ABSTRACT
The woman sitting next to me in a Melbourne tram wants to know whether I am an Indian or a Sri Lankan. “Indian,” I answer. She tells me she has been to India and we get talking about the places she has visited. She is eager to let me know that she loves Indian food and Indian textiles. “Indian woman” is a new marker of my identity. Like many post-colonials I am sentimentally and passionately attached to my country. But what does the category Indian woman signify apart from naming my nationality and gender? While I consider both the words integral to my identity, I feel that they are too broad to have any specific meaning. For within those two categories are identities of region, religion, language, caste, class, marital status, sexuality and so on. Mere mention of my name and profession would be enough for most people in India to make intelligent guesses about my multiple identities. Depending on the context, some of them have been more important than others both for me and for people around me. They have, however, always remained intrinsically linked with each other. It is impossible for me, therefore, to write about my experiences of class in India without taking into account the other factors (Liddle & Joshi 1986; Bonner et al. 1994; Kishwar 1996).
