Author: Vipasha Bhardwaj, Department of English, Pub Kamrup College - Google Scholar

Abstract: »Characterized by eccentric, unpredictable and erratic behaviour, the epidemiology of hysteria eluded medical explanation in 19^th century Victorian England. Although there were hysterical males, the attribution of this mental breakdown was bestowed only upon women because of Victorian gender distinctions. Manjula Padmanabhan’s one-act play Lights Out brings out the hypocrisy and the nonchalant approach of its city-bred men, who, even after witnessing with their naked eyes the act of a gruesome bodily assault upon a woman, chose to remain silent and passive. When the female characters demanded a police intervention, they were simply relegated to the stereotype of a ‘fussy/hysterical’ women. The research paper brings to the forefront the urban apathy to gang rape and how female opinion in a patriarchal set-up is dismissed as inconsequential and unsolicited, thereby stripping them off their voice and agency.« (Source: ESHANA)

Wikipedia: History of Asia: History of India | Literature: Indian literature / Manjula Padmanabhan | Sex and the law: Rape / Rape in India