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Indian feminisms: law, patriarchies and violence in India

Indian feminisms provides a ‘critique from within’ of feminist movements in India over the past forty years. In this concise and tightly written book, author Geetanjali Gangoli, having had considerable involvement herself in feminist movements in two major Indian cities, Delhi and Mumbai, focuses ‘mostly on issues that the Indian feminist movements have failed to address or have addressed in a somewhat problematic manner’ (125). Using case studies, parliamentary debates, legal documents, her own extensive experience and discussions with a wide range of women, she provides a rich and multi-faceted exploration of the successes and problems faced by feminist movements in India since 1970. The book has six chapters. In the first chapter Gangoli explores the different women’s movements in India that have emerged both at the national and local level, focusing in particular on movements in the city of Mumbai. She places the old as well as the emerging movements within their historical contexts, exploring the roles trade unionism, left-wing political groups and social welfare groups have had in shaping these movements. The second chapter examines the relationship between feminism and the state and the way feminist activists have utilised notions of citizenship and women’s rights to advance the position of women in Indian society. The third chapter traces ‘the varied ways in which criminal and civil laws in India construct women’s sexuality as subordinate to male sexuality and systematise sexuality within a marital, heterosexist paradigm’ (57). Building upon the previous chapter, Gangoli argues in the fourth chapter that campaigning for legal reforms brings about a dilemma for feminists as they simultaneously attempt to bring the experiences of women within the jurisdiction of the law, while also undermining its authority. Additionally, she points out the almost asexual nature of the feminist agenda in India, which has often focused upon negative aspects of women’s sexuality rather than the positive contribution of sexuality to women’s lives. The avoidance or neglect by some movements of issues such as freedom of sexual expression, sexuality outside marriage and alternative sexualities is part of the unaddressed agenda for Indian feminists. The final two chapters examine the specific issues of custodial rape and domestic violence, charting the progress that feminist-led campaigns have made to both law and attitudes in Indian society. Through these chapters Gangoli provides a good analysis of gender inequality in India and the campaigns and movements that have arisen to tackle those inequalities. She highlights several key challenges that have confronted Indian feminists throughout the chequered history of these movements, ranging from socio-political to cultural and academic. First, she points out, sixty years after independence, attempts to define, redefine and reify a notion of ‘Indian culture’ provide a continual challenge to feminist activism in India. While feminism in India has always been attacked for being a Western import and ‘un-Indian’, right-wing political groups such as the Shiv Sena have co-opted feminist activism for anti-feminist means, for example in challenging Muslim personal law.