The Gulabi Gang, Violence, and the Articulation of Counterpublicity

This essay analyzes the resistive tactics of the Gulabi Gang in rural India between approximately 2006 and 2013, asserting the Gulabi Gang as a counterpublic that used violence to negotiate and achieve its counterpublicity. The Gulabi Gang represents a nodal point in a rich and complex history of resistance against gender- and caste-related violence in India. Through this analysis, I contend the group implicitly challenges the prearranged distinction between violence and legitimacy, which undergirds popular discourses, orientalist stereotypes, and much of rhetorical theory.