Chess for Countering Backlash

Abstract

This Chess – Shatranj or Chaturanga - workshop exercise can be played in various ways. You can play this as an exercise – or a series of exercises – in a workshop setting. You can also do it at home or at your desk, to aid thinking and research.

To play, name your ‘players’/’pieces’, and discuss and explore how they contest to reshape the spaces/sites of ‘the body’, ‘the family’ and ‘the nation’. Then, identify what kinds of language, narratives and tactics these different types of anti-feminist actors use about bodies, families and nations - and put it into the squares.