ABSTRACT
About 20 years after Susie Tharu and Tejaswini Niranjana’s acclaimed essay ‘Problems for a contemporary Theory of Gender’ was written, suddenly women – of different ages, castes, classes, from diverse regions, and with various religious affiliations – have again taken the centre stage from the power corridors of policy-making to the debates in student organizations. Are we experiencing a resurgence in the Women’s Movement? Is it a result of the nation-wide shockwave after the Delhi Gang rape in December 2012 when middle class India came down to the streets? Is it the first wave of the new movements that are sweeping through university campuses and the ways in which new Dalit mobilizations are articulating economic and social rights? Is it connected to the visibility of protesting bodies on streets along with virtual solidarities in social media platforms, indicating debates on the layers of inequality and discrimination that accrue at this juncture of economic liberalization and consumer culture? Probably it is all of them and more. This is an effort to engage with different ways of seeing and different genealogies of vision vis-à-vis gendered bodies in both public and private domains and to explore the configurations of collective mobilization around ‘women’s issues.’
