Movement Resiliency: Accountability-seeking Diaspora Actors and their Responses to Transnational Repression

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How did pro-democracy Indo-Canadian social organizations respond to the incidence of transnational repression in their communities? In this talk, Abhimanyu Rajshekar will present material from his recent archival fieldwork in Vancouver, BC. Drawing on primary source material from two pro-democracy Indo-Canadian Organizations - the Indian People's Organization of North America (IPANA) and the South Asian Network for Secularism and Democracy (SANSAD) - Rajshekar will show the diverse range of strategies these actors utilized to respond to the incidence of Transnational Repression (TNR) in their communities. Specifically, he highlights how these organizations showcased resilience by sustaining transnational coalitions with civilian actors in India and the Global North, as well as leveraging connections to the media, academic networks, and the political elite in India. The organizational strategies Rajshekar covers here reveals the institutional framework utilized by sending states to repress the political voice of accountability-seeking diaspora actors in the late 20th century, and provides an opportunity to think about how contemporary pro-democracy South Asian diaspora actors may emulate similar behavior in North America as they encounter different forms of TNR.

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