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Radhika’s research project explores the gender-based violence laws concerning queer communities in India. Their project develops a conceptual framework titled ‘household imprisonment,’ through which she aims to explore the manner in which the legal system, societal conditioning, cultural norms, political structure, and state confine queer communities in heteronormative homes. Taking an abolitionist lens, Radhika investigates how natal and marital heteronormative households can function as sites of incarceration for queer people in India, while tracing how historically and currently marginalised hijra gharanas offer alternative, liberatory models of queer home-making.
Radhika holds an MSc in Gender, Development, and Globalisation from the London School of Economics, and was previously a Young India Fellow at Ashoka University in India. Before joining LSE, they worked in social work focused on gender-based violence in both India and the UK. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Radhika also worked as a journalist with Barkha Dutt at Mojo Story, covering the crisis of mass graves during India’s second wave.
Her research interests include: abolitionist theory, queer rights, post-coloniality, gender-based violence, legal policy analysis, and state-sanctioned violence.