Indian Feminisms: Law, Patriarchies and Violence in India

by Geetanjali Gangoli

Contributing to debates on feminism, this book considers the impact made by feminists in India from the 1970s. Geetanjali Gangoli analyses feminist campaigns on issues of violence and women’s rights, and debates on ways in which feminist legal debates may be limiting for women and based on exclusionary concepts such as citizenship. She addresses campaigns ranging from domestic violence, rape, pornography and son preference and sets them within a wider analysis of the position of women within the Indian state. The strengths and limitations of law reform for women are addressed as well as whether legal feminisms relating to law and women's legal rights are effective in the Indian context. The question of whether legal campaigns can make positive changes in women’s lives or whether they further legitimize oppressive state patriarchies is considered. The recasting of caste and community identities is also assessed, as well as the rise of Hindu fundamentalism and the ways in which feminists in India have combated and confronted these challenges. Indian Feminisms will interest researchers and students in the areas of feminism, law, women’s movements and social movements in India, and South Asia more generally.

Genres: Gender, Feminism

162 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2007

About the author

Geetanjali Gangoli is Research Fellow in the School for Policy Studies at the University of Bristol, UK. She is part of the Violence Against Women Research Group.

Reviews

[M.]

Legal framework, cultural and feminist tensions in India regarding the treatment of women in all castes, classes, ages and religions with a special focus on Hinduist Nationalism and Islam. Quite eye-opening. It also shows how internal conflict among feminists undermines good causes. I only went as so far as to put four stars because she ends up questioning "compulsive heterosexuality" despite being married, which is a bit contradictory so to speak, but then sodomy is punishable by law in India, so... that might be a possible argument for Gangoli to make coming from that point of view.