Abstract

The pace of socioeconomic transformation in India over the past two and a half decades has been formidable. This volume sheds light on how these transformations have played out at the level of everyday life to influence the lives of Indian women, and gender relations more broadly. Through ethnographically grounded case studies, the authors portray the contradictory and contested co-existence of discrepant gendered norms, values and visions in a society caught up in wider processes of sociopolitical change. ‘Women, Gender and Everyday Social Transformation in India’ moves the debate on gender and social transformation into the domain of everyday life to arrive at locally embedded and detailed, ethnographically informed analyses of gender relations in real-life contexts that foreground both subtle and not-so-subtle negotiations and contestations.

‘[O]ne of the key strengths of this book is the meticulous application of an intersectional approach by all the contributors. […] The expansive range of topics provides us, as readers, with excellent glimpses into the complex transitions at play in modern India, and the generation of novel concepts […] gives us much to reflect upon.’ —Shalini Grover, ‘Gender & Development’

‘This book is a remarkable exercise aimed at comprehending and capturing change in a very complex society. It is an extremely useful volume for students and researchers of development and women’s studies.’ —Padmini Swaminathan, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Hyderabad, India

‘This book is a remarkable exercise aimed at comprehending and capturing change in a very complex society. It is an extremely useful volume for students and researchers of development and women’s studies.’ —Padmini Swaminathan, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Hyderabad, India

The pace of socioeconomic transformation in India over the past two and a half decades has been formidable. This volume sheds light on key processes of gendered change by exploring how macro-structural processes of social transformation interface with everyday life-worlds to generate new contestations and contradictions that impinge directly on the everyday lives of ordinary Indian women, and on the relations between genders.

Through ethnographically grounded case studies, the contradictory and contested co-existence of discrepant gendered norms, values and visions in a society caught up in wider processes of sociopolitical change are portrayed. ‘Women, Gender and Everyday Social Transformation in India’ moves the debate on gender and transformation into the domain of everyday life to arrive at locally embedded and detailed, ethnographically informed analyses of gender relations in real-life contexts that foreground both subtle and not-so-subtle negotiations and contestations.

The chapters take the reader inside the university classroom as well as the NGO, the urban slum and the rural health clinic; they visit the Pentecostal church, the call centre and the beaches of Goa; they venture into the men’s rights group, the court room and the anti-land acquisition rally; they engage with Maoist writings and the ideology of neoliberal governance and they analyse the use of grinders, mixers, make-up, smart phones and solar photovoltaic mini-grids – to name but a few.

Kenneth Bo Nielsen is an anthropologist and research fellow at the Centre for Development and the Environment, University of Oslo, Norway.

Anne Waldrop is an anthropologist and associate professor of development studies at Oslo and Akershus University College of Applied Sciences, Norway.