Toward an Anti-Caste and Feminist Vision of Transformative Justice: Analyzing Social Media Activism Against Sexual Violence

Abstract

This article attempts to understand how ideas of justice are conceptualized within social media discourses around gender and sexual violence in India through an intersectional analysis of two case studies: the case of the rape and murder of a Hyderabad veterinarian and the List of Sexual Harassers in Academia, or LoSHA, which generated many conversations on sexual violence and justice on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. While a cursory reading of these two social media responses might see both as a rejection of due process and as seeking justice outside the structures of the judicial system, we argue that a closer reading of both is necessary to understand the different contours that these calls for justice have taken. In addition, we study how these two different social media conversations on sexual violence have centered the victim/survivor of sexual violence differently to understand how they engage with carcerality and anti-carceral politics. We conclude by attempting a definition of transformative justice based on anti-caste feminist interventions on social media, specifically drawing on the work of Dalit feminists, including those who created LoSHA.