Art(s) of visibility: resistance and reclamation of university spaces by women students in Delhi

Abstract

The article uses the narratives of the members of Pinjra Tod, a student-led movement against nigh-time curfews, moral surveillance and other constraint imposed on young women, within the urban Indian universities. The visuals produced by the struggle within the Delhi University are used to understand how the spatial control of women is a historical phenomenon, that constructs the body of women students as partial students and citizens through the use of institutional power mechanisms. The movement provides women an avenue to access the university public space as active political students as opposed to victims in need of protection and provide an alternative imagination of womanhood.

Keywords:

• Citizenship
• gender
• public space
• resistance
• street art
• university

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank my supervisor at the Centre for Women’s Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Dr. Papori Bora for her insightful comments and support, Dr. Atreyee Sen from the University of Copenhagen for giving me the opportunity to present in her panel at the ADI conference at UCPH, and Dr. Emilija Zabiliute for her recommendations and editing of this article. I would also like to register my gratitude for the Junior Research Scholarship awarded by the University Grants Commission of India, which has helped sustain my research. Finally, I would like to thank the activists of Pinjra Tod who have fiercely resisted systemic suppression in the Indian Universities and the city.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Paridhi Gupta is a Ph.D. candidate at the Centre for Women’s Studies, keenly interested in the field of visual studies and its interaction with gender as a category.