Book Review: Tarini Bedi, The Dashing Ladies of Shiv Sena: Political Matronage in Urbanizing India

Dhabhai, Garima

doi:10.1177/2321023017727987

Cited by 4 publications

(7 citation statements)

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“…This, however, does not mean that Hindu women are excluded from the sphere of militant Hindu activism, nor are they deprived of political agency. There exists a large number of "women's organizations" with Hindu nationalist orientations, including several in which female activists shoot rifles, learn karate, learn how to wield a lathi, participate in communal violence, and engage in other 'unfeminine' paramilitary activities, as they rise to the defence of a Hindu nation perceived to be under threat (Kovacs 2004;Sen 2007;Bedi 2016). However, such militancy is nonetheless both framed within and legitimized through the patriarchal logic of Hindu nationalist ideology that prescribes that Hindu women need protection against the menace of the Other-above all, of course, the Muslim Other (see Banerjee 2005).…”

Section: Love Jihad In the Ideology And Politics Of Hindu Nationalismmentioning

confidence: 99%

Love Jihad and the Governance of Gender and Intimacy in Hindu Nationalist Statecraft

Nielsen

Nilsen

2021

Religions

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What role does the Islamophobic theory of “love jihad” play in the politics of Hindu nationalist statecraft—the legal codification of Hindu nationalist ideology—in India today? In this article, we address this question through a critical analysis of how the idea of “love jihad” relate to both (a) a conservative politics of governing gender and intimacy in which women are constituted as subjects of protection and (b) an authoritarian populism grounded in a foundational opposition between true Indians and their anti-national enemies within. The article begins by exploring how “love jihad” has transformed from an idea that was used to legitimize extra-legal violence by Hindu nationalist vigilantes to the status of law, with a particular focus on the BJP-ruled state of Uttar Pradesh. We then situate the “love jihad” laws in relation to a regime of gender governance that constitutes women as subjects of protection - and specifically protection by state and nation—and discuss how this resonates with a pervasive patriarchal common sense in Indian society. Finally, we show how “love jihad” laws and the wider conservative politics of gender and intimacy within which it is embedded feeds into the authoritarian politics of the Modi regime, in which Muslims are consistently portrayed as enemies of the Indian nation, and reflect on what this entails for the country’s secular political order.

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Section: Love Jihad In the Ideology And Politics Of Hindu Nationalismmentioning

confidence: 99%

Love Jihad and the Governance of Gender and Intimacy in Hindu Nationalist Statecraft

Nielsen

Nilsen

2021

Religions

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“…Social worker is a socially recognized identity in India, with activities including helping people access government entitlements (pensions, ration cards), assisting in the navigation of bureaucratic processes, organizing marriage ceremonies, setting up health camps, and so on. Social worker is also a common political 'style' for both men and women politicians in India (Price and Ruud 2010), but is particularly effective for women due to its compatibility with socially acceptable models of femininity (Bedi 2016;Ghosh and Tawa Lama-Rewel 2005). Social workers often align with a political party, joining the vast ranks of party cadre in the country.…”

Section: Women's Pathways To Politics In Dehradunmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Social workers often align with a political party, joining the vast ranks of party cadre in the country. Women tend to downplay any overt political ambitions (Bedi 2016), however; the majority of aspirants with an explicit intention to contest municipal elections professed that their ambitions to become Parshad was only to have the power to do more social work to help the people.…”

Section: Women's Pathways To Politics In Dehradunmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Life-course and Cohort Impacts in Women’s Pathways to Politics: Post-active Motherhood as a Time of Political Possibility in India

Jakimow

Pragati²

2021

The Journal of Development Studies

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Women's gendered responsibilities of caring for children and the home is persistently identified as a barrier to gender-equal representation in political office. Rather than solely seeking to help women overcome what are often insurmountable barriers, we argue that we also need to align our strategies with women's culturally specific life-courses, and the socio-historical conditions of particular cohorts. Drawing upon the experiences of women political actors in Dehradun, North India, we identify post-active motherhood-the stage of life after children are independent but prior to old-age-as an under-recognised moment of political possibility. While women in middle-age have the motivation, time and experience to contest elections (supply-side dynamics), the political environment remains hostile to their political advancement (demand-side dynamics). Further, the socio-historical conditions of the next cohort of women political actors, now approaching post-active motherhood are indicative of limited opportunities for political apprenticeship compared to their seniors. We argue for a far-sighted approach to research and practice aimed at increasing women's political leadership that analyses and works with culturally and historically specific life-courses for each incoming generation of women political actors.

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“…Apart from claiming Hindu supremacy, right-wing movements espouse patriarchal, bordering-on-misogynistic visions of gender norms and roles (Basu, 1995). And yet, the Hindu right has provided a niche for women's leadership and authority (Bedi, 2016;Menon, 2010). Its popularity among women across diverse identities is increasing in India (Bradley, 2017;Tomalin, 2015).…”

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confidence: 99%

Can a Woman be a True Guru? Female Hindu Gurus’ Grassroots Religious Gender Activism in India, and the Performativity of Saintliness at the Kumbh Mela

DeNapoli

2023

Feminist Encounters: A Journal of Critical Studies in Culture and Politics

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This article represents a departure from existing scholarship on women’s political activism in Indian Hinduism. Women’s gender activism in Hindu nationalism encompasses a range of approaches, from hard-line to emancipatory, and is motivated by different concerns, from religious xenophobia to religious power. Thus, female religious leaders (gurus) advocating Hindutva Hinduism exercise more than one style of leadership in the public sphere. Based on ethnographic research conducted at the Kumbh Mela, the article illuminates another style of activism, which is termed ‘grassroots religious feminist-leaning activism.’ Analysing the teachings and practices of two female gurus, it argues that one guru believes in a separate but equal approach (men and women have different skills and rights), and the other follows the approach that both genders should have the same rights and abilities to make choices because of their common humanity. Both gurus are unlocking opportunities for women’s greater freedom within the male-dominated religious hierarchies of the Hindu ascetic orders akhāṛās) at the Kumbh Mela. This article argues that, through performance of the ‘rhetoric of saintliness,’ the gurus heighten or reverse sex-role stereotypes embedded in mainstream representations of ‘good’ gurus in order to mobilise gender reform in patriarchal akhāṛā culture.

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Book Review: Tarini Bedi, The Dashing Ladies of Shiv Sena: Political Matronage in Urbanizing India

Abstract: Tarini Bedi, The Dashing Ladies of Shiv Sena: Political Matronage in Urbanizing India. New Delhi: Aleph Book Company. 2016. 291 pages. ₹699.

Cited by 4 publications

References 0 publications

Love Jihad and the Governance of Gender and Intimacy in Hindu Nationalist Statecraft

Love Jihad and the Governance of Gender and Intimacy in Hindu Nationalist Statecraft

Life-course and Cohort Impacts in Women’s Pathways to Politics: Post-active Motherhood as a Time of Political Possibility in India

Can a Woman be a True Guru? Female Hindu Gurus’ Grassroots Religious Gender Activism in India, and the Performativity of Saintliness at the <i>Kumbh Mela</i>

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