Sexual Violence in Indian Public Sphere: Counter-public Creation and Deferral

Abstract

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.