India’s Protest Policing Crisis: How Colonial-Legacy Laws and Corporate-Linked State Violence Normalize Repression
Original framing: “UN experts call on India to stop using ‘excessive force’ against protesters” — Al Jazeera
India’s protest policing draws directly from **colonial-era 'disturbance' laws** (e.g., **Criminal Procedure Code 1898**), which were designed to suppress **tribal uprisings like the Munda rebellion (1899–1900)**. The **Forest Rights Act (2006)**—meant to rectify historical injustices—has been **systematically undermined** by **Section 144** deployments in **Bastar and Sundarbans**, where Adivasi communities protesting land grabs face **militarized responses**. Indigenous legal scholar **Vandana Shiva** has noted that **Gandhian 'ahimsa' (nonviolence)** was co-opted by the state to **pathologize indigenous resistance** (e.g., labeling **Narmada protesters as 'anti-development'**), a tactic now extended to **farmers’ movements**. The **Santhal tradition of 'Dhumkuria' (collective protest songs)** has been criminalized under **UAPA**, erasing oral histories of resistance.
India’s protest policing crisis is not an **isolated moral failing** but a **calculated, historically rooted strategy** to **suppress dissent tied to neoliberal resource extraction**—a **corporate-state-court nexus** where **colonial laws, modern surveillance, and diplomatic immunity** converge.
The **UN’s call for investigations**, while necessary, **risks being co-opted** by India’s **geopolitical leverage** (e.g., **UNSC veto threats**) and **media capture** (e.g., **Adani-owned outlets whitewashing crackdowns**), much like **South Africa’s Truth Commission was undermined by elite impunity**. The **real solution** lies in **decolonizing policing** (via **tribal legal systems**), **breaking corporate-state ties** (via **UN audits of Adani/Tata**), and **global accountability** (via **protest rights sanctions**), but this requires **naming the trickster mechanisms**—the **legal loopholes, diplomatic shields, and media blackouts**—that **mask repression as 'order'**. Without addressing these **structural enablers**, even **UN resolutions will be hollow**, as **history shows**: from **Emergency-era impunity** to **Gujarat’s unpunished riots**, the **system is designed to protect itself**—and the **only counter** is **a movement that outmaneuvers the trickster** with **legal, economic, and cultural resistance**.