“The incarcerations: BK-16 and the search for democracy in India” by Alpa Shah

As India’s elections reverberate around the world, The Incarcerations pulls back the curtain on Indian democracy in a sweeping, searing investigation into Indian fascism, cyber warfare and tech surveillance and democratic rights activism and resistance. 

Alpa Shah exposes the life-stories and shocking truth behind the arrests of the Bhima Koregaon 16 – professors, lawyers, journalists, poets fighting for the rights of India’s three main minorities – Adivasi, Dalits and Muslims – who have been imprisoned, without credible evidence and without trial. The case challenges India’s freedom of expression, unveils the undermining of democratic institutions including the press and the judiciary, and exposes the long history of democratic rights movements to protect India’s most vulnerable populations. 

Essential and urgent, The Incarcerations reveals how this case is a bellwether for the collapse of democracy in India and discusses its ramifications for the future of human rights around the world. 

About the speaker

Alpa Shah is the award-winning author of Nightmarch and Professor of Social Anthropology at the London School of Economics. She has written and presented for BBC Radio 4 Crossing Continents and From Our Own Correspondent. 

She was raised in Nairobi, Kenya, studied at Cambridge and the London School of Economics, and now lives in London. Her latest book is The Incarcerations.