Engendering the Streets through Protests: Historicising Select Feminist Street Performances in India

The cityscape is constantly touted as a widely used scenographic background, with enormous deployment of technological apparatus to stage various events. This paper delves into the intersection of second-wave feminist movements and street theatre within the context of India, juxtaposing historical occurrences with contemporary settings. It scrutinizes the dynamics of urban landscapes as pivotal settings for performative activism, employing technology in staging events like street theatres and Queer pride parades. These spaces, while spotlighting identity politics, also unveil the underpinning surveillance apparatus, often rebranded as ‘safe spaces’ under the aegis of a neo-liberal state. Focusing on the anti-dowry protest in late 1970s and anti-rape movement of 2012 in Delhi, this paper scrutinizes selected protest performances that transpired during this period. By employing theoretical frameworks that delve into the amalgamation of social memory within performance texts and the structured embodiment of performers, it seeks to analyze the transformative impact of these performances during the anti-rape movement, shedding light on their socio-political significance in contemporary India and explores how feminist street theatre fosters socio-political dialogue, mobilizes public spaces, and influences the discourse on gendered violence in urban contexts.