Notwithstanding the legacy of women’s rights movements and gender equality, violence against women refuses to be a thing of the past. Over the past few weeks, a string of cases of sexual violence has been reported.

Last month, a girl was allegedly harassed by a group of youths in Bihar’s Samastipur district , days after two teenagers were allegedly molested in Jamui. In Delhi, a girl was allegedly gangraped by three men posing as police officers in Aastha Kunj Park.

How do such cases reflect on the promises of modernity, particularly individual rights and liberty? Does gender-based violence suggest a contradiction between the promises of modernity and women’s lived realities? How does the theory of cultural lag address this?

Modernity and women’s rights

Mary Wollstonecraft’s classic, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792), was a commendable attempt at democratising rationality and secular education.…