The invited lecture, ‘Rethinking resistance: Sudan’s resistance committees during revolution, peace and war’, was held by The Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani.
The lecture was based on Sharath’s own research and collaborative research with Matthew Benson-Strohmeyer and Raga Makawi.
Abstract
This invited lecture examined Sudan’s resistance committees (RCs) as one of the most significant experiments in civic, non-violent political action in the contemporary Global South. Tracing their evolution across Sudan’s 2018–19 revolution, the 2019–2023 transition, and the current war, Sharath argues that RCs articulate a radical critique of Sudan’s predatory postcolonial state and of the internationalised peace processes that have repeatedly reproduced it. Far from being reactive grassroots actors, RCs generate alternative political worlds grounded in medania (civicness), popular sovereignty, and economic justice. They also offer a profound challenge to elite-driven “peace” paradigms, insisting instead on people-authored, locally grounded visions of political transformation. Even amid mass displacement and violence, the Emergency Response Rooms extend this revolutionary project, demonstrating how care, mutual aid, and neighbourhood organising remain forms of political action. Together, these practices reveal Sudan’s resistance committees as world-making actors shaping new possibilities for politics and peace.
