Feminist Perspectives on Indian Law and Politics

Abstract

This session looks at Indian law and politics through the feminist lens. It addresses past and present challenges for gender equality and shows how Indian women’s rights activists, feminist lawyers and women’s groups have addressed these by using the law as a vehicle for change. Focusing in particular on the past decade’s developments, we will engage with feminist attempts to change discriminatory laws and societal structures and seek to understand why some of these campaigns have succeeded while others have failed. We will address the difficulties for feminist activists when positioning themselves vis-á-vis Hindu-nationalist politics and the challenges feminist (and other) civil society organisations currently face.