Claiming India from Below

Vipul Mudgal works on the intersections of media, democracy and political violence. He has a doctorate in Media Studies from Leicester University and is a recipient of the Nehru Centenary British Fellowship and Jefferson Fellowship at the East-West Center, Hawaii. He heads Inclusive Media for Change, a clearing house of ideas on development alternatives at the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS), Delhi, where he concluded his Visiting Senior Fellowship in October 2014. In March 2015, he joined Common Cause, known for its high-impact interventions in policy and governance, as director and chief executive.

• Introduction: Citizenship and Democratic Participation Vipul Mudgal Part I Voices from Below—Field Notes from India Unheard 1. Finding Voice, Visibility and Dignity for Seasonal Migrant Workers in Tribal Regions of Western India: Experiences of Aajeevika Bureau Amrita Sharma and Rajiv Khandelwal 2. From Parliament to Courtyard: Bringing Rights Home in erstwhile Andhra Pradesh Sowmya Kidambi and Akansha Yadav 3. Traversing Jungle Mahal Field notes on Democracy and Development in Santhal regions of Bihar and West Bengal Arindam Banerjee and Animesh Ghosh 4. PESA, the impasse of the legislative process: Democracy and challenges of Participation in Central Indian Tribal regions Ajay Dandekar 5. Strengthening Adivasis’ Democratic Rights over Natural Resources: Gram Sabhas and community management of resources in Orissa, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand Felix Padel 6. Politics, participation and Political Clout among Urban Poor: a study of Delhi Slum Sanjay Kumar 7. Schooling in India: Democratization or Reproduction of Structured Inequalities? Sanjeer Alam Part II Alternatives from Below: Participation for Transformation 8. Where is Citizenship in Development Communication? A Case for Deepening Democracy through Rights-Based participation Vipul Mudgal 9. Re-Imagining Spectrum as a Commons Resource Ram Bhatt 10. Using Community Radio for Establishing Last Mile Connect: Exploring the Possible role of Community Radio in Disaster Devi Leena Bose and Susan Koshy 11. Three -Isms: Evolving Sensory and Emotional Infrastructures to Counteract Disability Discrimination Hemachandran Karah 12. Mobilizing Community for Better Teaching and Learning Outcomes: Field Experiments in Rural Schools Rukmini Banerji 13. Negotiating Spaces: Reversing historical approaches to reforming financial services to low-income households Mathew Titus 14. Role of Activity Mapping in Democratic Good Governance Vincy Davis Part III Politics from Below— Activism for Interventions 15. Determining destinies: building transparency and accountability through citizen involvement Aruna Roy 16. Rights based activism, engaging the state and leveraging the markets: Possibilities of Social Transformation Mihir Shah 17. Clean Elections are Doable Through Participation and Intervention: Civil Society, Indian Elections and Democracy Today Trilochan Sastry 18. Initiatives and Referendums: The Next Step in Indian Democracy Atishi Marlena, Prashant Bhushan and Reena Gupta