The Willful Body: Reclaiming Indian Urban Space through “Walk” and “Meet to Sleep”

Abstract

This paper examines how contemporary feminist performance in India shifts the discourse on gender-based violence from legalistic “protection” to radical “presence.” Centred on the aftermath of the 2012 Nirbhaya case, the research provides a comparative analysis of Maya Krishna Rao’s “Walk” (2012) and Blank Noise’s “Meet to Sleep” (2014). Drawing on Diana Taylor’s distinction between the “archive” and the “repertoire,” this paper argues that these performances resist the closure offered by judicial verdicts by sustaining an affective space of collective mourning and defiance. While Rao’s Walk utilises the minimalist stage to simulate the “zebra crossing” as a failed social contract, Blank Noise’s Meet to Sleep intervenes directly in urban parks, transforming the vulnerable act of napping into a refusal of “slow violence.” By applying the theories of Sara Ahmed (2004; 2014) and Rob Nixon (2011), this research demonstrates how these “willful” bodies disrupt the normalisation of fear. The paper contends that these performative acts do not merely seek safety, but demand a fundamental right to the city, making feminist rights visible through embodied practice long before they are realised in law.