The Public Face of a Private Domestic Violence

This article looks at violence against women in Indian society and gives an example of a best-practice response to domestic violence. It is divided into two parts. The first part of the paper examines the general characteristics of violence against women within India as a whole and the state of Andhra Pradesh in particular. The second part gives an example of the anti-arrack movement in Andhra Pradesh, a state in India, as an example of women's mobilization against government policy on liquor as a response to domestic violence. The paper aims to reconstruct this movement at the micro level using the experiences of women who were its chief participants.