ABSTRACT
This interview centres around three themes: a) anti-colonial and nationalist convergences and disjunctures; b) the tensions between feminism and nationalism and inherent contradictions within Indian feminism and c) knowledge economies. Despite the mass presence of women in every kind of anti-imperialist resistance, feminist issues were not visible in the mainstream nationalist agenda, even well after independence in India. Over successive years, all homogenizing and patriarchal moves that accompany mainstream nationalism were subject to intense debate and scrutiny. In fact, this co-optation of feminist goals in nationalist neo-liberal agendas is a feature shared with many postsocialist economies. Menon critiques the concept of intersectionality which congeals into non-recognition multiple axes of identity, seeing race as the primary oppression. This has been a vexed issue for Dalit feminism(s). Finally, in relation to knowledge production, Menon identifies the production and distribution of knowledge as one still dominated by American and Western European academy, which potentially cripples dialogues between postsocialist and postcolonial scholars.
