Women, Gender and Religious Nationalism

Description

This book reflects the changing modalities of Hindu nationalist organizing among women and youth. It provides unique insights into how this immensely powerful political formation has been able to preside over a massive network of grassroots organisations among most segments of Indian society and capture national power. Chapters explore the techniques the RSS, VHP and BJP employ and the messages they convey about masculinity, femininity, and LGBTQ communities, and analyze contrasting forms of women's activism in defending and opposing Hindu nationalism. This book contributes to the global literature on the gender dimensions of rightwing politics. By exploring why women advance the agenda of the Hindu Right despite its conservative views on gender and sexuality, the book makes an important intervention in feminist and women's studies scholarship.

Amrita Basu is Domenic J. Paino 1955 Professor of Political Science, and Sexuality, Women's and Gender Studies at Amherst College, Massachusetts. She is the author of Violent Conjunctures in Democratic India, published with the Press in 2015. Tanika Sarkar is a historian of modern India based at the Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi. Sarkar's work focuses on the intersections of religion, gender, and politics in both colonial and postcolonial South Asia, in particular on women and the Hindu Right.