As Delhi protesters demand chief election commissioner Gyanesh Kumar resign over India's shrunken voter roll, an American nonprofit asks everyone to sit with their feelings first.
An American wellness nonprofit has emailed a fourteen-page healing workbook to the 130 million people reportedly cut from India's voter roll. While protesters in Delhi call for chief election commissioner Gyanesh Kumar to resign, the group wants everyone to process their feelings first.
The workbook runs to fourteen pages and opens with a breathing exercise. It is called "When the List Lets You Go." On Friday, the Portland-based Collective for Somatic Democracy began emailing it to India.
It is meant for the 130 million people reportedly cut from India's voter roll. The cuts have sent protesters into the streets of New Delhi, demanding the resignation of chief election commissioner Gyanesh Kumar. More protests are planned this week, according to NPR and The New York Times.
The Collective has a different ask. It would like everyone to slow down.
"Protest is valid, but it is also very activating," said Dr. Saffron Whitlock-Ng, the group's director of transnational feelings. "Before we demand anyone resign, we have to ask what the voter roll was carrying. A list doesn't lose 130 million names because it's happy."
The workbook guides readers from Denial ("Maybe I'm still registered?") to a final stage called Reclaiming Narrative Sovereignty. Step six asks each removed voter to write a letter to their missing name. Step nine asks them to write the reply.
Staff are also planning a mediated dialogue between the removed voters and the roll itself, which will be represented by a printout on a chair. Each participant gets ninety seconds to share before passing the talking stick. Organisers concede the logistics are ambitious. On current scheduling, the last speaker is pencilled in for the twenty-fourth century, which Whitlock-Ng called "a reminder that healing is not linear, and frankly neither is democracy."
Language remains under review. Junior facilitator Rowan Pettibone has moved the team away from "disenfranchised," a word he says "centres the franchise." The preferred term is now "people experiencing unregistration."
"We also stopped saying 'purge,'" Pettibone said. "It's a harm-forward word. The roll is not purging. It is going through a season of release."
"Lists don't shrink by accident. That is a list in pain."
The Collective did seek feedback from protesters in Delhi. None replied, as they were busy protesting.
"Which is honestly a boundary," Whitlock-Ng said. "I want to hold space for that."
Some feedback did arrive. Fourteen subscribers wrote back asking whether completing the workbook would get them their vote back. The Collective removed all fourteen from its mailing list the same afternoon.
"They weren't ready to do the work," Whitlock-Ng said. "Sometimes a list has to protect its own peace."
