Chudi, Bindi Aur Hijab: Anti-Patriarchy Movements within Anti-Authoritarianism in India

The lines above are from slogans performed by Zanana Ensemble, a women’s group of performing-protestors in Delhi (personal video, Jan 2020). It illustrates the centrality in reportage and social media representations of both urban and rural women in the protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act in India (e.g. The Suno India Show, 2020, Mar 8). This paper looks at discursive interventions online and protests against political and social injustices against women in India within the wider protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act which erupted in December 2019 and continues to evolve at the time of writing. In attempting to classify some modes of publicness on digital media platforms that are prevalent amongst women resisting the oppressions of living under an authoritarian regime that overlaps with traditional patriarchal structures, this paper explores the radical potential of spheres of affect which challenges representative authority and questions “who” has the right to construct the political.