Arvind Narrain

Education

• LL.M. , Warwick University 1998-99.
• B.A., LL.B, (Hons.), National Law School of India University, 1993-98.

Profile

He has been involved with research, writing and practice related to law and social concerns. He has done a bachelor’s in law from the National Law School of India University(NLSIU) followed by a masters in the University of Warwick on a Chevening scholarship. He is currently in the process of doing his PHD on ‘Mapping the elements of an Ambedkarite jurisprudence’ at the NLSIU.

He is the author of India’s Undeclared Emergency: Constitutionalism and the Politics of Resistance and the co-editor of Law Like Love: Queer perspectives on law as well as the Co-author of Breathing Life into the Constitution. He was the founding member of the Alternative Law Forum www.altlawforum.org He was also a part of the team of lawyers challenging Section 377 of the IPC right from the High Court in 2009 to the Supreme Court in 2018.

Publications

Books:

•  Conversations with Upendra Baxi, co-authored with Upendra Baxi, Lawrence Liang, Seetaramam Kakarala and Sruti Chaganti, Permanent Black (forthcoming 2022)
• Undeclared Emergency: Constitutionalism and the Politics of Resistance , Westland, 2022.
• Breathing Life into the Constitution: Human Rights Lawyering in India, Coauthored with Saumya Uma, Alternative Law Forum, 2017.
• Queer: Despised sexualities, law and social change, Books For Change, 2004.

Edited Books:

• Medicalization of Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity, Yoda Press, Coedited with Vinay Chandran , Yoda Press,2015.
• Law like love: Queer perspectives on law, Yoda Press, Co-edited with Alok Gupta et.al., Yoda Press, 2011.
• Because I have a voice, Yoda Press, Co-edited with Gautam Bhan, Yoda press , 2005.

Academic Articles / Book Chapters:

• Ambedkar and Gandhi: Contributions to an Indian Jurisprudence, (2020) XIV, ILS.L.R
• Radical Constitutionalism: Towards an Ambedkarite jurisprudence, Ed., Aakash Singh Rathore, B.R. Ambedkar: The Quest for Justice: Legal and Economic Justice Volume 3,Oxford University Press, 2021
• The Yogyakarta Principles and the Yogyakarta Principles plus 10: Their relevance to the LGBTI struggle, Co-authored with Pooja Patel Global LGBT Rights, Ed. Andreas Ziegler (forthcoming 2022).
• The Appointment of the First UN Expert on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity: Politics, Challenges and the Path Ahead, Ed. Paula Gerber, Worldwide Perspective of LGB rights, 2021
• India’s role in the Human Rights Council: Is there a Constitutional vision in its foreign policy?, Indian Journal of International Law June 2017, Volume 57, Issue 1–2, pp 87–120
• What would an Ambedkarite jurisprudence look like? 29 NLSI Rev. 1 (2017)
• Imagining utopia: The importance of love, dissent and radical empathy, cf. Ashish Kothari and K.J. Joy, Eds., Alternative Futures: India Shackled, Authors Upfront, 2017.
• Reflections on the Use of Fatal Force by the Indian State: Colonial and Postcolonial legalities, cf. Julie Rajan & Om Dwivedi, Human rights and Post Colonial India , Routledge, 2015
• Sexual violence and the Death Penalty, Economic and Political Weekly, January 18, 2014. Vol XLIX No 3
• Social Justice Lawyering and the meaning of Indian Constitutionalism: A case study of the Alternative Law Forum,(co-authored with Arun Thiruvengadam) Wisconsin International Law Journal, Vol 31 No 3, Fall 2013
• My experiments with law: Gandhi’s exploration of Law’s Potential, 6 NUJS L. Rev. 273 (2013)
• The Criminal Law (Amendment) Bill 2012: Sexual Assault as a Gender Neutral Offence, Economic and Political Weekly, Vol – XLVII No. 35, September 01, 2012
• Global Justice in the era of the war against terror cf. International Criminal Court and India, Edited by Vahida Nainar and Saumya Uma, 2013
• Somasekhara Commission Report: Inconsistencies and Contradictions, Economic and Political Weekly, February 26, 2011 vol xlvi no 9
• Relief and Rehabilitation Ensuring Inclusion, Co-authored with D’Rozario et al, Economic and Political Weekly, April 9, 2005
• Juvenile In(justice) in India, Haq Center for child rights , 2003.

Queer rights:

• Brazil, India, South Africa: Transformative Constitutions and Their Role in LGBT Struggles, Sur, 2015
• A new Language of Morality: From the Trial of Nowshirwan to the Judgment in Naz Foundation, [2010] Indian Journal of Constitutional Law 84
• ‘That Despicable Specimen of Humanity:’ Policing of homosexuality in India in Kalpana Kannabiran, Ed., Challenging the rule(s) of law, Sage New Delhi, 2008.
• Queer struggles around the law: The contemporary context, in Nivedeta Menon, Ed. , Sexualities , Kali/Women Unlimited, 2007.
• Rethinking citizenship: A queer journey, Indian Journal of Gender Studies, Vol 14, No 1 Jan-Apr 2007
• Brazil Resolution on sexual orientation: Challenges in articulating a sexual rights framework from the viewpoint of the global south, Asia PacifiQueer Network, 2005
  https://digitalcollections.anu.edu.au/handle/1885/8680
• Sexuality: A Realm of Politics, Economic and Political Weekly, March 25, 2006
• There are no short cuts to queer utopia: Sodomy, law and social change, Lines, February 2004. ,
  http://www.lines-magazine.org/Art_Feb04/Arvind.htm
• Queer people and the law, Seminar April 2003.
• Human Rights and Sexual Minorities : Global and Local contexts, Refereed article, Law, Social Justice & Global Development (LGD), 2001 (2),
  • • Violence by Law, The Little Magazine , Vol II Issue I.
    • The Human Rights of an ‘unpeople’, Combat Law, Vol II Issue 4.• Medicalization of Homosexuality, Coauthored with Tarunabh Khaitan , Combat Law, Vol I Issue I

Newspaper articles:

• Just a narrow victory, Deccan Herald, Sep 4, 2022, https://www.deccanherald.com/sunday-herald/sh-top-stories/just-a-narrow-victory-1140673.html
• Ruth Bader Ginsburg:A legacy resonates, Deccan Herald , September, 27, 2020
• A Greater Transformation, Hindu, September 10, 2018
• Third But Not Separate , DNA, April 21, 2014
• Section 377 and the Error of Judgment, February 15, 2014
• Betraying the third way, The Hindu , April 19, 2013 (Coauthored with Aarti Mundkur)
• The Verma Committee: Alchemizing anger to hope, The Hindu, January 25, 2013
• Betrayal of a mandate?, February 12, 2011
• Dignity Restored, Frontline, July 18-3, 2009
• What gender is shame, Deccan Herald, March 8, 2009
• What’s law got to do with it ? The Indian Express, May 21, 2008
• Law gives good cheer to queers, (Coauthored with Vivek Divan), Tehelka Magazine, Vol 5, Issue 2, Jan 19, 2008
• Revise Sec 377 , Times of India , Jan 2007
• What a queer administration?, Hindustan Times, 3rd December, 2005