Domestic chains, carceral lives: women’s pathways to and experiences of incarceration through the lens of love, marriage, and kinship in India

This thesis aims to provide a culturally nuanced understanding of women’s pathways to and experiences of incarceration in two states of northern India: Punjab and Rajasthan. Drawing on ethnographic research in seven closed and two open prisons, along with in-depth interviews with 127 incarcerated women – many serving life sentences for the murder of their husbands or affinal family members– it explores how socio-cultural and moral determinants surrounding love, sex, and marriage shape women’s involvement in violent crimes and their subsequent incarceration experiences. The analysis is structured around three interconnected dimensions. First, it examines how socio-cultural notions of shame and honour, deeply tied to the institution of marriage and sexual conduct of women, shape the circumstances leading to women’s offences, particularly acts of violence against close family and kin. Second, it investigates how these constructs permeate the prison environment, influencing the extent of familial support women receive, shaping their moral self-perceptions, as well as how they are perceived and treated by others within the morally charged space of prison. Third, it considers how women respond and adapt to these moral condemnations, particularly through forging romantic relationships or pursuing secondary marriages with male prisoners, security guards, or men outside prison while still incarcerated. By situating these experiences within the intersecting structures of caste, class, and gender, the thesis demonstrates how women navigate, resist, and, at times, challenge the authority of two intrinsically patriarchal institutions: the prison and society, all while finding purpose within the confines of prison. By situating these narratives within their broader socio-cultural, patriarchal, and historical contexts, the thesis advances the global discourse on gender, punishment, and incarceration, offering a contextually rich account of women’s trajectories into, and lived experiences during, incarceration in India.

Name dc:type.qualificationname

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Level dc:type.qualificationlevel

Doctoral

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

University of Cambridge

Year dc:date.issued

2025

Author dc:creator

• Sharma, Kanupriya

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Lanskey, Caroline

• culturally-responsive
• decoloniality
• ethnography
• gender, crime and punishment
• Global South
• India
• marriage and kinship
• moral evaluation of crime
• pathways to crime
• post-colonial prisons
• Punjab
• Rajasthan
• resocialisation & resettlement
• sociology of prisons
• spousal homicide
• women prisons
• women's incarceration

Licence

• https://apollo8-f-pro.lib.cam.ac.uk/bitstreams/5e444de1-81b4-45af-8c2c-50810ed12c12/download
• http://purl.org/NET/rdflicense/allrightsreserved

DOI dc:identifier.doi

https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.119707

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.repository.cam.ac.uk:1810/386530