India, Sept. 20 -- History moves in cycles, and nowhere is this truer than in the movement for women's rights. Mihira Sood's debut book, Courting Equality: Landmark cases in the battle for women's rights (Juggernaut) reminds us that the march has seldom been linear. Periods of activism have followed stretches of a lull and even backlash against rights.

As a 28-year-old, freshly-minted lawyer, Sood joined the protests following the December 16, 2012 gang-rape of a young physiotherapy student in Delhi. Those protests were unprecedented but murmurs of activism had already begun. In colleges, pinjra tod (break the cage) in response to discriminatory hostel rules. In cities, besharmi morchas (loosely, slut walks) to reclaim public space. Sood...