Indian Women Activists and Transnational Feminism over the Twentieth Century

Abstract

Since 1975, the global feminist community has developed sites for networking clustered around the United Nations' calendar. These meetings and their discourses have had a major impact on women's movements around the world. The Indian women's movement has engaged in transnational dialogue for the past century. This article looks at the history of transnational engagement by Indian feminists and argues that its most recent avatar—in tandem with the UN world conferences on women—has been the least constructive. Early engagement was primarily focused on an exchange of ideas and personnel. The current engagement is shaped by financial dependency which has skewed the priorities of the Indian women's movement. Violence against women was an issue raised in 1993 in Vienna and became the central focus of activism in India despite the desire by many activists to focus on economic policies.

Gender and Legislative Performance in India

“…The literature devoted to India explores several important facets of gender politics: women's suffrage (Pearson 2004), the debate over affirmative action (“reservations”) for women (Krook 2005; Nanivadekar 2006), dynastic paths to power (Fleschenberg 2004; Katzenstein 1978), women in local government (Kaushik 1998; Kudva 2003), and women's movements (Deo 2012a; Desai 2013). 9 The literature on women legislators in India is largely descriptive in nature—for instance, Lenneberg (1994), Kumari and Dubey (1994), Mishra (2000), Rai (2002), and Singh (2003).…”

A transnational feminist policy analysis of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act

“…Transnational feminism becomes a lens that is focused on the diverse realities of women, particularly women in the global south, in terms of power relations between global south and north (Deepak, ; Deo, ). For those practitioners whose advocacy is informed by transnational feminism and who seek to strengthen the voice of women in poverty, fostering solidarity among women across class lines, and empowering economic, educational, and health status of women become important strategies of change for poor women across the globe (Mohanty, ).…”

Violence Against Women: What’s Law Got to Do With It? A Reflection on Gang Rape in India

“…An increased global focus on VAW, primarily led by northern feminists and regulated by the UN bodies, has led to a different debate amongst feminists in the Global South on the foreign cooptation and ideological imperialism associated with the discourse (Deo 2012;Otto 1996). In addition to a persistent focus on law reform and despite its limitations as outlined above, an important aftermath of the globalization of this discourse has been an increased NGO-ization of Southern women's groups addressing the issue (Desai and Naples 2002).…”

“…In addition to a persistent focus on law reform and despite its limitations as outlined above, an important aftermath of the globalization of this discourse has been an increased NGO-ization of Southern women's groups addressing the issue (Desai and Naples 2002). Often led by Southern elites trained in the North and catering to foreign funders' preference of funding, VAW has led to tensions and fractures within NGOs as priorities identified by local activists such as economic empowerment are ignored (Deo 2012). Desai and Naple (2002) stress that this NGO-ization has led to a decline in radical critique.…”

“…Desai and Naple (2002) stress that this NGO-ization has led to a decline in radical critique. Reflecting on the successful campaigning of different women in the 1990s, Deo (2012) differences between women's understandings of the causes and solutions of VAW, including a downplaying of poverty and inequality as a feminist issue.…”