Speakers
In the map of the world we have long known, the US and Western powers stand at one pole, with Russia and China at the other: ideological, institutional, intentional.
This discussion, based on the book The De-democratisation Project, argues that seismic shifts in the world, the genocide in Gaza, Russia’s war on Ukraine, the US-Israel war on Iran, cannot be understood through the outmoded West-versus-Rest lens. The true crisis of our time, it suggests, is a global attempt to undo the hard-won consensus that democracy and human rights are universal. The conversation imagines a different map altogether: one built on solidarity, and the shared aspiration of democracy.
In collaboration with:

Speakers
Kavita Krishnan
Kavita Krishnan is a feminist democratic rights activist based in Delhi, India. She is the author of Fearless Freedom (Penguin, 2020) and De-democratisation, a Global Story: Script, Actors, Enablers (Context/Westland, 2026).
Arvind Narrain
Arvind Narrain is a lawyer and writer, currently visiting faculty at the National Law School. He is the author of India’s Undeclared Emergency: Constitutionalism and the Politics of Resistance, and co-editor of Because I Have a Voice: Queer Politics in India and Law Like Love: Queer Perspectives on Law. As part of the legal team challenging Section 377 from the High Court to the Supreme Court, he has been a key voice in India’s queer rights movement.
