The Annual Kleh Lecture: Carceral Journeys of Feminist Activism: Global Patterns and Rape Law Reforms in India

Please join us for the Annual Kleh Lecture where Professor Dash will critically examine the transfer of carceral feminist politics from the Global North to the Global South and its impact on feminist responses to violence against women in India. She will draw connections between the Anglo-American dominance feminist understanding of sexuality, as rooted in male domination and female subordination, and Indian mainstream feminist activism around rape law reform. She will argue that such an understanding, which centers on single-axis victimization along gender lines, obscures issues raised by feminists from other marginalized groups in both regions. For instance, in India, the concerns of Dalit and Muslim feminists, particularly regarding the participation of upper-caste Hindu women in caste-based and majoritarian Hindutva violence against religious minorities, are largely absent from mainstream feminist agenda. Given this backdrop, the Indian feminist reliance solely on criminal law to address violence against women has several unintended consequences. To illustrate this, she will highlight the conservative, patriarchal framework within which criminal law operates in India, as well as its disproportionate impact on marginalized communities.