52 TIME April 11/April 18, 2022
WORLD
your wife in the bedroom, why are
you allowed to rape her?”
Nundy’s work on these issues ac-
celerated after the Nirbhaya case,
the brutal gang rape and murder of
a young woman on a public bus in
Delhi that drew international head-
lines in 2012. She calls 2012 an “in-
lection point,” the irst time that
people of all ages, genders, and sexu-
alities came out on the streets against
sexual violence and violence against
women. “My city was the center of
this national—and, to some extent,
global—protest,” she says, describing
how that period transformed her. It
felt as if “this is not just a woman’s
problem or a girl’s problem. This is
everybody’s problem.”
Nundy has since emerged as a
leading voice for gender justice and
freedom of speech, contributing to
the reform of anti rape laws and ight-
ing cases against sexual harassment
in the workplace. Now she’s leading
the ight to criminalize marital rape—a ight that began years ago. The irst pe-
tition to do so was iled at the Delhi High Court in 2015 by a nonproit called
the RIT Foundation. More petitions followed in 2017, including one by the
All India Democratic Women’s Association, which Nundy is representing in
court, along with three individuals, including a survivor of marital rape. The
issue was only heard in court in January; most cases in India languish for sev-
eral years without a hearing in court.
The judges are inally expected to deliver their verdict in the coming months
on whether to close the legal loophole on rape within marriage. “That’s the
thing about law reform in India,” Nundy says. “It takes a lot of persistence.”
NUNDY GREW UP in the national capital of Delhi. She says she was raised in
an “unboxed way,” with an ambitious mother who wanted her to study at the
best university, but had no set expectations about her vocation. “There was
just this attitude that I needed to train myself in the best possible way and then
contribute to society,” she recalls.
At the age of 15, Nundy was stalked by a classmate in school and received
rape threats. When her mother reported the incidents to the head teacher, their
concerns were dismissed. It was a deining moment for Nundy. “Generations
of women are raised by parents to believe they can do anything and then come
face-to-face with sexual violence,” she says. “Things haven’t changed enough.”
After graduating with a bachelor’s degree in economics from St. Stephen’s
College in Delhi, Nundy spent a short period as a television reporter before ap-
plying to ilm school, inluenced by her love of the work of Swedish director
Ingmar Bergman. “The fact that I could be the director of my own story for a
minute or two seemed interesting enough,” she recalls, laughing.
She eventually found her calling at law school at Cambridge University
and later completed a master’s in law at Columbia University in New York.
There she discovered critical race and gender theory and clerked for the Dis-
trict Judge Gabrielle Kirk McDonald, one of the few women to preside over
the U.N.’s tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. Inspired by McDonald’s success
as a Black commercial and human-rights lawyer, Nundy set out to chart her
own path. She worked for the U.N. as a global advocacy oicer, assisting the
Secretary-General’s report on conlict
prevention before she felt it was time
to return home and devote herself to
public service. “I wanted to contribute
to international human rights and con-
stitutional law from India, where the
impact could be more direct,” she says.
However, it also meant that Nundy,
26 at the time, would be moving back in
with her family after six years abroad.
Ever the lawyer, she drew up an agree-
ment that listed what was negotia-
ble, like washing the dishes, as well as
what wasn’t: her independence. (“If we
didn’t agree, I’d live nearby.”) Over the
years, her mother was diagnosed with a
rare disease called cardiac amyloidosis.
Being home allowed Nundy to spend
time with her mother and to take life
at her own pace—journaling and going
for long walks. “My mother loved the
skies, and I think it puts me in touch
with who I am,” she says, looking up
as she walks around her terrace during
our interview.
These days, Nundy and her team of
four lawyers work across 30 to 40 civil,
commercial, and human-rights cases in
India, while internationally, she serves
on panels for media and freedom of
speech at Columbia University and the
International Bar Association, along-
side David Neuberger and Amal Cloo-
ney. “She is a legal powerhouse,” says
Dario Milo, a South African media-law
specialist and fellow expert at Colum-
bia University. “Her impressive trackWOMEN IN KOLKATA PROTEST
AGAINST THE HIJAB BAN
IN SCHOOLS ON FEB. 16SUKHOMOY SEN—EYEPIX GROUP/FUTURE PUBLISHING/GETTY IMAGES