Voices from the Margin: Subaltern Perspectives on Marital Rape

: Anandita Dass Research Scholar (Department of English) Chaudhary Charan Singh University, Meerut, U.P. Marital rape is one of the most invisible yet most pervasive forms of gender-based violence throughout the world! In cultures where marriage is an ideal‚ holy and sacred bond‚ it remains culturally sanctioned! While all cultures internationally recognize rape as a violation of bodily autonomy‚ the crime of marital rape is still not recognized in many parts of the world! Using subaltern studies (subaltern women are those whose voices are not heeded by the dominant discourse)‚ the paper examines the persistence of the marital rape exception in India in light of patriarchal ideology that has been normalized over the years‚ which continues to reinforce the notion of coercive sex within a marriage and the woman's lack of control over her own body! Using feminist theory‚ intersectionality‚ and postcolonialism‚ the article analyzes the intersection of caste‚ class‚ and gender in the context of subaltern women's lives‚ social stigma and taboo‚ structural inequality‚ and the agency subaltern women do exercise! It uses these analyzes to conclude that an epistemic assertion of subaltern voices must accompany reform to the laws prohibiting marital rape!