Resistance through Utopia: Reflections on the Niyamgiri Anti-Mining Movement and International Law
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Resistance through Utopia: Reflections on the Niyamgiri Anti-Mining Movement and International Law
German Yearbook of International Law, Vol. 60 (2018), Iss. 1 : pp. 393–421
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Radhika Jagtap, Doctoral Candidate at the Centre for International Legal Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University.
Abstract
There is some significance attached to the role that local-level collective action plays in reimagining global structures like international law. A theoretical assessment of this idea could be done through a merger between the utopian analysis of international law and critical approaches to the discipline which now identify categories like social movements as contemporary modes of transformation. Social movements like the ‘Save Niyamgiri’ movement in India could be seen as a local level catalyst for rethinking, restructuring, and resisting mainstream international law. The paper intends to place the Dongria peoples’ narratives as a utopia of resistance. This utopia is a collective of epistemologies that emanate from their imagination and spirituality, making critical statements on the global politics that favour dystopian versions of domestic and international law. The paper looks into the way the Dongria peoples’ imagination was received and recognised by institutions including the Supreme Court of India and other civil society actors which led to the successful internationalisation of the movement. It develops a sense of the need for international law to look into the local mobilisations surrounding anti-mining resistance and politics of forest rights and concludes with the contention that a transformation of international law also means the redefining of the human condition.
Table of Contents
| Section Title | Page | Action | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Radhika Jagtap: Resistance through Utopia: Reflections on the Niyamgiri Anti-Mining Movement and International Law | 1 | ||
| I. Social Movements and International Law: The Utopian Projects within the Discipline | 4 | ||
| A. Social Movements and Counter-Hegemonic Resistance in International Law | 6 | ||
| B. Social Movements and Restructuring International Law | 8 | ||
| C. Social Movements and Rethinking International Law | 1 | ||
| II. The Dongria Imagination of the Niyamgiri | 1 | ||
| III. Niyamgiri and its Relevance in International Law | 1 | ||
| A. Counter-Hegemonic Use of Local Laws | 1 | ||
| B. The Niyamgiri Movement and International Solidarity | 2 | ||
| C. Niyamgiri Against the Global Dystopia | 2 | ||
| IV. Conclusion | 2 |