History, law and the Female Gaze

Host: Prathiksha Ullal
Content Consultant: Gayathri N.
Edited, mixed and mastered by: Ankit Thakur
Intro and Outro Music: Artlist
Thumbnail Art by: Kunal Agnihotri

In the second episode of the Legally Hers Podcast, Prathiksha Ullal is in conversation with Dr. Shrimoyee Ghosh, Assistant Professor at Azim Premji University, for a thought-provoking conversation that journeys back to the very origins of law. Together, they critically examine the colonial gaze through which many legal frameworks were first drafted, uncovering the deeply embedded colonial and patriarchal perspectives that continue to shape laws even today.

This episode interrogates the enduring legacy of colonial rule, revealing how traces of Victorian morality, the “saviour’s complex,” and the ideology of the “white man’s burden” persist within contemporary legal systems particularly in laws governing sex work and erotic dancing among others. While the Constitution promises transformation and equality, the discussion highlights the unsettling continuities between past and present to show that laws in India still retain the logic of colonial morality.

Through a feminist and historical lens, the conversation also brings into focus the lived realities of women marginalized by these legal structures: the sex workers, tawaifs, child brides, and Hindu widows. Their stories reveal how colonial-era legislations have not only shaped but continue to constrain the existence of women outside the sanctioned boundaries of marriage and society.In unpacking these histories, the episode metaphorically “unearths” the bodies of women buried beneath layers of legislative reform, urging listeners to confront the enduring impact of law’s colonial male gaze and to question whose voices and lives remain excluded.

Shrimoyee Nandini Ghosh is a lawyer and legal anthropologist, whose work focuses on questions of rights, justice and legal cultures. She currently teaches at the School of Arts and Sciences, Azim Premji University. In the past, she has worked with grassroots organisations on human rights documentation and litigation efforts in Kashmir, Bombay and New Delhi.