Wednesday
15
October 2025
2:30 - 4:00 PM IST
Location
Room 004, School of Arts and Sciences
Central Campus
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United by Suspicion? Democracy and Minority Publics
Arts and Sciences Research Seminar Series
Shefali Jha
Faculty Member
Dhirubhai Ambani University
Speaker
Whether or not the dynamic of trust and suspicion is an essential part of democracy as a form of politics, it certainly seems ubiquitous: from global institutions, to fellow citizens, non-citizens, leaders and publics, the live energy of this dynamic appears to pervade contemporary politics. The career of the Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul-Muslimin or MIM, the now nationally recognised Hyderabad-based party, allows us to look at it from a different perspective.
In this talk based on my forthcoming book, I will explore the modalities of suspicion and its implications for minority political claims. The confrontation with the logic of democracy takes a particular form here: their claims must be based on presenting as a unified, if not united, group or community, that elusive value which is constantly undermined by the suspicion characteristic of political life.
Speaker
Shefali Jha
Shefali Jha teaches at the Dhirubhai Ambani University in Gujarat, and works in the fields of anthropology, literary and cultural studies. Her broader research interests range from the study of democracy and minority politics, especially in South Asia, to feminist theory and practice. She is the co-editor of Thinking Women: A Feminist Reader, with Navaneetha Mokkil, and has been associated with the Anveshi Research Centre for Women’s Studies in Hyderabad for over a decade. Her soon-to-be-published book is titled Democracy on a Minor Note: Muslim Publics and Politics in Hyderabad.
