Some Questions on Feminism and its Relevance in South Asia

Politics & Social Sciences

Bina Agarwal

Social Sciences

Kali for Women

In this classic text, bestselling author and activist Vandana Shiva positions the violation of nature with the violation and marginalization of women in the global south. One of the first books to argue that the impact of science, technology and politics, along with the workings of the economy itself, are inherently exploitative, Shiva argues that every area of human activity marginalizes and burdens both women and nature. Her solution for the liberation of nature, women and men - or just for "Staying Alive" - is harmony, sustainability and diversity; and she explores the unique place of women in the environment of India to illustrate and explain her position. Featuring a brand-new foreword from the author, any reader returning to this insightful text is faced with a searing indictment to the lack of progress in Shiva's areas of expertise. But as an integral part of the environmental canon, this is truly an essential read for anyone interested in development, gender and the global environment.

Staying Alive: Women, Ecology, and Survival in India

Vandana Shiva

A thematic history of the women's movement in India both before and after Independence, from the 19th century to the present day. It looks at how women's issues were raised, initially by men, and then with the involvement of women themselves in the nationalist movement. Using photographs, documents, excerpts from letters, books, and informal writings, the author documents the growing involvement of women and the formation of the early women's organizations. She examines the foregrounding of the "women's issue" during the reform and nationalist movements and its subsequent disappearance from the agenda of public debate, until the post-Independence period of the 60s and 70s when it surfaces again. Key questions are raised regarding the nature of the contemporary movement: the kinds of issues (such as rape, dowry, environment, work, questions of identity) it has taken up; its directions and perspectives; its differences compared with western movements; and the role of autonomous women's organizations and their relationship with political parties, especially those of the left.

The history of doing: An illustrated account of movements for women's rights and feminism in India, 1800-1990

Radha Kumar

Women, the last colony

Mies, Maria

Muslim women in India: Political & private realities, 1890s-1980s

Lateef, Shahida

Dismissed by Gandhi as a "gutter inspector's report", Katherine Mayo's "Mother India" created a storm of controversy when it was first published in the late 1920s. In her introduction to this work, Mrinalini Sinha locates the debate over Mother India in the broader context of the politics of its production and reception and examines its impact on the "woman question" outside India. The controversy over the book not only facilitated the passage of the Child Marriage Restraint Act in 1929, but also contributed, in the response of Indian women themselves, to the emmergence of a so-called "authentic voice of Indian womanhood". Sinha analyzes the imperialistic-nationalist context for the emergence of a politics of middle-class Indian feminism in the "Mother India" controversy, and traces the legacy of this history on contemporary efforts to address the kinds of oppressive social practices that were highlighted in Mayo's book.

Selections from Mother India

History

MAYO, KATHERINE

Asia

Violence Against Women: New Movements and New Theories in India

Omvedt, Gail

Women's Studies

Forging Identites: Gender, Communities and the State

Kali for Women (Organization)

Historical Study & Educational Resources

This magnum opus is one of the most important novels of the subcontinent. The narrative draws heavily on the author's own experiences and revolves around the life of Shaman, born as the tenth and youngest child in a middle-class Muslim family where traditional mores and cultural constraints maintain an oppressive hold on the lives and behaviour of all its members. The novel exposes the social cultural conflicts and the psychosexual determinants that govern the development of female consciousness.

Crooked Line

ISMAT CHUGHTAI

This work attempts to break new ground by posing questions about women's activism within the Hindu right, a crucial issue that has barely been addressed. These essays look at gender within the framework of larger questions: the organizational history of the formation - still developing - we call the Hindu Right; its relationship to change in religious processes, economic developments, caste politics and constitutional crisis over the last few decades. The essays also pose difficult questions for the theory and practice of feminist politics which has tended to identify women's political activism with emancipatory politics. Right-wing movements, it has been assumed, have - because of their emphasis on "tradition" - an inverse relationship to women's politicization. Yet violently communal politics have pulled women into militant politics. What do these and other questions and paradoxes mean for the theory and practice of "feminist" politics, and how do right-wing strategies and tactics compare with those developed by radical women's groups?

Women and the Hindu right: A collection of essays

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