The increasing curve of suicides, especially farmer suicides in India today have made it a subject of inquiry for not just sociologists, but economists, policy makers, legal and medical practitioners. These analyses underline its connections today with state economic policies and seek solutions to stem the phenomenon in state economic or judicial reforms. A longer historical frame allows us to understand how death or the right to die was primarily an act governed by religious traditions and customs and how it became a question of state sovereignty through colonial interventions. The talk traces this development from the colonial period to the contemporary moment where ways of dying are being re-claimed as an essential part of religious freedoms.

Discussant: Timothée Demont