Premise
Iratia won independence from colonial rule over 70 years ago, to become a ‘sovereign, socialist, secular, democratic republic’. The nation of Iratia has recently had amendments made to its Illegal Actions Aversion Act (IAAA), legislation originally drafted to control terrorism. A list of well-known figures has been accused of being guilty under these amendments. What’s the actual story? Let’s dig deeper!
List of accused
Superman
Wonder Woman
Daredevil
Cyclops
Spider-Man
Magneto
Killmonger
Luke Cage
the Omega men
Exercise
Organize students into small groups and allow each group to pick a figure of their choice from the list above. Each group will have the task of doing the necessary research to investigate whether or not their figure is guilty with regard to the amendments made (refer to Background Material below). You could also design your own List of Accused depending on what you want to discuss with your class! For instance, the List of Accused could comprise names from modern Indian history/society/polity:
Savitribai Phule
Sarojini Naidu
Bhagat Singh
Kalpana Dutta
Periyar E.V Ramaswamy
Gaura Devi
Note: All names (and actions undertaken by them) in the list to be re-imagined as set in Iratia.
Suggested guiding questions for students’ research:
Who is the character?
What does the character do?
Can their actions be interpreted as terrorist in nature?
Which actions? Why? By whom? Where?
Iratia is a federal, democratic republic. Are the provisions of IAAA and its amendment in keeping with this status? If yes, why—if not, why?
Background Material
Here’s a compilation of background material to get the students started! Distribute copies among the groups when beginning this assignment. Download the document below:
Food for thought (with ref. to background material)
What do you understand from ‘peaceful equivalents of war crimes’? Whose peace, whose war, what determines such statuses?
‘…broadening the area of what constitutes a terrorist act’: what does this mean? What dangers could this entail?
What do ‘terrorist literature and terrorist theory’ mean to you? Think of five books/texts that you would put under this name—on what considerations did you make the five choices?
Follow up exercises
Screen the above video for students/ share this video with students
Do a feedback session with students, asking them to share thoughts, opinions after going through with this assignment.