Ontology of Information as a Right in the Right to Information Movement in India

<strong>Centre for the Study of Social Systems School of Social Sciences</strong> <strong>CSSS Colloquium</strong> <strong>Dr. Gitika De</strong> (Hindu College, Delhi University) presented a paper on <strong>Ontology of Information as a Right in the Right to Information Movement in India</strong> Date :<strong> February 11, 2016</strong> <strong>Abstract:</strong> This paper is an exploration of the ways in which rights-driven social movements constitute themselves through an analysis of the processual, contextual, and phenomenological bases of a right to information. Unlike more familiar social, political and civil rights, information as a right is a nebulous idea, making it imperative to ascertain the possible ontology of such a right.Drawing on archival records of the Right to Information Movement and ethnographic fieldwork in Rajasthan, I show how (a) the claim to a right to information was made meaningful through civic engagement orchestrated by social movement mobilization, (b) an interpretation of information among social agents was generated through contestations within a habitus of normative and power relationships and networks and the specific conjuncture of civic mobilization, and (c) information as a right functions in the dynamic contestation between the state and societal groups in the latter's claim to other social rights. <strong>Bio : </strong>Gitika De is Assistant Professor of Sociology at Hindu College, Delhi University, and was ICSSR Post-Doctoral Fellow at the Centre for the Study of Law and Governance, JNU (2014-16)researching the interface between social movements, lawmaking and policy with a focus on the Right to Information movement and its legislative and policy outcomes. Her research interests are in the broad areas of Political Sociology, Sociology of Social Movements, and Indian Politics.Her most recent publication is, 'Whose Land is it Anyway? Property, Law and Rights in the Land Acquisition Question in India', Journal of Land and Rural Studies, 4 (1), 2016, New Delhi: Sage.