ABSTRACT
The volume attempts to provide commentaries and theorisations of the fact that in the recent years we have witnessed in India the emergence of a new feminist subjectivity, that is felt, experienced and represented in multiple ways. As might be expected, such a phenomenon is also accompanied by the growth of a new female subject, within which the fulcrum of this new feminist subjectivity primarily rests. Predominantly urban, predominantly over-educated, Hindu, upper-caste and upper-middle-class, this new female (and feminist) subjectivity, I contend, demands rigorous theorisation. Yet, as the chapters in this volume demonstrate, intersectionality (between class, caste, gender, religion, region and sexuality) plays an important role within the modalities of such new feminist subjectivities. Thus, the contributors show, through analyses of specific cultural texts and social sites, gendered mobilisation is experienced very differently, for instance, in the universities in Delhi and Kolkata, the industrial belts in Haryana, private transportations in Bangalore, the retail shop floors in Hyderabad and villages in militarised Mizoram. They also show that even as we comment on the emergence of a new feminism, which demands a re-theorisation and re-contextualisation of ‘older’ feminist debates, categories such as ‘labour’ and ‘political participation’ remain important sites through which to understand the working class, Dalit and other marginalised women’s mobilisations and political expressions.
