Mobilizing Public Protests against Sexual Violence in India

• In Event: Activism against, and Accountability for, Sexual Violence in the Global South

Abstract

In recent years, India has witnessed several major demonstrations against rape and sexual assault in which countless ordinary citizens have taken to the streets to register their condemnation of violence against women. Yet, while some incidents of sexual assault have culminated in massive public outrage, other seemingly similar attacks have not amounted in observable collective action against gender-based violence (GBV). What factors account for this variation? In addressing this question, the present paper leverages dramatic differences in the pace and extent of public responses to three deadly gang rape incidents in India, namely, the 2012 New Delhi gang rape, the 2018 gang rape of 8-year-old Asifa Bano in Kathua, Jammu, and the 2019 gang rape of a 14-year-old Dalit girl from Muzaffarnagar, Uttar Pradesh. Informed by interviews with activists, journalists, academics, and lawyers, it proposes a conjunctural model of collective action, which enabled mass protests after the Delhi and Kathua gang rapes but failed to emerge after the assault in Muzaffarnagar. Specifically, the paper shows that whereas the concerted involvement of activists, journalists, and citizens made collective action possible after the Delhi and Kathua assaults, a lack of media attention rendered the victim in Muzaffarnagar illegible to the Indian public. Taken together, the findings of this study crucially inform and advance our current understandings of social movements against GBV in contemporary India.

Author

• Aditi Malik, College of the Holy Cross