States of Disempowerment: Governing Gendered Violence in India’s Era of Rights Mobilizations

• In Event: 1454 - Law and State Power

Abstract

How do state officials govern violence against women when they face popular pressure but lack enforcement capacity? Over the past three decades, civil society actors have repeatedly intervened in routine aspects of case processing in India, demanding law enforcement personnel be more responsive to women’s claims. Yet, the Indian criminal justice system remains severely underfunded and overburdened, unable to administer legal mandates. Using participant observation and interview data with law enforcement personnel who processed domestic violence complaints, I analyze how law enforcement disempowerment shapes the regulation of violence. In my field site, state officials managed their own disempowerment by reassigning case processing and punishment to civilians. Based on these findings, I theorize how and under what conditions the protectionist practices theorized by gender and legal scholars give way to a different governance strategy based on outsourcing regulation.

Author

• Poulami Roychowdhury, McGill University