Defy & cultural democracy in India

Sophie Hope and Owen Kelly talk to Abhijit Sinha about the nooks that Project Defy initiate. They discuss how nooks work, and what they mean for developing activism around maker spaces in Indian society. Finally Abhijit explains why ideas about cultural democracy do not feature much in political discussion in India yet, and how he thinks they might become useful.


Episode 015     April 26, 2019
Contributors    Sophie Hope     |   Owen Kelly     |   Abhijit Sinha    

In the fifth episode of Miaaw Owen Kelly talked with Abhijit Sinha and Megha Sharma when they visited Finland. They discussed Project Defy and its radical pedagogical programme, based around nooks: community-driven spaces that resemble maker spaces.

Since then Owen visited a nook in Kochi, in Kerala, South India where, among other things, he met up again with Abhijit and Megha. There they explained something about Project Rage, which they hoped would develop a theoretical base for the programme, using the nooks as case studies.

In this episode Sophie Hope and Owen Kelly talk to Abhijit Sinha in more details about the nooks that Project Defy initiate. They discuss how nooks work, and what they mean for developing activism around maker spaces in Indian society. They discuss how Rage might develop.

Finally Abhijit explains why ideas about cultural democracy do not feature much in political discussion in India yet, and how he thinks they might become useful.