Abstract

This chapter argues for a reorientation of political theory toward praxis by treating social movements not as empirical objects but as sites of theoretical production. Drawing on Indigenous resurgence, Dalit anti-caste struggles, and feminist politics, it examines practices of refusal, land defence, and collective imagination as modes of political thinking forged in conditions of domination. Rather than seeking inclusion within existing frameworks, these practices unsettle liberal assumptions about consensus, legitimacy, and political agency. The chapter advances the concept of a listening political theory—one that approaches struggle as a source of knowledge, recognises refusal as a generative political act, and understands theory as accountable to lived histories of injustice. In doing so, it reframes the political not as a space of abstract agreement but as a terrain continuously remade from below.