ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the history of famously outspoken and powerful women at the highest levels of national politics in India, which has still not resulted in a strong level of participation by women in positions of political power. This chapter provides an overview of women in Indian politics since independence and the growth in demand for more equal representation in positions of power. This history emphasizes the norms that still restrict the ability of women politicians to engage fully in a public position and that enable men to subvert the gender quota system as parshad-patis. The chapter then shifts into the culmination of these demands – the constitutional reform that enacted gender quotas across India in local governance bodies. These quotas had to be integrated into an existing caste-based quota to create a complex system that reserves a majority of seats for both women and specific castes in every election across all local bodies. The chapter then discusses the primary case used for this analysis: the Jaipur Municipal Corporation (JMC) and the principal subjects: the JMC parshads and parshad-patis who provided the narratives used throughout this book. Finally, the chapter reviews the methodological challenges encountered and changes made through an ongoing reflexive process.
