DAKSH Podcast

In this episode our guest was Swethaa Ballakrishnen whom we spoke to about their research on women’s representation in elite law firms. Swethaa’s first book, Accidental Feminism unpacks the case of unintentional gender parity among India’s elite legal professionals. The legal profession worldwide is fairly male-dominated, and India is no exception. However, Elite corporate law firms in India are a surprising exception. These law firms offer a surprising oasis for women within a hostile, predominantly male sector. We explored how egalitarian outcomes have been produced in this relatively recent professional setting without any deliberate effort to do so.

If you like our podcast do consider supporting us with a donation at the link below: https://www.dakshindia.org/donate/

Reading list:

1. Swethaa S Ballakrishnen Accidental Feminism: Gender Parity and Selective Mobility among India’s Professional Elite. Princeton University Press, 2021.

2. Ethan Michelson Women in the Legal Profession, 1970-2010: A Study of the Global Supply of Lawyer, Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies Vol. 20, No. 2 (2013), 1071.

3. Bryant G. Garth and Joyce S. Sterling. "Diversity, hierarchy, and fit in legal careers: insights from fifteen years of qualitative interviews." Geo. J. Legal Ethics 31 (2018): 123

CREDITS:

Host: Leah Verghese

This is a Maed in India production.

Producer: Nikkethana K

Sound Mixing: Lakshman Parsuram

Project Supervisor: Shaun Fanthome

In this episode, we spoke to Milan Vaishnav, the host of the popular podcasts ‘Grand Tamasha’ about the criminalisation of politics. Most Indians are familiar with the phenomenon of politicians with criminal records and appear to have accepted their participation in the democratic process . In today’s episode, Milan helped us unpack this uneasy balance by exploring why political parties give tickets to criminals, why people continue to vote for them and whether this status quo is likely to change.

If you like our podcast do consider supporting us with a donation at the link below: https://www.dakshindia.org/donate/

Reading list:

1. Milan Vaishnav. When crime pays: Money and muscle in Indian politics. Yale University Press, 2017

2. James Crabtree, Lunch with the FT: Raghuram Rajan. Financial Times August 15 2014 https://www.ft.com/content/b049ce16-230e-11e4-a424-00144feabdc0#axzz3B60Xysad

3. Association for Democratic Reform https://adrindia.org/

CREDITS:

Host: Leah Verghese

This is a Maed in India production.

Producer: Nikkethana K

Sound Mixing: Lakshman Parsuram

Project Supervisor: Shaun Fanthome

In this episode we talk to Professor Rohit De, a lawyer and scholar of south Asian legal history. He is the author of the book, ‘A People’s Constitution’ in which he studies how many marginalised communities used the constitution as a way to oppose unfair laws and have a say in how they were governed. His work focuses on the 1950s, the period right after the constitution was passed. We understand the ideas and challenges of these early litigants and how their efforts continue to be valuable today. We explore why, after around 75 years, why it is still so relevant for regular citizens like us to continue to engage with the constitution.

If you like our podcast do consider supporting us with a donation at the link below: https://www.dakshindia.org/donate/

Reading list:

1. A People’s Constitution 

2. https://www.outlookindia.com/national/explained-the-supreme-court-order-on-sex-workers-laws-on-prostitution-how-sc-order-changes-things-news-198865

3. https://scroll.in/article/676679/a-history-lesson-for-nitish-kumar-prohibition-does-not-work

4. https://thewire.in/books/book-review-a-peoples-constitution-rohit-de

CREDITS:

Host: Anindita Pattanayak

This is a Maed in India production.

Producer: Nikkethana K

Sound Mixing: Lakshman Parsuram

Project Supervisor: Shaun Fanthome

In this episode  we spoke to Rahul Verma and Ornit Shani on Indian elections. The elections in the world’s largest democracy are often described as a dance of democracy. Here are some statistics just to give you a scale of the vast logistical exercise that is the general election. In 2019, 619 adults voted in 1 million polling booths in 543 constituencies. Ornit and Rahul took us on a fascinating journey from the first general election to recent elections, exploring how the first electoral rolls were prepared, the logistics of the process and how Indians make voting decisions.

If you like our podcast do consider supporting us with a donation at the link below: https://www.dakshindia.org/donate/

Reading list:

1. Adam Auerbach etal., Rethinking the Study of Electoral Politics in the Developing World: Reflections on the Indian Case https://www.duo.uio.no/bitstream/handle/10852/85802/1/Auerbach_elal2021_postprint.pdf
2. Association for Democratic Reform https://adrindia.org/
3. Kumar, Sanjay and Palshikar, Suhas and Shastr, Sandeep and Swaminathan, Siddharth and Krishnaswamy, Sudhir and Jayadev, Arjun (2018) Politics and society between elections. Technical Report. Azim Premji University, Bengaluru.
4. Ornit Shani. How India became democratic, 2018.
5. Ornit Shani, Women and the Vote: Registration, Representation and Participation in the Run-Up to India’s First Elections, 1951–52 South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies Volume 44(228), 2021
6. Pradeep K Chhibbe and Rahul Verma. Ideology and identity: The changing party systems of India. Oxford University Press, 2018.

CREDITS:

Host: Leah Verghese

This is a Maed in India production.

Producer: Nikkethana K

Sound Mixing: Lakshman Parsuram

Project Supervisor: Shaun Fanthome

Season 1 of the Daksh Podcast has come to an end, but we will be back with more exciting guests for Season 2, going deeper into the inner-workings of the Indian judicial system. 

Many of us, consciously or subconsciously, are heavily influenced by popular media and film and legal court dramas are  no exception. They, in equal parts, entertain and educate. In this episode, we spoke to Anushka Shah, the founder of Civic Studios and Chaitanya Tamhane, the writer and director of the nationally and internationally lauded Marathi film, ‘Court’.

Anushka Shah strongly believes in the power of entertainment to bring change. Her organization, Civic Studios, notes that “a good story and set of characters can bring attention to ignored issues, create awareness of rights and duties, and model exemplary actions to help ‘fix-the-system’.” Chaitanya, on the other hand, has created an exceptional piece of art through his movie, “Court”, that exemplifies the type of art Anushka has been rooting for. The film follows the trial of a protest poet and singer who is accused of abetting the suicide of a manhole worker to reveal the systemic issues of bigotry and injustice in society and the judicial system. 

We chatted with Anushka and Chaitanya about the role of art in social change and the moral responsibility of artists, especially in the depiction of a courtroom drama. In the process, we explored the importance of empathy in building characters, realism in cinema and how conveying the fragility of the individual in a complex and unpredictable system transcends the courtroom. 

Reading list:

1. Court (2014), available on Netflix

2. Civic Studios, Crime and Punishment in Indian Entertainment, 2019 https://sway.office.com/CUIjI1M69CLiVxCN

3. Aishwarya Viswanathan, Roohi Bhatia and Anushka Shah, Crime, courtroom drama in Indian entertainment: How the genres sway popular opinion on law and judiciary, Firspost, 2020 https://www.firstpost.com/india/crime-courtroom-drama-in-indian-entertainment-how-the-genre-sways-popular-opinion-on-law-and-judiciary-7905631.html#aid_8087031

Host: Anindita Pattanayak

This is a Maed in India production.

Production Head & Editor: Joshua Thomas

Sound Mixing: Kartik Kulkarni

Project Supervisor: Shaun Fanthome

In Episode 9 of the DAKSH Podcast we discussed “de-notified tribes” or “vimukta” communities and what they show us about policing culture in India. They are communities that were notified under a colonial legislation - the Criminal Tribes Act of 1871 - as people who, by birth, are "addicted to the systematic commission of non-bailable offences." Though this Act was repealed after India gained independence, discretionary powers of the police coupled with social stigmas of the judiciary continue to haunt these communities, many of whom are subject to oppression, surveillance and imprisonment, sometimes without even being convicted by a court of law. We talked to Nikita Sonavane, co-founder of the Criminal Justice and Police Accountability Project in Madhya Pradesh about her work with these communities, the origin of the idea that some people can be labelled criminals by birth and how this prejudice and injustice lives on in the India of today. More importantly, Nikita asks some crucial questions about our tendency to look to the police for solutions to problems that have little to do with law and order. In the wake of the pandemic we are experiencing, she dares us to reimagine legal and policy responses to public crises rather than let only some marginalised groups take the fall. 

Reading list:

1. Ameya Bokil & Nikita Sonavane, Why Charan Singh Bolts His House From Inside And Out https://www.article-14.com/post/why-charan-singh-bolts-his-house-from-inside-and-out-before-he-sleeps

2. Milind Bokil and Vijay Raghavan. "Women and Children as Victims and Offenders: The Case of De-Notified Tribes in India." Women and Children as Victims and Offenders: Background, Prevention, Reintegration. Springer, Cham, 2016

3. Nikita Sonavane and Ameya Bokil, Condemned without Trial - India’s undertrials problem is spurring the COVID-19 outbreak in prisons https://caravanmagazine.in/law/india-undertrials-problem-spurring-covid-19-outbreak-prisons

4. Nikita Sonavane and Ameya Bokil, How Poverty-Struck Tribals Become ‘Habitual Offenders’ https://www.article-14.com/post/born-a-criminal-how-poverty-struck-tribals-become-habitual-offenders

5. Bangalore International Centre Masterclass by G N Devy on Denotified Tribes https://youtu.be/4rG6IzxGOHM

CREDITS:

Host: Anindita Pattanayak

This is a Maed in India production.

Production Head & Editor: Joshua Thomas

Sound Mixing: Kartik Kulkarni

Project Supervisor: Shaun Fanthome

In Episode 8 of the DAKSH Podcast, we discussed custodial violence and the broader issue of access to justice for women in the background of the movie Jai Bhim and Justice Chandru’s book Listen to my case. Widespread custodial violence has become an accepted feature of our policing system. The issue has been spotlighted in the recent film Jai Bhim which is based on the real-life story of Parvathy, a woman belonging to the Irula tribe who approaches the Madras High Court to find her husband who is falsely arrested for theft and after severe custodial torture purportedly escapes from prison. The film also highlights the obstacles faced by women accessing justice. According to the data from the DAKSH Access to Justice Survey 2016 only 15% of the litigants interviewed were women. Justice Chandru’s book Listen to my case describes the stories of 20 women who approached the Madras High Court for justice. Our guest today is Justice Chandru, former judge of the Madras High Court who has one of the most prolific rates of disposal for any judge in the country. He has also written a book called Listen to my case which has twenty short accounts of bold and courageous women who have approached courts for redressal of a range of injustices. More recently Justice Chandru has been in the news as the inspiration for Suriya’s character in the Tamil movie Jai Bhim. Jai Bhim is based on the real-life story of Parvathy, a woman belonging to the Irula tribe who approaches the Madras High Court to find her husband who is falsely arrested for theft and after severe custodial torture purportedly escapes from prison. 

1. Aditya Manubarwala, Revisiting India’s obligations against custodial torture (19 May 2017) http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/80097/

2. DAKSH, Access to Justice Survey 2016 https://www.dakshindia.org/access-to-justice-survey/

3. Justice K Chandru, Listen to My Case! When Women Approach the Courts of Tamil Nadu

4. State of Indian Policing Report 2019, Common Cause https://www.commoncause.in/uploadimage/page/Status_of_Policing_in_India_Report_2019_by_Common_Cause_and_CSDS.pdf

CREDITS:

Host: Leah Verghese

This is a Maed in India production.

Production Head & Editor: Joshua Thomas

Sound Mixing: Kartik Kulkarni

Project Supervisor: Shaun Fanthome

According to surveys, public procurement, access to public services, and regulation in India are prone to high degrees of bias, corruption and misalignment with public welfare. An ideal at the heart of good governance reform is “public accountability”; we frequently hear calls for greater accountability of government actors - both within public institutions and to the public at large. 

In Episode 7 of the DAKSH podcast, we speak to Dr. CK Mathew, a former bureaucrat and current academic, researcher and author with an interest in challenges before the Indian administrative state. Dr. Mathew weighs on how he thinks about public accountability - who owes it, to whom and how; how it affects the morale and functioning of administrators, and what elements are necessary for ‘accountability’ to drive towards improved development indicators. Drawing on his experience working with politicians and civil society, Dr. Mathew explores institutional and public experiments with accountability and unpacks what this concept means to him. 

Reading List

1. Dr. CK Mathew. “The Historical Evolution of the District Officer.” Azim Premji University, 2020. https://azimpremjiuniversity.edu.in/publications/2020/book/the-historical-evolution-of-the-district-officer-from-early-days-to-1947

2. India Today. “State of States 2021: The Best States in India.” November 2021. https://www.indiatoday.in/magazine/cover-story/story/20211206-state-of-states-2021-the-best-states-of-india-1880809-2021-11-27

3. Public Affairs Centre. “The Public Affairs Index.” https://pacindia.org/page/pai 

4. Bala Posani & Yamini Aiyar. “State of Accountability: Evolution, Practice & Emerging Questions in Public Accountability in India.” Accountability Initiative. May 2009. https://accountabilityindia.in/sites/default/files/working-paper/34_1244199435.pdf 

CREDITS:

Host: Smita Mutt

This is a Maed in India production.

Production Head & Editor: Joshua Thomas

Sound Mixing: Kartik Kulkarni

Project Supervisor: Shaun Fanthome

On Episode 6 we spoke to Dr Anup Surendranath who is the Executive Director of Project 39A (formerly the Centre on the Death Penalty) and an Assistant Professor of Law at National Law University, Delhi.  His involvement with the death penalty our topic for today began in May 2013 by establishing and leading the Death Penalty Research Project that culminated in the Death Penalty India Report ​that was released in​ 2016. The project, first of its kind on the death penalty in India, interviewed all of India's death row prisoners and their families towards developing a socio-economic profile of death row prisoners and also mapping their interaction with the criminal justice system. Today Anup joins us to help us unpack and understand how capital punishment plays out in India.

Reading List

1. Anup Surendranath,, Neetika Vishwanath, and Preeti Pratishruti Dash. "The Enduring Gaps and Errors in Capital Sentencing in India." Nat'l L. Sch. India Rev. 32 (2020), 46.
2. Craig Haney,  Death by design: Capital punishment as a social psychological system. Oxford University Press, 2005.
3. Craig Haney, Criminality in context: The psychological foundations of criminal justice reform. American Psychological Association, 2020.
4. Jahnavi Misra, The Punished: Stories of Death-Row Prisoners in India, 2021Harper Collins
5. Probal Chaudhuri, Debasis Sengupta and Paramesh Goswami, Adalat, Media, Samaj Ebong Dhananjoyer Phasi 2016.
6. Project 39A, Death Penalty India Report, 2016 https://www.project39a.com/dpir

CREDITS:

Host: Leah Verghese

This is a Maed in India production.

Production Head & Editor: Joshua Thomas

Sound Mixing: Kartik Kulkarni

Project Supervisor: Shaun Fanthome