Feminist Critical Hindu Studies in formation

Abstract

This article outlines the philosophy, methodology, and aims of Feminist Critical Hindu Studies (FCHS). We propose a series of strategies and commitments for change and action in the fields of South Asian Religions, Hindu Studies, and South Asian Studies. We draw on the work of scholars in Queer, Critical Race, and Feminist theories. We argue for a queering methodology that disorients us from and seeks to make visible the structures of knowledge and power on which Hinduism and Hindu Studies rest, including the intersecting processes of racialization, the regulation of sexuality and gender, and the violence of caste. We use the concept of Hindu formations to complicate the notions of “Hinduism” and “Hindus” as categories that not only arise in conjunction with forms of white supremacy and caste supremacy, but are imbricated with them. This approach allows us to explore how these categories have been used by various groups throughout history to empower and subjugate people. Driven by the theoretical frameworks of disorientation, intersectionality, and assemblage, FCHS reorients us in our relationship to Hindu Studies, as well as the spaces, practices, and people that inhabit academic institutions, newly attentive to who and what is missing. The work of FCHS is both academic and activist in nature: we call for ethical commitments to build meaningful relations of solidarity and allyship. Working against systemic oppression requires a willingness to interrogate our own positionalities and challenge our complicities.