Abstract
The Nirbhaya case Adrija Dey’s book focuses on refers to the brutal gang rape of a female physiotherapy student from New Delhi in 2012, which resulted in her death and a subsequent wave of protests labelled by some commentators as the ‘India Spring’. The identity of the rape victim was never revealed but one of the pseudonyms used by the media was Nirbhaya, which means fearless in Hindi. Dey chose to focus her book on this case study because ‘the reaction of the people in India, not just gender activists and organisations, but the general Indian public, was overwhelming … this was the first time I had witnessed a gender movement in India of this scale’ (p. 2). The other three reasons were ‘the extensive use of information and communication technologies’ (p. 2), the ‘instant actions being taken by the government’ (p. 3) and the reaction of other women who spoke out about the sexual abuse they had suffered and the public media debates that this case prompted in Indian society about gender and patriarchy. Dey’s book aims to provide ‘an in-depth cyberconflict analysis of the Nirbhaya case and to investigate the use of ICTs and social media by civil society actors, activists and organisations specifically for gender activism in India’ (p. 5). The book is divided into five substantive chapters. Chapter 1, ‘The Cyberconflict Framework and Conceptual Considerations’, presents the theoretical framework the research project is built upon, which ‘combines elements of social movement theory with media theory and conflict theory to understand the motivations, origins, dynamics and impact of ICTs on social movements’ (p. 5). The title of Chapter 2 is self-explanatory – ‘Brief History of the Indian Women’s Movement and Tracing Out the Sociopolitical and Media Environment’. Chapter 3, ‘Analysing the Nirbhaya Case through the Lens of the Social-movement Framework’, traces the history of the social movement that evolved as a result of this rape case. Dey argues that one of the most unusual aspects of the movement was the participation of individual people who were not previously involved in the movement as opposed to organizations only. Chapter 4 discusses the role of social media and Information and communications technology in gender activism in India. Chapter 5 then analyses the Nirbhaya case ‘through the lens of intersectionality’ (p. 7). Dey reminds us that gender violence in India is often the result of the intersection of a range of factors – class, caste, religion and geography. All in all, Dey has achieved her aim of writing an engaging and accessible introductory text for students, researchers, academics and gender activists. Her book provides an intriguing insight into the history of digital gender activism in India, which is thoroughly grounded in the country’s historical and cultural context.