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Behind the walls of a house in a North Indian town a whole world thrives—of the joint family, their attendants, their visitors. Three generations of women and their men live different strategies of adjustment and achievement to accommodate or challenge patriarchy. They seem to fit in recognised frames, but what are the subtle machinations behind the apparent stereotypes? It is that which the novel uncovers, in a tale told in deceptively simple terms, using smells, sounds, tastes and flavours, scenes and tiny signs, and incidents of a daily and ordinary existence to build, weave by weave, a rich and layered tapestry, saying always more than is apparent. At the centre is Mai, the mother, see...
Nita Kumar offers an evocative and sensitive portrayal of rarely explored aspects of Hindu culture through her analysis of the way leisure time is used by Hindu and Muslim artisans of Banaras--the weavers, metalworkers, and woodworkers. Music, festivals, the place of physical culture, and the importance of going "to the outer side" all are examined as Kumar looks at changes that have occurred in leisure-time activities over the last century. The discussion raises questions of the cultural and conceptual aspects of working-class life, the role of fun and play in Indian thought, the importance of public activities in terms of personal identity, and the meaning of an Indian city to its resident...
Women as Subjects affords a rare opportunity to consider the changing identity and status of women in India today- how they view themselves and how they are viewed- through the current work of seven scholars- anthropologists, historians, and sociologists from India, the United Kingdom, and the United States. These essays combined with Nita Kumar's substantial theoretical introduction, illustrate the overall problem of women's subjectivity extraordinarily well and serve to question, modify, and adapt Western-based feminist theory and Eurocentric postmodern theory, building a bridge both to non-South Asian feminist work and to nonfeminist South Asian work.
Women, Gender and History in India examines Indian history through a thematic lens of women and gender across different contexts. Through an inter-disciplinary approach, Nita Kumar uses sources from literature, folklore, religion, and art to discuss historical and anthropological ways of interpreting the issues surrounding women and gender in history. As part of the scholarly movement away from a Grand Narrative of South Asian history and culture, this volume places emphasis on the diversity of women and their experiences. It does this by including analyses of many different primary sources together with discussion around a wide variety of theoretical and methodological debates – from the mixed role of colonial law and education to the conundrum of a patriarchy that worships the Goddess while it strives to keep women in subservience. This textbook is essential reading for those studying Indian history and women and gender studies.
"Why was Banaras such a mystery to me when I arrived in 1981? Was it ironically because I was an Indian and expected to have a privileged insight into it?" In this unusually personal, evocative account of her fieldwork experiences, Kumar tackles the dilemma of how a Western-trained Indian intellectual adapts to the field and builds deeply affecting relationships with strangers. She discloses what it is like to be a native researching her own culture, offering her fieldwork memoirs in all their spontaneity and candor. We see Banaras through her eyes when she first arrives: throngs of people, cramped and dark lodgings, unappetizing food, mischievous monkeys, and almost overwhelming filth. But ...
A lively and informative introduction to the peoples and cultures of South Asia
This volume deals with multiple sites of production of education including the homes and families, neighbourhoods, cities and buildings, and of sources and semantic fields such as reform efforts, texts, languages, and the media.
The designation "Lord Who Is Half Woman" refers to the androgynous Hindu god Ardhanarisvara (also known as Siva-Sakti). While iconographical aspects of this significant image have been addressed, the complex theological, philosophical, and social implications inherent in a dual gendered deity have not. This book provides the first extensive study of the influence of Ardhanarisvara, exploring four distinct areas of Indian culture, namely iconography, hatha yoga, devotional poetry (bhakti), and mythology. Ellen Goldberg also offers a feminist analysis of the ways in which "male" and "female" have been constructed in this image and the various representations pertaining to the broader gender implications of an androgynous deity.
Based on presentations at a session of the 15th IUAES-Intercongress held in 2003 at Florence.
This new edition of the Routledge Handbook of Gender in South Asia provides a comprehensive overview of the study of gender in South Asia. The Handbook covers the central contributions that have defi ned this area and captures innovative and emerging paradigms that are shaping the future of the field. It offers a wide range of disciplinary and interdisciplinary perspectives spanning both the humanities and social sciences, focusing on India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. This revised edition has been thoroughly updated and includes new chapters, thus adding new areas of scholarship. The Handbook is organized thematically into five major parts: • Historical formations and theoretical ...