Ashwini Tambe is an associate professor of women's studies at the University of Maryland College Park, where she is also affiliate faculty in history and Asian American studies. She is the author of Codes of Misconduct: Regulating Prostitution in Late Colonial Bombay.

"Who is a girl? Tracking this not-so-simple question from the late-colonial to the contemporary moment, Ashwini Tambe weaves an intellectual, cultural, and transnational history of the girl question in India. Garnering an astonishing range of sources and crafted in sparkling prose, Defining Girlhood in India illuminates the scientific racism at the heart of British colonial efforts to link early puberty to climate and Indian backwardness; Indian nationalist arguments about parental control of the sexual lives of girls; US and Indian psychologist constructions of adolescence and their playful representations in vernacular magazines; demographers' claims about raising the marriage age to control high fertility rates; and the state and international development agencies' discovery that investing in girls is good for development. In the process, the travels of knowledge from the imperial heartland to India but also from South Asia to international forums and discourses are meticulously mapped. This book should be required reading for courses in Transnational Feminism and South Asian studies."--Priti Ramamurthy, coeditor of The Modern Girl around the World: Consumption, Modernity, and Globalization"A fascinating book on the politics of girlhood in India within the contexts of a global morality discourse, national interests, and international law. Tambe makes an exceptional contribution to girlhood studies."--Sylvanna M. Falcón, author of Power Interrupted: Antiracist and Feminist Activism inside the United Nations

• CoverTitle pageCopyrightContentsAcknowledgmentsIntroduction1 Tropical Exceptions2 Adolescence as a Traveling Concept3 Legislating Nonmarital Sex in India, 1911–19294 Early Marriage as Slavery5 Population Control and Marriage Age in India,1960–19786 Investing in the Girl Child,1989–20157 Curtailing Parents?ConclusionNotesIndexBack cover

Ashwini Tambe is an associate professor of women's studies at the University of Maryland College Park, where she is also affiliate faculty in history and Asian American studies. She is the author of Codes of Misconduct: Regulating Prostitution in Late Colonial Bombay.

"Who is a girl? Tracking this not-so-simple question from the late-colonial to the contemporary moment, Ashwini Tambe weaves an intellectual, cultural, and transnational history of the girl question in India. Garnering an astonishing range of sources and crafted in sparkling prose, Defining Girlhood in India illuminates the scientific racism at the heart of British colonial efforts to link early puberty to climate and Indian backwardness; Indian nationalist arguments about parental control of the sexual lives of girls; US and Indian psychologist constructions of adolescence and their playful representations in vernacular magazines; demographers' claims about raising the marriage age to control high fertility rates; and the state and international development agencies' discovery that investing in girls is good for development. In the process, the travels of knowledge from the imperial heartland to India but also from South Asia to international forums and discourses are meticulously mapped. This book should be required reading for courses in Transnational Feminism and South Asian studies."--Priti Ramamurthy, coeditor of The Modern Girl around the World: Consumption, Modernity, and Globalization"A fascinating book on the politics of girlhood in India within the contexts of a global morality discourse, national interests, and international law. Tambe makes an exceptional contribution to girlhood studies."--Sylvanna M. Falcón, author of Power Interrupted: Antiracist and Feminist Activism inside the United Nations

• CoverTitle pageCopyrightContentsAcknowledgmentsIntroduction1 Tropical Exceptions2 Adolescence as a Traveling Concept3 Legislating Nonmarital Sex in India, 1911–19294 Early Marriage as Slavery5 Population Control and Marriage Age in India,1960–19786 Investing in the Girl Child,1989–20157 Curtailing Parents?ConclusionNotesIndexBack cover

Ashwini Tambe is an associate professor of women's studies at the University of Maryland College Park, where she is also affiliate faculty in history and Asian American studies. She is the author of Codes of Misconduct: Regulating Prostitution in Late Colonial Bombay.

"Who is a girl? Tracking this not-so-simple question from the late-colonial to the contemporary moment, Ashwini Tambe weaves an intellectual, cultural, and transnational history of the girl question in India. Garnering an astonishing range of sources and crafted in sparkling prose, Defining Girlhood in India illuminates the scientific racism at the heart of British colonial efforts to link early puberty to climate and Indian backwardness; Indian nationalist arguments about parental control of the sexual lives of girls; US and Indian psychologist constructions of adolescence and their playful representations in vernacular magazines; demographers' claims about raising the marriage age to control high fertility rates; and the state and international development agencies' discovery that investing in girls is good for development. In the process, the travels of knowledge from the imperial heartland to India but also from South Asia to international forums and discourses are meticulously mapped. This book should be required reading for courses in Transnational Feminism and South Asian studies."--Priti Ramamurthy, coeditor of The Modern Girl around the World: Consumption, Modernity, and Globalization"A fascinating book on the politics of girlhood in India within the contexts of a global morality discourse, national interests, and international law. Tambe makes an exceptional contribution to girlhood studies."--Sylvanna M. Falcón, author of Power Interrupted: Antiracist and Feminist Activism inside the United Nations

• CoverTitle pageCopyrightContentsAcknowledgmentsIntroduction1 Tropical Exceptions2 Adolescence as a Traveling Concept3 Legislating Nonmarital Sex in India, 1911–19294 Early Marriage as Slavery5 Population Control and Marriage Age in India,1960–19786 Investing in the Girl Child,1989–20157 Curtailing Parents?ConclusionNotesIndexBack cover