En-Gendering India: Woman and Nation in Colonial and Postcolonial NarrativesDuke University Press, 2000 M06 20 - 198 pages 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. |
Contents
Introduction | 1 |
Gender and Nation Woman Warriors in Chatterjees Devi Chaudhurani and Anandamath | 23 |
Woman as Suttee The Construction of India in Three Victorian Narratives | 47 |
Woman as Nation and a Nation of Women Tagores The Home and the World and Hossains Sultanas Dream | 86 |
New Women New Nations Writing the Partition in Desais Clear Light of Day and Sidhwas Cracking India | 122 |
Epilogue | 144 |
Other editions - View all
En-Gendering India: Woman and Nation in Colonial and Postcolonial Narratives Sangeeta Ray Limited preview - 2000 |
Common terms and phrases
Anandamath Anglo-Indian assertion Ayah bahubol Bankim's Bankimchandra Bengal Bimala body Brandon British Rule colonial Cracking India critical critique crucial cultural Delhi depiction Desai's desire Despite Devi Chaudhurani discourse domestic EN-GENDERING INDIA English epistemology essay ethnic female feminism feminist GENDER AND NATION Hindu nationalism Hindu woman Hinduism Hossain husband identity ideology imagined imagined community imperial Indian nation Indian woman indigenous Jibananda Jim's literary literature lives male Martineau Mira-masi modern mother motherland Muslim mutiny narration narrative nation-state nationalist never Nikhil NOTES TO CHAPTER novel Partha Chatterjee partition political position postcolonial Prafulla realize rebels religious representation role Sandip Santans sanyasis Sarkar sati Seeta Sepoy sexual Shanti signifier social society space Spivak Steel suggests Sultana's Dream SUTTEE swadeshi movement Tagore Tagore's Tanika Sarkar Tara Tara's texts third world tion tradition University Press Western widow wife WOMAN AS NATION WOMAN AS SUTTEE women writings
References to this book
Post-colonial Studies: The Key Concepts Bill Ashcroft,Gareth Griffiths,Helen Tiffin No preview available - 2007 |