Full Description
During the past forty years, South Asia has been the location and the focus of dynamic, important feminist scholarship and activism. In this collection of essays, prominent feminist scholars and activists build on that work to confront pressing new challenges for feminist theorizing and practice. Examining recent feminist interventions in India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh, they address feminist responses to religious fundamentalism and secularism; globalization, labor, and migration; militarization and state repression; public representations of sexuality; and the politics of sex work. Their essays attest to the diversity and specificity of South Asian locations and feminist concerns, while also demonstrating how feminist engagements in the region can enrich and advance feminist theorizing globally. Contributors. Flavia Agnes, Anjali Arondekar, Firdous Azim, Anannya Bhattacharjee, Laura Brueck, Angana P. Chatterji, Malathi de Alwis, Toorjo Ghose, Amina Jamal, Ratna Kapur, Lamia Karim, Ania Loomba, Ritty A. Lukose, Vasuki Nesiah, Sonali Perera, Atreyee Sen, Mrinalini Sinha, Ashwini Sukthankar
Contents
South Asian Feminisms: Contemporary Interventions / Ania Loomba and Ritty A. Lukose 1
I. Feminism, Religion, and the Secular
From Shah Bano to Kausar Bano: Contextualizing the "Muslim Woman" within a Communalized Polity / Flavia Agnes 33
Global Discourses, Situated Traditions, and Muslim Women's Agency in Pakistan / Amina Jamal 54
Martial Tales, Right-Wing Hindu Women, and "History Telling" in the Bombay Slums / Atreyee Sen 75
II. Feminism, Labor, and Globalization
Of Moments, Not Monuments: Feminism and Labor Activism in Postnational Sri Lanka / Sonali Perera 97
Feminism, Migration, and Labor: Movement Building in a Globalized World / Anannya Bhattacharjee 117
III. Feminism, War, Peace
Uncomfortable Alliances: Women, Peace, and Security in Sri Lanka / Vasuki Nesiah 139
Feminist Politics and Maternalist Agonism / Malathi de Alwis 162
Witnessing as Feminist Intervention in India-Administered Kashmir / Angana P. Chatterji 181
IV. Feminism, Figuration, and the Politics of Reading and Writing
Transnational Politics of Reading and the (Un)making of Taslima Nasreen / Lamia Karim 205
At the Intersection of Gender and Caste: Rescripting Rape in Dalit Feminist Narratives / Laura Brueck 224
Subject to Sex: A Small History of the Gomantak Maratha Samaj / Anjali Arondekar 244
V. Feminism, Sex Work, and the Politics of Sexuality
Keeping Sexuality on the Agenda: The Sex Workers' Movement in Bangladesh / Firdous Azim 267
Politicizing Political Society: Mobilization among Sex Workers in Sonagachi, India / Toorjo Ghose 285
Queering Approaches to Sex, Gender, and Labor in India: Examining Paths to Sex Worker Unionism / Ashwini Sukthankar 306
VI. Feminist Crisis and Futures
Hecklers to Power? The Waning of Liberal Rights and Challenges to Feminism in India / Ratna Kapur 333
A Global Perspective on Gender: What's South Asia Got to Do with It? / Mrinalini Sinha 356
Bibliography 375
Contributors 407
Index 411
