Law, Emasculation, and Sexual Violence in India

Abstract

In this paper, I juxtapose the demand for castration as a law reform measure with the parallel legal discourse on "emasculation" as the crime of grievous hurt. Juxtaposing these discourses on crime and punishment, I point to the curious lack of engagement with castration as a punishment with emasculation as a crime. The story of emasculation is found in the legal history of grievous hurt. I have argued that the legal interpretation of emasculation has different outcomes depending on the gender of the accused. Judges are unable to name male victimhood, while the law is punitive toward women who attack their assailants in self-defense.

Remarking the Unmarked: An Anthropology of Masculinity Redux

“…Merry (2001, for instance) was the leading anthropologist of gender-based violence, and her influence continues throughout this area of study. Baxi's (2021) exemplary work on rape in India contrasted issues of gender justice, social movements, and legal interventions regarding men and violence (on rape, see also Martin 2003). Several new studies on men have focused on the institutional violence linked to racism and class oppression in prisons in Mexico (Parrini 2007), Brazil (Drybread 2014), and the United States (Burton 2021, Curtis 2014).…”