Gendering Caste: Through a Feminist Lens (Theorizing Feminism) - Tapa blanda

The continuous demand for Gendering Caste: Through a Feminist Lens (2003) led to this revised edition which analyses the recent socio-economic and political changes that have taken place. Caste-based marriage and control over women's sexuality have been crucial for the continuation of the caste system in India. Thus, caste and gender are linked. Brutal reprisals have followed when dalits and women have tried to challenge caste-based marriage and inequality which allots strict rules of conduct for women and all dalits. Maithreyi Krishnaraj, the Series Editor, highlights the author's discussion on the new ways in which caste violence targets women and on the changes within the family - immediate and extended - that still keep women subservient to caste norms. She points to the new discussion on an economy in transition to capitalism, and persistent conflicts over religion, language, ethnicity and other differences that relate to gender. The book also includes a new 'Afterword: Caste and Gender in the New Millennium', which provides an updated discussion on the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act 1989 (known in short as Prevention of Atrocities Act: POA). Erudite, yet accessible, this book enables the reader to understand the ramifications of caste today.

Uma Chakravarti is a feminist historian who taught at Miranda House, University of Delhi, from where she took early retirement in 1998. She has been associated with the women’s movement and the movement for democratic rights since the late seventies. She writes on Buddhism, early Indian history, the nineteenth century and on contemporary subjects. Among her films is Ek Inquilab Aur Aaya: Lucknow 1929–49.

Maithreyi Krishnaraj, a pioneering scholar in Women’s Studies, is senior honorary fellow, Research Centre for Women’s Studies, SNDT Women’s University, Mumbai, and steering committee member of the Dr Avabai Wadia Archives.