Sanjib Baruah, Professor, Political Studies Program, Bard College, NY
 
Routine Emergencies: India's Armed Forces Special Powers Act

Some argue that India's controversial Armed Forces Special Powers Act [AFSPA] permits a localized form of de facto emergency rule. Its provisions include the power of the armed forces to make preventive arrests, to search premises without warrant, to shoot and kill civilians; and it gives legal immunity to soldiers implicated in such actions. Efforts to challenge the law in Indian courts have been unsuccessful . This talk will discuss why the paradigm of the state of exception that has come to dominate the study of emergencies can neither explain the AFSPA regime, nor provide an effective political strategy to resist it.

Co-Sponsored by Department of Political Science