My PhD study is based in Kamrup (metropolitan) district in Assam- a state located in the North-east of India. I am specifically assessing the roles and interconnections between structural factors and individual agency in domestic violence – focusing on heterosexual marital relationships. By interacting with women who have faced marital violence, and with members of the civil society, this study explores factors spanning the individual, the interactional and the institutional levels.

Arguing on the affirmative, by asserting that the scale and intensity of violence increases in domestic violence when state violence is brought into focus, my paper highlighted both material and cultural aspects of the state perpetrated violence specifically focussing on the police and judiciary.