PhD thesis defence by Raghavi Viswanath
A case study of the Irulars’ is a thesis that excavates a counterhegemonic imaginary of cultural rights.
Amidst burgeoning critiques of the semantic imprecision and weak enforceability of cultural rights in international law, one issue that has evaded scrutiny is the epistemic injustice (the wrong done to someone as a knower) inflicted by international law. My thesis examines the historical and contemporary practice of the twin Covenants – the most widely ratified treaties codifying cultural rights – to uncover the various kinds of epistemic injustice perpetrated by the interpretive bodies of the Covenants on Global South communities seeking redress for cultural rights violations.
In search of an epistemically just framework for cultural rights, the thesis embarks on an extensive collaboration with the Irulars, a semi-nomadic community based in south India who are culturally and epistemically marginalised. Combining fieldwork with over 800 Irular families with critical analysis informed by Fourth World Approaches to International Law, the thesis traces how the postcolonial Indian State, the help economy, and even some State-resisting communities collude to carry forward the epistemic injustices of Covenant grammars. Irulars, however, refuse and rescript these unjust grammars through their views on identity, faith, developmentalism, and the socio-political utility of rights, as well as the epistemic mediums such as dance through which they express their views.
Drawing on their insights, the thesis distils proposals to reanimate cultural rights in the Covenants in the voices, languages, and grammars of the Irulars. The legal analysis is co-produced with the community’s non-textual praxis and in their vernacular to honour their epistemic agency. In doing so, the thesis makes a case for a wider universe of Global South communities to secure epistemic justice within international law by subverting the liberal ordering of rights.