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The Wire
13-06-2025
- Politics
- The Wire
Women's Role in War Must Extend to Peace
Support independent journalism. Donate Now Society Peace processes must clearly recognise and directly promote women's agency. This does not mean paying lip service to women's needs and contributions. Illustration: Pariplab Chakraborty. Real journalism holds power accountable Since 2015, The Wire has done just that. But we can continue only with your support. Contribute Now Pretoria: Despite all the progress that has been made toward gender equality globally, many are still tempted to view armed conflict as primarily the domain of men. In fact, women often prove decisive in such settings, including in combat, non-combat, and leadership roles. Nonetheless, they are routinely sidelined in formal peace processes and post-conflict governance. This pattern reflects a moral and practical failure. During armed conflicts, women become more vulnerable to genocide, trafficking, slavery, and sexual violence, with all the associated health risks and psychological trauma. This alone earns them the right to participate in peace processes. But women are not only passive victims of conflict: as we have seen in Ukraine, they make profound wartime contributions on the battlefield, as well as in civil society and as peace advocates. In this sense, women often increase their agency during times of conflict, despite the risks they face. But when they are then excluded from peace negotiations and what follows – as is the case, so far, in Ukraine – these agency gains are reversed, with outdated gender norms reasserting themselves. This is especially true in conflict-affected countries with more entrenched patriarchal structures. Legal frameworks promoting women's inclusion in conflict resolution, peace-building, and post-conflict reconstruction have so far failed to turn the tide, owing partly to implementation and operational challenges. For example, United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325, adopted in 2000, 'urges all actors' to increase women's participation and 'incorporate gender perspectives in all UN peace and security efforts.' But, as of 2018, the number of women signing peace agreements had not significantly increased. This has important implications for the content – and outcomes – of peace agreements. In a recent study, my co-authors – Matthew Clance, Romuald Meango, and Charl van Schoor – and I used natural language processing to examine the use of gendered language (including words like man, girl, boy, her, his, female, male, wife, and daughter) in peace agreements reached between 1990 and 2023. We created a 'gender bias index' – ranging from -0.6 to 0.6 – with a lower score indicating lower use of gendered language and, thus, a reduced focus on gender-based outcomes. None of the peace agreements we studied had a particularly high gender bias index, but even those that used more gendered language – which reflected a somewhat positive bias toward women – were not necessarily associated with significant improvements in women's agency. In other words, even frameworks that were gender-sensitive (acknowledging gender inequality) did not bring about meaningful change. The problem is that the mentions of gender were not accompanied by concrete requirements, let alone monitoring and enforcement mechanisms. For example, a peace agreement might advocate for increased women's political participation, but include no targets to be met, and thus produce few, if any, results. This approach can even harm gender equality, by giving the impression that action is being taken when it is not. Other studies show that peace agreements with disarmament, demobilisation, and reintegration (DDR) components rarely mention women. This compromises the post-conflict rehabilitation of women combatants, who might be excluded from the kinds of interventions aimed at their male counterparts. Evidence shows that including women in conflict-resolution and peace-building processes leads to better outcomes for everyone. As a 2018 analysis found, there is a 'robust correlation' between the inclusion of female delegates as signatories of peace agreements and the durability of the ensuing peace. Moreover, agreements signed by women tend to include significantly more provisions focused on political reform, and boast higher implementation rates for such provisions. In El Salvador, the 1992 agreement that ended the country's 12-year civil war extended DDR benefits to women fighters, and included non-combatant female members of the opposition movement in reintegration programs. Women went on to play a stabilising role in reintegration processes and to make major contributions to reconstruction efforts. The communities that received more consistent, systematic support through reintegration and reconstruction programs made greater progress on gender equality and, ultimately, on development. Similarly, in Liberia, women were involved in negotiations to end more than a decade of civil war in the early 2000s. Female representation in politics subsequently increased significantly, with Ellen Johnson Sirleaf in 2005 becoming the first female elected head of state in Africa. The message is clear: women must be included in all dimensions of any peace process, from designing, negotiating, and signing agreements to implementing post-conflict stabilization and reconstruction plans. They also must have access to all relevant benefit programs, such as those related to DDR, as well as initiatives to address gender-specific needs. More broadly, peace processes must clearly recognise and directly promote women's agency. This does not mean paying lip service to women's needs and contributions, while relying on ambiguous language to minimise accountability. Rather, supporting women's agency in making peace and forging the post-conflict future demands concrete, enforceable measures to uphold women's rights and expand their participation in all forms of decision-making. Carolyn Chisadza is Associate Professor of Economics at the University of Pretoria. Copyright, Project Syndicate. The Wire is now on WhatsApp. Follow our channel for sharp analysis and opinions on the latest developments. Society 'Could Not Believe What I Saw, Just Started Running': Sole Known Survivor Aboard Air India Flight 171 View More
The Wire
09-06-2025
- General
- The Wire
Why India Needs to Update Its Own Poverty Line
Menu हिंदी తెలుగు اردو Home Politics Economy World Security Law Science Society Culture Editor's Pick Opinion Support independent journalism. Donate Now Economy Why India Needs to Update Its Own Poverty Line Dipa Sinha 4 minutes ago It is important to remember that poverty ratios derived from consumption-expenditure-based poverty lines represent only one dimension of well-being. Illustration: Pariplab Chakraborty Real journalism holds power accountable Since 2015, The Wire has done just that. But we can continue only with your support. Contribute now India's poverty numbers are once again making headlines, ironically even though our official poverty lines have not been updated in over a decade. The World Bank has revised the International Poverty Line (IPL) from $2.15/day (2017 purchasing power parity or PPP) to $3.00/day (2021 PPP). Based on this new line, the poverty ratio in India is estimated to be 5.25% compared to 27.12% in 2011-12. While it could be true that the poverty ratio has declined in the last decade, there are a number of questions related to the data and methodology which put a cloud over both the extent of decline as well as the level of poverty currently. A longstanding criticism that these poverty lines of the World Bank are extremely low and do not reflect what most would accept as absolute poverty still holds. Based on the latest data from the International Comparison Program (ICP) based on which these new estimates have been released, one PPP$ is roughly equivalent to Rs 20. Therefore, this new poverty line of $3 a day reflecting extreme poverty is equivalent to only Rs 60 per day of consumption expenditure per person. On the basis of the higher IPL of $4.2 PPP (i.e. Rs 84) per day, 23.89% Indians are estimated to be poor. We don't need to be experts to imagine what living on less than Rs 84 a day means (this is to account for all expenses of a person including rent, travel, food, education, health and other consumption). It is common practice for poverty lines to be revised at regular intervals to reflect the change in living standards and consumption patterns. The last time India's official poverty line was changed was in 2009 based on the Tendulkar committee recommendations. In 2015, the Rangarajan committee made recommendations updating the poverty lines but it is not clear what their official status is. In fact, India stopped estimating consumption-based poverty after 2011-12 and has been relying in recent times on these World Bank and IMF estimates. India not in consideration As mentioned in the official press release of the Union government, the new IPL reflects (a) revised national poverty lines in low income countries (b) improved measurement of consumption, particularly food and non-food items and (c) the integration of 2021 PPP estimates. In fact, this press note quotes the World Bank saying, 'Most of this upward revision is explained by revisions in the underlying national poverty lines rather than a change in prices'. But the issue is that India is not one of the countries that has made this upward revision to its poverty line! And therefore, the IPL does not include the Indian national poverty line in its consideration at all. While the verdict is out on whether the new methodology of collecting data that was adopted in Household Consumption Expenditure Surveys (HCES) of 2022 and 2023 captures consumption better, what is not in doubt is that this data are now not comparable with the previous rounds of consumption expenditure. While the World Bank has considered the change in the recall period and adjusted for that while comparing with 2011-12 (from URP to MMRP), the HCES changed not just the recall period but the entire way in which data were collected – with multiple visits to each household and changes in the questionnaire. While there have been some validation exercises to understand what the impact of these changes are in comparing trends, no official national estimates have been released so far on what the poverty rates are based on these new surveys. PPP estimates of the ICP are also known to have their methodological issues which are too complex to discuss here. Limitations What is important, however, is to understand the limitations of these global poverty estimates and to be cautious not to assign them more weight than they merit. The World Bank factsheet on the new poverty estimates include FAQs which also clearly explain the limited use of these international poverty ratios by stating: 'A country's national poverty line continues to be far more appropriate for underpinning policy dialogue or targeting programs to reach the poorest within that specific context.' Further, it also states that, 'when analyzing trends for a single country, the national poverty line is the appropriate standard to use. It captures the definition of poverty that is most relevant for this context, as well as how it should be updated over time to reflect changes in survey methodologies and evolving needs.' What is required therefore in India is an urgent exercise at updating our own poverty line – this was something that was under the remit of the erstwhile Planning Commission. The NITI Aayog must now take this on. The expert committee must develop a methodology that robustly measures poverty, grounded in a normative understanding of the basic minimum standards we, as a country, believe every citizen should have access to. In the absence of such an exercise, the old poverty ratios are still being used for making crucial allocations to states for programmes such as the National Social Assistance Programme (NSAP) through which social security pensions for the elderly, single women and disabled are disbursed. Further, it is important to remember that poverty ratios derived from consumption-expenditure-based poverty lines represent only one dimension of well-being. To gain a comprehensive understanding of the realities of people's lives, a broader set of indicators must be considered. These include employment status, real wage trends, health and education outcomes, food security and nutritional status, as well as income and wealth inequality, among others. Taken together, these dimensions provide a more holistic picture of well-being – and on many of these fronts, both national and international estimates indicate that India still has a significant distance to cover. Dipa Sinha is a development economist. The Wire is now on WhatsApp. Follow our channel for sharp analysis and opinions on the latest developments. Make a contribution to Independent Journalism Related News Reality Check: Beyond Statistics, is Poverty Actually Reducing in India? 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The Wire
07-06-2025
- General
- The Wire
Sustainable Development Cannot Be Achieved Without Gender Equality
Menu हिंदी తెలుగు اردو Home Politics Economy World Security Law Science Society Culture Editor's Pick Opinion Support independent journalism. Donate Now Live Wire Sustainable Development Cannot Be Achieved Without Gender Equality Reana Sachdeva 28 minutes ago Respecting women and ensuring their rights is not merely a moral imperative; it strategically advances efforts towards sustainable development Illustration: Pariplab Chakraborty Real journalism holds power accountable Since 2015, The Wire has done just that. But we can continue only with your support. Contribute now The interconnection between gender equality and sustainable development objectives (SDGs) is increasingly recognised as a fundamental prerequisite for achieving global development progress worldwide. As per United Nations data, women earn 23% less than men globally, on average. They also spend three times the number of hours performing domestic and care work in comparison to their male counterparts. Gender equality transcends mere humanitarian considerations and is a fundamental catalyst for economic growth and environmental sustainability. As per data published by the United Nations in 2023, 54% of countries still do not have laws to address key areas of gender equality, including equal marriage and divorce rights. As the United Nations approaches the 2030 Agenda, promoting women's rights emerges as a cross-cutting issue that can enhance both environmental and economic outcomes worldwide. Gender equality is explicitly articulated in the objective of Sustainable Development Goal 5 (SDG 5), which aims to eliminate discrimination against women and girls and ensure their full participation in political, economic, and public life. The advancement of women's rights is intrinsically linked to improved health outcomes, enhanced economic services, and effective environmental management. Consequently, it fosters the realisation of sustainable development across all sectors. Investing in women's capabilities can catalyse substantial economic growth. The realisation of women's rights catalyses pivotal social transformations, including enhanced educational outcomes, diminished poverty rates, and improved family health. Recognising women's reproductive rights and allowing access to health care, in particular maternal and reproductive health, is crucial to promote gender equality. Recent data records reveal that only 56% of women between the ages of 15-49 have autonomy over decisions about their sexual and reproductive choices. Furthermore, when women have power, they are more likely to participate in the workforce, thus contributing to economic productivity. As per data published by the United Nations in 2023, 61.4% of women of prime working age are in the workforce, the number being 90.6% for men. The intersection of gender equality and environmental sustainability is evident in the roles of women in the management of natural resources. Their involvement in these roles can lead to improved environmental outcomes. Women frequently assume the primary responsibility for managing natural resources, possessing invaluable knowledge and expertise in sustainable practices. Research suggests that promoting gender equality in agriculture can enhance the resilience of agricultural systems to climate change, illustrating how the advancement of women's rights can establish positive feedback loops between gender equity, sustainability, and economic stability. Conversely, the adverse impact of climate change will be disproportionate for women and girls, as globally 158 million (16 million more than the number of men and boys) of them may be pushed into poverty and also be impacted by food insecurity resulting from climate change. Food insecurity is projected to increase by a staggering 236 million more women and girls, compared to 131 million more men and boys. The effective implementation of the 2030 Agenda necessitates a critical examination of the socio-political power dynamics. Addressing systemic inequalities in the allocation of resources through policy making that is rooted in the politics of redistribution can catalyse transformative change within communities and facilitate increased participation of women in decision-making processes. Legislation and governance models that prioritise inclusive, intersectional, gender-sensitive approaches can empower women to assume active roles in environmental management and economic development. In numerous regions, particularly those experiencing economic instability or environmental vulnerability, women's rights are frequently safeguarded inadequately. Consequently, women, particularly those from marginalised communities, bear the disproportionate burden of any conflict or destabilising event. By adopting an approach attuned to emphasising gender equity within the framework of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), nations can harness the potential of women to address climate change and foster economic innovation. In conclusion, the interconnection between gender equality and the Sustainable Development objectives has become increasingly complex and multifaceted. Respecting women and ensuring their rights is not merely a moral imperative; it strategically advances efforts towards sustainable development. By fostering an inclusive environment that enhances women's voice, power and agency to enable their contribution to political and economic life, countries can simultaneously drive economic growth and cultivate environmental resilience, ultimately creating a sustainable future for all. To achieve this vision, global political initiatives are necessary, underscoring the pivotal role of women as key agents in pursuing global sustainability. Through these measures, the framework established by the 2030 Agenda can transform global perspectives, demonstrating that the advancement of women's rights is, in fact, a catalyst for transformative change. Reana Sachdeva is a student at The British School, Delhi, and has a keen interest in the area of research around political science and international relations. Her website is The Wire is now on WhatsApp. Follow our channel for sharp analysis and opinions on the latest developments. Make a contribution to Independent Journalism Related News Ali Khan Mahmudabad's Arrest Reveals the Political Capture of Women's Rights in India NWMI Protests Against Inclusion of M.J. Akbar in Operation Sindoor All-Party Delegation Women's Role in War Must Extend to Peace Watch | India Overtakes Japan as the Fourth-Largest Economy: Is the Excitement Justified? 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The Wire
30-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Wire
The Art of Grief, Violence, Death and a Genocide
Menu हिंदी తెలుగు اردو Home Politics Economy World Security Law Science Society Culture Editor's Pick Opinion Support independent journalism. Donate Now Top Stories The Art of Grief, Violence, Death and a Genocide Pariplab Chakraborty 14 minutes ago Curated by Amit Mukhopadhyay and organised by SAHMAT, 'The Body Called Palestine' is an ongoing exhibition at Jawahar Bhawan, New Delhi. It features digital prints of Palestinian artists' works along with works from artists worldwide in solidarity with the Palestinian people. Sliman Mansour's work at the exhibition 'The Body Called Palestine'. Photo: Pariplab Chakraborty. Real journalism holds power accountable Since 2015, The Wire has done just that. But we can continue only with your support. Contribute now 'Here, where the hills slope before the sunset and the chasm of time near gardens whose shades have been cast aside we do what prisoners do we do what the jobless do we sow hope…' – Mahmoud Darwish, A State of Siege, 2002 Palestinian art, by existing, challenges the very foundation of Israeli-settler colonialism. Every occupation tries to destroy the idea of the people they occupy and in order to accomplish that, it inflicts violence on the occupied bodies. It tries to obliterate memories, truths and traces of genocidal violence. But can it omit the idea of the people resisting the occupation and defending their own land? Curated by Amit Mukhopadhyay and organised by SAHMAT, 'The Body Called Palestine' is an ongoing exhibition at Jawahar Bhawan, New Delhi. It features digital prints of Palestinian artists' works along with works from artists worldwide in solidarity with the Palestinian people. Primarily, the exhibition seeks to remember. It is an attempt to challenge our 'monocular vision' of seeing and to engage with a new artistic language that stems from Palestinian artists across fields who are living under and resisting a genocidal regime. 'The Body Called Palestine' showcases works of Palestinian artists and their expressions of living under a never ending system of occupation, ethnic cleansing, everyday violence and utter dehumanisation. It witnesses alienation, loss, grief, and anger. Malak Mattar, a young Palestinian artist, grew up in the Gaza strip witnessing occupation and military siege. She had created a series of monochrome and grayscale drawings and paintings – documenting the genocide in her homeland – during a residency programme. She later combined all of those images into this monumental grayscale painting titled 'No Words… (For Gaza)'. This work explicitly tells the horrors and devastation of occupation and a vicious cycle of displacement and ethnic cleansing of the people of Palestine. While working on this painting she said 'It needs to be completely horrific,' 'otherwise it will not accurately reflect the genocide.' Malak Mattar's 'No Words…(For Gaza)'. Photo: Pariplab Chakraborty. Malak Mattar's art. Photo: Pariplab Chakraborty. Maisara Baroud is a Palestinian artist from Gaza city. As a witness, his works evoke a sense of the unfathomable and the familiar, both. It is like a never-ending blur between the blacks and whites, like a nauseating fever – akin to the experience of a relentless cycle of atrocities. 'He consistently highlights topics such as war, immigration, political prisoners, illegal arrests, and occupation. Baroud's works reflect dramatic and tragic scenes, dominated by grief, death, violence, peace, hope, and freedom. His art mirrors how life is intertwined with a fresh, continuous scent of death that never seems to fade.' the artist's statement reads. Maisara Baroud's 'The Artistic Diary of Maisara Baroud'. Photo: Pariplab Chakraborty. The artworks show resilient acts of recording, embedded in personal and political experiences, ensuring that the grand sweep of historical injustice and the records of deafening silence from those in power are not erased. Digital prints of noted Palestinian artist and art historian Vera Tamari's works are also on display in the exhibition. Vera was only three years old during the first Nakba in 1948. She grew up seeing a perpetual state of occupation, war and violence inflicted upon the Palestinian lives. Her vast body of ceramic, sculpture and installation works intensively talk about seeing the Palestinian reality up front and with its innumerable layers of memories, the undaunting resilience Palestinian identity and its cultural heritage. Vera Tamari's 'Palestinian Women at Work' (ceramic relief). Photo: Pariplab Chakraborty. The exhibition also featured an excerpt of a presentation by Vera Tamari along with the digital prints of her works. Presented originally in a conference titled 'Art and War', organised by the Goethe Institute in Ramallah, in November 2004, it goes like this: Going for a Ride? (Installation, 2002) Cars are powerful icons in our society. Other than being urban household commodities, cars have become a metaphor of daily life. These inanimate objects even carry an emotional significance for most people. Not for me; I never owned a car nor learnt to drive one, but seeing my friend Liza's Volkswagen Beetle as I peeked from behind the shutters of my window one morning made me shudder. That quaint red car in which we often rode, was visibly smashed. It was lying on its hood wheels up, almost like a dead real beetle. In Going for a Ride? those inanimate objects, symbols of well-being, status, and freedom have in an act of vindictive violence, perpetrated by the Israeli military tanks in the 2002 invasion of Ramallah, taken on a new reality. They metamorphosed from once practical objects to become subjects of vengeful voodooism. Do we hurt the Palestinians more by destroying their cherished personal belongings? My idea in making this installation was not to merely to fashion junk as an art form or an anti-gesture as advocated by Nouveau Realiste or Dada artists such as Marcel Duchamp and Cesare in their crashed car compositions. Both artists challenged the conventional notion of art as an aesthetic exercise. I simply wanted to make a statement about how a mundane logical reality becomes totally illogical through the violence of the war machine. It is hard to see my installation of smashed cars as not carrying a political meaning. Seven hundred private and public cars were smashed in the military incursion of Ramallah alone. I wanted to give those cars a voice – an ironic reflection on the unnecessary nature of violence whose authors were the Israeli occupation forces. This act of destruction became like action art disturbing the status quo of matters. The soldiers in this case have become the artist creators. The soldiers the viewers. The soldiers as re-creators. The installation piece kept changing. It had a new energy each time – more violent than the previous one. I was merely the curator. Basma Al Sharif's work. Photo: Pariplab Chakraborty. Basma Alsharif is an artist and filmmaker of Palestine heritage. A series of Basma's six photographs are on display in this exhibition. Her works explore the cyclical political histories and confront the 'legacy of colonisation with satire, doubt and hope'. SAHMAT's continued solidarity with the Palestinian people finds a vivid expression in this exhibition, where, as the curator articulates 'the response to the Palestine question across the world has become a unifying force that creates new solidarities as an antidote to the atomising effects of a military-industrial complex'. 'The Body Called Palestine' aims to remember the history and presence of Israeli settler colonialism and its genocidal military offence as it is. This is valuable at a time when the larger mediascape peddles false narratives without any accountability and often erects a smokescreen of half-truths and lies, that help those in power obfuscate historical facts and cultivate public apathy. Aban Raza, a Delhi-based artist who also co-curated an art exhibition in solidarity with Palestine last year titled 'Fida-e-Filistine' and organised by SAHMAT, says, 'This exhibition is a testament to artists' solidarity from around the world with the Palestinian struggle and our collective resistance, despite all odds and silencing.' Labani Jangi's 'Even after a genocide, the rising moon doesn't burn our eyes'. Photo: Pariplab Chakraborty. This watercolour painting by artist and scholar Labani Jangi from Nadia, West Bengal, explores the difference in her perception of the moon between her childhood and the present, where there's a full scale massacre of Palestinian lives happening in every passing day. 'The moon that once used to bring Eid, festivals or fantastic stories from Naani now stands still – in silence like a representative of those who can afford to dwell in apathy. Those who remain silent even after seeing a genocide in front of their eyes – drenched in the propagandas of fascist regimes,' says Labani. The exhibition is on view until May 31, from 9.30 am to 7 pm at Jawahar Bhawan, New Delhi. 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The Wire
25-05-2025
- Politics
- The Wire
What Tests the Ruse of Representation?
Menu हिंदी తెలుగు اردو Home Politics Economy World Security Law Science Society Culture Editor's Pick Opinion Support independent journalism. Donate Now Top Stories What Tests the Ruse of Representation? Geeta Kapur 12 minutes ago 'I find my articulation turn into a confessional device.' Illustration: Pariplab Chakraborty Real journalism holds power accountable Since 2015, The Wire has done just that. But we can continue only with your support. Contribute now The following is an excerpt from Geeta Kapur's 'Introduction' to Speech Acts, published by Tulika Books, 2025. The title Speech Acts has a ring of immediacy with a claim to performative skills. At the same time, it is an extensively theorized term with nuanced and stylized transmission of meaning. Speech acts assume affective consequence – persuading, convincing or alerting your respondent in terms of feeling, thought and action. It is my intention that such articulation comes forth as speculative. Speech acts, driven by urgency, use abbreviation to skip doubt. In this mode there is need to place utterances in different contexts and see how the repetitions mutate. 'Speech Acts', Geeta Kapur, Tulika Books, 2025. I want to be able to do some of this in the cluster of texts that I have written or spoken, revisited, reiterated and contrasted, over the last two decades. Speech acts of artists, citizens and anarchist interlocutors who create frisson as they enunciate – this is the exigent force that we may track. Speech acts ignite overexposed forms; words, images and gestures are sworn to the demand of 'subjective truth-telling' by tricks of narrativization; the ruse of representation is tested in its political deployment. … In the first decade of the twenty-first century (after my book When Was Modernism was published, in 2000), I slanted my perspective to foreground the documentary genre as a form of enquiry and with it the concept of the avant-garde, relocated in mid-twentieth-century histories of decolonization. I formulated a critique of the homogenizing and authoritarian inclination of the nation-state as well as its inverse, the disempowerment of the nation-state within an enlarging vortex of global capitalism. As cultural practitioners we must be able to recognize the focal disorders – ideological, literal or surreal – of the very lens that 'documents'. This book of essays, talks and interviews does not engage with individual artists, in whose thrall I have written saturated but also dedicatedly formalist texts, included in a forthcoming (though impossibly belated) volume titled Critic's Compass: Navigating Practice. That volume is to be a palimpsest of material worked on over years, where I navigate shifts in the represented artists' work as also my own focal intensities. But for now, I have been hooked away by a set of tracking arguments that relate to the 'documentary turn'. In this smaller book (with no images), I test, in the form of speech acts, variously used terms within my expanded sphere of criticality. I try to develop a way to shape a witness position that the documentary vision multifariously offers. … In the first section of this book… [titled essays] there are two short essays, 'Proposition Avant-Garde: A View from the South' and 'Aesthetic Bind'. 'Proposition' and 'bind' are, in a sense, contrary terms. But they suggest a contrapuntal engagement involving ambiguity and traction which enables certain recondite forms to develop. My attachment to the terms proposition and bind may indeed describe my approach to the field of art and politics. … The second section includes lectures delivered in 2013 (at Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam and Iniva, London), 2016 (at Haus der Kunst, Munich) and 2017 (at Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven). The text titled 'Notes on Practice' is a shredded outcome of these different talks. I have gained the gumption to stitch and weave these into a ragged banner. As I began to improvise on the lines and paras I had frequently spoken around the term 'practice', I figured a desire to play with my text-form as well. Referring to praxis, a complex materialist concept, I was also attracted to current discourses on practice that are playful, provocative and generative. From labour to craft to art to theory to governance to political action and, further, to subtly distributed features of being, doing, thinking and making. The result is what I call a ragged banner announcing my own (forthcoming) 'practice'; it also probably says something of my willingness (now) to risk failure within the template of meaning. … The interview is a form unto itself. You are asked to respond to someone else's preoccupations, and you find yourself inventing new modes of thought and utterance. Everything you say gets an inflection; it even savours imitation of the speech-form used by the interlocutor. The entry of another voice and the imaginative rendering of intersubjectivities may produce consolidated truth-claims, or, equally, a dialogue that deflects the two speakers further apart and provides a wrenched dynamic. … The last conversation with Ravi Sundaram and Ashish Rajadhyaksha puts me in a place where everything I have said is under review. … Beginning the dialogue, Ravi Sundaram from CSDS used a contrarian vocabulary and suggested that I go to the brink and see where, in the worldwide neoliberal contemporary, the 'ruins' of modernism stand; and where migration histories and the expanded concept of 'slavery' can be deployed to dramatize capital's devastating regime of disempowerment. He invoked Okwui Enwezor several times, seeing him as a curator of ideas and artworks that changed the order of things in contemporary cultural discourse. I couldn't agree more. Ashish Rajadhyaksha … believes that if you are inclined to work with modernism – historically and in the present – your method, even as it may enumerate disjunctures, counts as conciliatory. … My responses are engaged and emphatic. I appreciate the scraping down of my ideological and aesthetic assertions even as I continue to ignite them. I am impelled to see modernism at the stake, but with some of its passion and impunity smouldering still. … The terms modern and contemporary, radical and avant-garde; decolonization, migration and diaspora; demodern and decolonial, have all become polemical features of art history in academia … We also find the subject, indeed subjectivity, (re-)entering the discourse in ingenuous ways, rendering experience through phenomenological understanding and with the quest for dialogic articulation as itself a form of praxis. In his book Dissensus, Jacques Rancière says, This means that there is a certain undecidability in the 'politics of aesthetics'. There is a meta politics of aesthetics which frames the possibilities of art. Aesthetic art promises a political accomplishment that it cannot satisfy, and thrives on that ambiguity. That is why those who want to isolate it from politics are somewhat beside the point. It is also why those who want it to fulfil its political promise are condemned to a certain melancholy. I would like to believe that melancholy is part of what I, as perhaps many others, understand to be the process of critical 'becoming': that which recognizes the stutter and wager of subjectivity, produces split vectors of doubt and claim, and places us at the precipice of choice. With increased volatility driving the contemporary – and my own advancing age – the ground trembles. And I find my articulation turn into a confessional device. Geeta Kapur is a critic and curator. Her essays are extensively anthologised; her books include Contemporary Indian Artists (1978), When Was Modernism: Essays on Contemporary Cultural Practice in India (2000), Speech Acts (2025), Critic's Compass: Navigating Practice (forthcoming 2025). Make a contribution to Independent Journalism Related News Five 'Asanas' Modi Has Perfected To Deflect and Distract From Real Issues Second Speech in 24 Hours, Modi Invokes Religious Figures But No Mention of Trump Mediation Claims Supreme Court's Bail Condition on Ashoka Professor Mahmudabad: Has Dissent Become Disorder? 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