,
Width: 148mm,
Spine: 29mm
Weight: 462g
ISBN: 9780199481699
ISBN 10: 0199481695
Pages: 406
Publication Date: 19 January 2018
Audience:
College/higher education
,
A / AS level
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active
Acknowledgements List of Abbreviations Introduction: Liberal Democracy and Free Speech 1. Political Offences and Speech Crimes: Comparing Legal Regimes 2. Sedition and Western Liberal Democracies: The Past and the Present 3. Resistance, Suppression, and Patriotism: Sedition in Colonial India 4. Sedition and the Judicial Discourse in Postcolonial India 5. Caste, Class, Community, and the Everyday Tales of Law 6. Indian Democracy and the 'Moment of Contradiction' Conclusion: The Life of a Law and Contradictions of Liberal Democracies Bibliography Index About the Author
Anushka Singh is assistant professor at the School of Law, Governance and Citizenship, Ambedkar University Delhi, India.
