Women in India: Contemporary Concerns

The book deals with the contemporary concerns of women in India. The essays that have previously been published in a special issue of Nivedini are drawn from different issue of Nivedini are drawn from different social science disciplines which converge in the interdisciplinary terrain of Women’s Studies in its analysis of women’s experiences. The essasy examine the ways in which women have negotiated and challenged strucutres of power through the Women’s Movement which is also undergoing shifts in perspectives in recent times. The chapters discuss Dalit women’s struggles, Muslim women’s negotiation within their communities for greater equality, the role of state and its commitment to gender concerns, the changes life styles, roles and status of the pastoral women in the Himalayan region, and the negotiations for autonomy and agency in family life in the works of feminist fiction which is one repository of cultural imagination that indicates alternate life words. Issues of feminist epistemology and pedagogical concerns of Women’s Studies in India are also highlighted. Eminent scholars and activistsMaitrayee Chaudhury, Fatima Burnard Nadesan, Vibhuti Patel, Sumita Parmar, Subhadra Channa Rehana Gradially, and U. Kalpagam have contributed chapters.