Celebrate India’s 75th Independence Day, with “Reimagining Citizenship”, a film festival organised by Karwan e Mohabbat, the University of York and the Centre for Equity Studies, to commemorate this historic movement, and the minds and art behind it. We will talk about what being an Indian means today, and what it takes to defend that belongingness. We will see films that document the protests and state repression, and ask fundamental questions about the future of this country. We will also speak to key voices of the resistance, witnesses and survivors of the repression, and artists who gave the movement its soul.

On day 3 of the festival, we look at how art expresses resistance and ways of belonging in diverse cultures.

Varun Grover is a stand-up comic, writer and poet. He is known for his sharp wit and political musings.

Aamir Aziz is a delhi based poet from Patna. Known for his resistance poetry, he rose to fame with his poem Acche Din Blues.

Sabika is a performative poet and the Founder of Sar-e-Rahguzar: Poetry on the Streets. She is a story-teller, translator, alternative educator and campaigner.

Harsh Mander is a social justice and human rights activists. He works with survivors of mass violence and hunger, as well as homeless persons and street children.He is also co-investigator for the Reimagining Citizenship Project

Apoorvanand teaches Hindi at the Department of Hindi, University of Delhi. He is a literary and cultural critic. Has two books of essays in criticism and several articles published in major literary journals.

Navsharan Singh is a Delhi-based researcher and human rights activist. She has worked and published extensively on informal sector workers, especially women workers and the precarity of their work and lives.