Abstract
This article tracks the journeys made by the term ‘gender’ in India. From its beginnings in the 1970s as a feminist contribution to public discourse, destabilizing the biological category of ‘sex’, we find that gender has taken two distinct forms since the 1990s. On the one hand, gender as an analytical category is being used to challenge the notion of ‘woman’ as the subject of feminist politics. This challenge comes from the politics of caste and sexuality. On the other hand, gender is mobilized by the state to perform a role in discourses of development, to achieve exactly the opposite effect; that is, gender becomes a synonym for ‘women’. Thus, the first trend threatens to dissolve, and the second to domesticate, the subject of feminist politics. This article explores the implications of both journeys in terms of a feminist horizon.
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Notes
Other backward castes (OBC) is a constitutional category of specific castes that have historically been educationally and culturally disadvantaged.
The formerly ‘untouchable’ castes, or former ‘outcastes’, who were the ‘fifth caste’ at the bottom of the Hindu caste system with its four-caste hierarchy.
I have discussed these questions more fully in the chapter titled ‘Reservations for women: “Am I that Name?”’ in Recovering Subversion (Menon, 2004).
Some terms that need explanation here arise from the long history of militant politics of caste in Tamil Nadu. The movement against Brahmin hegemony was led by ‘non-Brahmins’ or Dravidians (or ‘Shudras’, i.e. those occupying the fourth position in the caste hierarchy). The goal of this movement was to build a larger unity of non-Brahmins/Dravidians with the ‘fifth caste’, the Dalits. While it has been a powerful and effective struggle, the current power wielded by Dravidians in Tamil society has led to a gradual alienation of Dalits from this alliance.
However, some activists told reporters they would have preferred the new category to have been ‘T’ for ‘transgender’, as ‘eunuch’ is an archaic and stigmatizing term and also because hijras represent only one part of the transgender population (Venkat, 2008; Thomas, 2005).
I have explored these questions at length in ‘Outing Heteronormativity: Nation, Citizen, Feminist Disruptions’ in Sexualities (Menon, ed., 2007).
Ruth Vanita's article in this issue studies lesbian love stories of this kind.
Sex Workers’ Manifesto, First National Conference of Sex Workers in India, November 1997, Calcutta. Published in Sexualities (Menon, 2007).
http://www.asiasrc.org/plspk/2005_1/Grey.asp (last accessed September 2008).
Phrase taken from Devika Thampi (n.d.).
For a detailed discussion of the philosophical and political contradictions that arise for Indian feminism from this issue, see Chapter 2 of my Recovering Subversion (Menon, 2004).
The Sessions Court acquitted the five accused in 1995 and the appeal in High Court is still pending. For a quick background and update on Bhanwari Devi, see Vij (2008).
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Menon, N. sexuality, caste, governmentality: contests over ‘gender’ in India. Fem Rev 91, 94–112 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1057/fr.2008.46
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/fr.2008.46