ABSTRACT
In a recent essay entitled “The Nationalist Resolution of the Women's Question,” Partha Chatterjee elaborates the complex relationship between women's politics and the politics of Indian nationalism. His point is that while the women's question “was a central issue in some of the most controversial debates over social reform in early and mid-nineteenth century Bengal,'' this very issue disappeared from the public agenda by the end of the century. “From then onwards,'' Chatterjee observes, “questions regarding the position of women in society do not arouse the same degree of passion as they did only a few decades before. The overwhelming issues now are directly political onesconcerning the polities of nationalism.'' Chatterjee concludes that “nationalism could not have resolved those issues; rather, the relation between nationalism and the women's question must have been problematical. ”l Though these critical comments are made in the highly specific context of Indian nationalism in the nineteenth century, they express a general truth concerning the relationship among different forms and contents of political struggle and the problems that
78 / R. Radhakrishnan
emerge when any one politics (such as “the women's question") is taken over and spoken for by an-other politics (such as nationalism).2
