For reasons beyond our control and that of the artists, this project has unfortunately been cancelled for this 2024 edition. A talk with Zuleikha Chaudhari is organised on 14 May at 19:00 in KVS BOL.

What if one morning upon waking up, India discovers that the entire Muslim population of the country suddenly disappeared, vanished into thin air without leaving a trace. This is the incipit of a text – written by journalist Saeed Naqvi, a prominent voice in India – that is brought to the stage by Delhi-based artiste Zuleikha Chaudhari. We see a TV set where journalists are busy with the frenetic live coverage of this event that is changing the country, with the elections expected in only a few days: once the Muslims have vanished, what will the nationalist party talk about in the election campaign? And with this disappearance, don't the demographic weights of the various (Hindu) castes change, finally reducing the political weight of those in power? Ending with a trial which references contemporary Indian trials, The Muslim Vanishes becomes a sharp satire of the largest democracy in the world, echoing how nationalist agendas might function similarly elsewhere.