Introduction: We undertook the present study to analyze morphological features of a skull supposed to be that of Alum Bheg, a martyr from 1857 Indian Freedom Struggle (also called Sepoy Mutiny), using established methods to validate identity with regards to age and height as available in the note found with the skull (about 32 year and 5 feet 7½ inch). Methods: Identification of sex of the skull was done based on established criteria. Analysis for closure of skull sutures (cranial and facial) and measurement of orbitomedial (OM) & maxillomedial (MM) facial anthropometric lines were undertaken to provide an estimated age against each examined suture as well as group of sutures through established scoring systems. Further, approximate height of individual was estimated from skull length using regression equations from a reference adult Indian male population. Results: Established criteria confirmed that the skull was of a male individual and skull sutures and age related morphological changes in bones indicate that it belonged to an individual in age range 20 -50 years with an average of 30 years and approximate height between 5 feet 8.2 inch to 6 feet 1 inch. Discussion: Based on our observations we suggest that the skull belonged to a male individual around 30 years of age and height 5 feet 8.2 inch to 6 feet 1 inch. The observed values are in approximation with that mentioned in the historical note and slight differences may be attributed either to gross reporting of original values or limitations of anthropometric analysis.

The study attempts to locate transgender counter-public as an alternate public sphere in India. It argues that transgender counter-public is necessitated owing to the exclusionary practices of the Indian public sphere as well as the successive counter-public spheres. The study, further claims that transgender counter-public is constructed by critiquing the marginalisation of transgender people through exclusionary practices, and articulation of concerns linked to transgender people. Public discourse analysis of both discursive arenas—print: newspaper articles, journal articles, autobiographies, biographies, memoir, and others, and non-discursive arenas—activism, pride parade, protests and alike have been adopted as methodology. The study concludes that transgender counter-public achieves the dissemination of their concerns to the wider public that exclusion and discrimination of transgender people are a denial of social justice in the democratic social structure.

The Supreme Court of India recently decriminalized section 377 of the Indian Penal Code to outlaw the unfair violence and discrimination against transgender people. The paper argues that despite the legal acceptance of Section 377, the discrimination and social exclusion of transgender people continue in the Indian public sphere. The method of Interpretative Phenomenological Approach has been used to analyze the interviews of five transgender people from Jammu city. The findings suggest patterns and relationships within the data which are useful for understanding various ways in which transgender people negotiate and contemplate their lives outside the known social network they resort to. By analyzing the interpretations of selected transgender people, the study reveals that they bear the brunt of social and economic exclusion due to their gender identity on day-to-day basis.

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The paper hypothesises that public and counter-public spheres are rhetorically constructed and argues that the nature of rhetoric in both the spheres is dialectically construed by various agencies which on the one hand ensure the execution of public sphere rhetoric, and on the other hand, defer counter-public discourse to be implemented in practice, especially in case of sexual violence against women in India. The paper contextualises the same argument using various newspaper articles which are reflective of the ineffectiveness of the rhetorical counter-public and its consequent deferral.