Women Writing in India: 600 B.C. to the early twentieth century

Women Writing in India: 600 B.C. to the early twentieth century
Author: Susie J. Tharu
Publisher: Feminist Press at CUNY
Total Pages: 580
Release: 1991
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 9781558610279

Includes songs by Buddhist nuns, testimonies of medieval rebel poets and court historians, and the voices of more than 60 other writers of the 18th and 19th centuries. Among the diverse selections are a rare early essay by an untouchable woman; an account by the first feminist historian; and a selection from the first novel written in English by an Indian woman.

Being Single in India

Being Single in India
Author: Sarah Lamb
Publisher: Univ of California Press
Total Pages: 236
Release: 2022-06-07
Genre: History
ISBN: 0520389425

Today, the majority of the world's population lives in a country with falling marriage rates, a phenomenon with profound impacts on women, gender, and sexuality. In this exceptionally crafted ethnography, Sarah Lamb probes the gendered trend of single women in India, examining what makes living outside of marriage for women increasingly possible and yet incredibly challenging. Featuring the stories of never-married women as young as 35 and as old as 92, this book offers a remarkable portrait of a way of life experienced by women across class and caste divides. For women in India, complex social-cultural and political-economic contexts are foundational to their lives and decisions, and remaining unmarried is often an unintended consequence of other pressing life priorities. Arguing that never-married women are able to illuminate their society's broader social-cultural values, Lamb offers a new and startling look at prevailing systems in India today. "This pathbreaking book offers a vital analysis of the rising but unrecognized category of single women in a marriage-minded society such as India. Through beautifully rendered and diverse stories, Sarah Lamb challenges conventional wisdom." -MARCIA C. INHORN, William K. Lanman, Jr. Professor of Anthropology and International Affairs, Yale University "For fans of Lamb's evocative narratives on Bengali widows, her new book provides another rich look at the negative space of marriage: the rare demographic of single women in Bengal across class and caste." -SRIMATI BASU, author of The Trouble with Marriage: Feminists Confront Law and Violence in India "This lively ethnographic account makes several key contributions to feminist anthropological appraisals of marriage as an institution. Lamb renders a compelling, detailed, and sensitive portrait of compulsory heterosexuality and patriliny as seen from the margins." -LUCINDA RAMBERG, Associate Professor of Anthropology and Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, Cornell University.

The Subaltern Indian Woman

The Subaltern Indian Woman
Author: Prem Misir
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 302
Release: 2017-11-16
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 9811051666

This book focuses on subjugated indentured Indian women, who are constantly faced with race, gender, caste, and class oppression and inequality on overseas European-owned plantations, but who are also armed with latent links to the women’s abolition movements in the homeland. Also examining their post-indenture life, it employs a paradigm of male-dominated Indian women in India at the margins of an enduringly patriarchal society, a persisting backdrop to the huge 19th century post-slavery movement of the agricultural indentured workforce drawn largely from India. This book depicts the antithetical and contradictory explanations for the indentured Indian women’s cries, degradation and dehumanization and how the politics of change and control impacted their social organization and its legacy. The book owes its origins to the 2017 centennial commemorative event celebrating 100 years of the abolition of the indenture system of Indian labor that victimized and dehumanized Indians from 1834 through 1917.

Women and Conflict in India

Women and Conflict in India
Author: Sanghamitra Choudhury
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 179
Release: 2016-02-05
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1317553624

This book analyses the impact that prolonged socio-political conflict in India has had on political and social spaces for women. Focusing in particular on Assam in the North East of India, it looks at how the conflict can be restricting, and yet can also have the potential to expand these spaces for women owing to the collapsing of boundaries of gender roles, thereby creating niche areas that may be leveraged for socio-political transformation. Based on empirical material collected from in-depth interviews with individuals on both sides of the conflict, the book locates the analysis in both a legal and political context. It examines the causes, dynamics and impact of the ethno-political conflicts in Assam, as well as the efficacy and outcomes of ‘capacity building’ programmes aimed at rehabilitating the surrendered militants as well as assisting affected women. The book goes on to look at the role played by civil society, especially the Mahila Shanti Sena (Women Peace Corp), towards conflict transformation. It highlights the preventive, mitigative and adaptive measures taken by the women and their role as agents of peace in the volatile zones of North East India. Analysing the changing role of women in conflict situations, as well as the legal measures and regulatory mechanisms in place for women in vulnerable pockets of India, this book is a useful contribution to Gender Studies, Peace and Conflict Studies, and South Asian Politics.

Women of India

Women of India
Author: Harshida Pandit
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 267
Release: 2017-04-07
Genre: History
ISBN: 1351869922

The status and position of Indian women have undergone many changes since the high status they enjoyed in the Vedic era yielded to forced suicide during the dark ages, female infanticide, purdah, child marriages and the denial of property and political rights. This book, first published in 1985, provides a comprehensive annotated bibliography to hose years, and the years that followed of the relentless liberation struggle by women on the socio-political and legal fronts.

Women in Modern India

Women in Modern India
Author: Geraldine Forbes
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 312
Release: 1996-05-09
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780521268127

The author traces the history of Indian women from the nineteenth century under colonial rule, to the twentieth century after Independence. She begins with the reform movement, established by men to educate women, and demonstrates how education changed their lives, enabling them to take part in public life. Through the women's own accounts, the author has compiled an accessible and immediate record of their achievements over the past two centuries, which will be of interest to students of South Asia and to anyone concerned with women and their history.

En-Gendering India

En-Gendering India
Author: Sangeeta Ray
Publisher: Duke University Press
Total Pages: 210
Release: 2000-06-20
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0822382806

En-Gendering India offers an innovative interpretation of the role that gender played in defining the Indian state during both the colonial and postcolonial eras. Focusing on both British and Indian literary texts—primarily novels—produced between 1857 and 1947, Sangeeta Ray examines representations of "native" Indian women and shows how these representations were deployed to advance notions of Indian self-rule as well as to defend British imperialism. Through her readings of works by writers including Bankimchandra Chatterjee, Rabindranath Tagore, Harriet Martineau, Flora Annie Steel, Anita Desai, and Bapsi Sidhaa, Ray demonstrates that Indian women were presented as upper class and Hindu, an idealization that paradoxically served the needs of both colonial and nationalist discourses. The Indian nation’s goal of self-rule was expected to enable women’s full participation in private and public life. On the other hand, British colonial officials rendered themselves the protectors of passive Indian women against their “savage” male countrymen. Ray shows how the native woman thus became a symbol for both an incipient Indian nation and a fading British Empire. In addition, she reveals how the figure of the upper-class Hindu woman created divisions with the nationalist movement itself by underscoring caste, communal, and religious differences within the newly emerging state. As such, Ray’s study has important implications for discussions about nationalism, particularly those that address the concepts of identity and nationalism. Building on recent scholarship in feminism and postcolonial studies, En-Gendering India will be of interest to scholars in those fields as well as to specialists in nationalism and nation-building and in Victorian, colonial, and postcolonial literature and culture.

The Indian Woman

The Indian Woman
Author: Shobit Arya
Publisher: SCB Distributors
Total Pages: 197
Release: 2015-07-08
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 8183283632

The Indian Woman - a picture of poise, an image of intellect, an exposition of enterprise. She doesn't just nurture the social, cultural and spiritual traditions of India by strengthening the ancient civilization's family values and secular ethos, but also nourishes the young nation's spirit of entrepreneurship by playing a stellar role across professions, businesses and industries. This iconoclastic book captures fascinating journeys of some of the most celebrated Indian women. From the iconic Lata Mangeshkar to the fiery Mary Kom, from the legendary Bhanu Athaiya to the brilliant Kiran Mazumdar Shaw - for the first time they all come together to share their inspiring experiences, in their own words. With Contributions by: Lata Mangeshkar Kiran Mazumdar Shaw Bhanu Athaiya Shahnaz Husain Sunita Narain Naina Lal Kidwai Fathima Beevi Padma Bandopadhyay Gita Gopinath MC Mary Kom A collector's item, this creatively conceptualized and beautifully designed book, provides deep insights into the mind of this great nation and its women and succeeds in passing on the enduring legacy to future generations.

Woman in India

Woman in India
Author: Mary Frances Billington
Publisher:
Total Pages: 382
Release: 1895
Genre: Social Science
ISBN:

Women, Power, and Property

Women, Power, and Property
Author: Rachel E. Brulé
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 395
Release: 2020-10-22
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1108870600

Quotas for women in government have swept the globe. Yet we know little about their capacity to upend entrenched social, political, and economic hierarchies. Women, Power, and Property explores this question within the context of India, the world's largest democracy. Brulé employs a research design that maximizes causal inference alongside extensive field research to explain the relationship between political representation, backlash, and economic empowerment. Her findings show that women in government – gatekeepers – catalyze access to fundamental economic rights to property. Women in politics have the power to support constituent rights at critical junctures, such as marriage negotiations, when they can strike integrative solutions to intrahousehold bargaining. Yet there is a paradox: quotas are essential for enforcement of rights, but they generate backlash against women who gain rights without bargaining leverage. In this groundbreaking study, Brulé shows how well-designed quotas can operate as a crucial tool to foster equality and benefit the women they are meant to empower.