Gender in Modern India

This book maps the ways gender studies emerged, grew, and expanded in India since the 1970s. It pays careful attention to contexts even as it proffers a rich sense of the new analytical directions that have been taken in gender studies in modern India, engaging with its distinct trajectory and engagement with intersectional analysis. * Maitrayee Chaudhuri, Former Professor, Centre for the Study of Social Systems, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi * While focusing on gender, the essays here investigate the intersections of Adivasi and labouring lives; caste and sexualities; marriage, motherhood, and patriarchies; migration and other manifold marginalities that were of abiding interest to [Biswamoy] Pati. This volume furthers the debates on these questions, unfolding the complex layers of our social imaginaries in a cogent and sophisticated manner. I can hear his sonorous voice guffawing his approval. * Anshu Malhotra, Professor & Kapany Chair for Sikh & Punjab Studies, University of California Santa Barbara * This tribute to the late Biswamoy Pati, a passionate teacher and a dedicated researcher, acknowledges his commitment to inclusive histories. Focusing on the colonial and post-colonial context, and diverse in terms of its socio-spatial reach, it draws on and carries forward concepts and themes from late 20th century feminist scholarship, bringing together a wide range of contributions on caste, tribes, work, sexuality, medicine, cultural praxis, and migrations that both enrich and challenge earlier understandings. * Kumkum Roy, Former Professor, Centre for Historical Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi * Gender in Modern India is refreshing on two counts: the wider geography of scholarship to do with gender that it charts and for the range of themes that it explores: labour, sexuality, resistance, caste, indigeneity, social reform, the arts...it is useful and exciting to 'read' together the play of gender in diverse settings-Jharkhand, Tamil Nadu, the United Provinces, Maharashtra-in intersection with granular local life and social relationships. * V. Geetha, Independent feminist scholar and author * In an invaluable addition to the notable works on gender, this anthology brings together some of the most accomplished scholars who have been 'writing' and 'doing' gender. Each contribution is distinctive in its conceptual elaboration of gender and the methodological tools deployed. Cumulatively, they make the volume enticingly multidisciplinary, making gender in modern India intelligible through a polyrhythm of themes. A most sincere offering to the memory of an erudite historian. * Anupama Roy, Professor, Centre for Political Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi * This fabulous collection of essays by eminent feminist scholars speaks to the enduring research passions and contributions of late Prof. Biswamoy Pati, whose scholarship on colonialism, social history of medicine, marginality, and subaltern resistance is timeless and outstanding, and this well-thought-out volume in his honour is, not surprisingly, outstanding in celebrating his scholarship by extending some of his research interests to the field of gender studies. I could vividly picture Biswamoy Pati savouring these original and path-breaking research contributions and so also any reader of colonialism, caste, gender of labour, health, masculinity, migration, sexuality, cultural politics of performance, and so on. * S. Anandhi, Former Professor, Madras Institute of Development Studies, Chennai * This volume is a fitting tribute to the memory of Biswamoy Pati, a historian who brought enormous energy and passion to his projects...The essays in this volume, configured around constructions and relations of gender in India, cover an enormous range: masculinity and culture; marriage and migration; caste and tribe; health, medicine, and missionaries; labour and politics. This book seeks to build bridges between old research and new, connecting established scholars and early-career researchers. It illuminates the multiple dynamics of gender in intersecting inequalities. This will be invaluable for students of modern and colonial South Asian history at all levels. * Samita Sen, Vere Harmsworth Professor of Imperial and Naval History, Faculty of History, University of Cambridge, Cambridge *