Mary E. John - Böcker

Child marriage has been given a pre-eminent place in agendas addressing “harmful practices” as defined by the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. India leads the world in the number of women who marry below the age of 18 and is therefore of unique interest to international and national forums.Refusing simplistic labels like “harmful practice”, this book explores the complex history of child marriage as a social and feminist issue in India across different domains. It critically reviews a wide range of historical, demographic, and legal scholarship on the subject. Major concepts relevant to child marriage – such as childhood, adolescence, the girl, and marriage − are analysed in a comparative framework that uncovers the unnoticed presence of the practice in the USA and China. The volume questions existing approaches, analyses the latest data sources, and develops a new concept of compulsory marriage. A definitive study of child marriage in India in a changing global context, this book will interest scholars and students in the fields of women’s, gender and sexuality studies, childhood studies, development studies and the social sciences. It will also be of great appeal to all those working with civil society organisations, NGOs, states and international agencies in India, and globally.

Child marriage has been given a pre-eminent place in agendas addressing “harmful practices” as defined by the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. India leads the world in the number of women who marry below the age of 18 and is therefore of unique interest to international and national forums.Refusing simplistic labels like “harmful practice”, this book explores the complex history of child marriage as a social and feminist issue in India across different domains. It critically reviews a wide range of historical, demographic, and legal scholarship on the subject. Major concepts relevant to child marriage – such as childhood, adolescence, the girl, and marriage − are analysed in a comparative framework that uncovers the unnoticed presence of the practice in the USA and China. The volume questions existing approaches, analyses the latest data sources, and develops a new concept of compulsory marriage. A definitive study of child marriage in India in a changing global context, this book will interest scholars and students in the fields of women’s, gender and sexuality studies, childhood studies, development studies and the social sciences. It will also be of great appeal to all those working with civil society organisations, NGOs, states and international agencies in India, and globally.

Discrepant Dislocations: Feminism, Theory, and Postcolonial Histories explores the evolving intersections of feminist theory with postcolonial histories, offering a critical examination of the challenges that shape feminist thought across different geopolitical contexts. The book spans a range of intellectual and political landscapes, particularly focusing on the tensions between feminist scholarship in the United States and India. Drawing from the insights of third-world intellectuals who have engaged with Western theories like poststructuralism, it interrogates the complexities of the postcolonial as both a term and a concept. Rather than resolving its varied meanings, the book engages with the tensions and discrepancies inherent in these theories, particularly how they manifest within the power dynamics between the West and the postcolony. By focusing on the experiences of Western domination, the author highlights how these intellectual and political forces continue to shape feminist thought globally, even as feminist agendas seek to challenge these very systems of power.The essays within this collection examine a wide array of issues, from the position of third-world feminists in the West to the challenges of translating feminist theory into diverse cultural contexts. The study critically engages with the rise of feminist theory in the U.S., particularly in the eighties and nineties, and its connection to race, class, and gender debates. These discussions are framed within a historical and genealogical perspective, showing how these terms have been shaped and constrained by Western academic practices. Transitioning from the U.S. to India, the book also explores the national location of feminist movements, examining how postindependence Indian feminism navigates the complexities of global and local power relations. Ultimately, the book calls for a more self-reflexive and international feminist theory that acknowledges the unequal power dynamics between nations and fosters a more accountable and nuanced global feminist discourse.This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1996.

Discrepant Dislocations: Feminism, Theory, and Postcolonial Histories explores the evolving intersections of feminist theory with postcolonial histories, offering a critical examination of the challenges that shape feminist thought across different geopolitical contexts. The book spans a range of intellectual and political landscapes, particularly focusing on the tensions between feminist scholarship in the United States and India. Drawing from the insights of third-world intellectuals who have engaged with Western theories like poststructuralism, it interrogates the complexities of the postcolonial as both a term and a concept. Rather than resolving its varied meanings, the book engages with the tensions and discrepancies inherent in these theories, particularly how they manifest within the power dynamics between the West and the postcolony. By focusing on the experiences of Western domination, the author highlights how these intellectual and political forces continue to shape feminist thought globally, even as feminist agendas seek to challenge these very systems of power.The essays within this collection examine a wide array of issues, from the position of third-world feminists in the West to the challenges of translating feminist theory into diverse cultural contexts. The study critically engages with the rise of feminist theory in the U.S., particularly in the eighties and nineties, and its connection to race, class, and gender debates. These discussions are framed within a historical and genealogical perspective, showing how these terms have been shaped and constrained by Western academic practices. Transitioning from the U.S. to India, the book also explores the national location of feminist movements, examining how postindependence Indian feminism navigates the complexities of global and local power relations. Ultimately, the book calls for a more self-reflexive and international feminist theory that acknowledges the unequal power dynamics between nations and fosters a more accountable and nuanced global feminist discourse.This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1996.

This book critically examines assumptions about age, women, and gender. Amidst all the attention that has been granted to difference and inequality, however uneven and unsatisfactory in terms of class and caste, race and ethnicity, sexuality and gender, disability, religion, and nation, questions of age and its importance for feminism have been less well defined. Drawing on recent literature on childhood, the chapters in this volume cover a range of fresh perspectives. These include:What kinds of biological, legal, chronological histories age has and the fundamental ways in which these links are being recastHow gender differences occupy a prominent place in historical constructions of identities, especially the frequent infantilisation of women, who are never seen as adults in the full sense of the term nor equally allowed to be children beyond the first years of lifeWays in which class, caste, gender, and ethnicity shaped classrooms and opportunities for education in the colonial period and the 20th century to produce new ideas of childhoodGendered outcomes for children in the context of a long entanglement of law with labour, transformations in practices of parenting over time, and how the concept of care emerged in both Western and non-Western societiesAn incisive study on how childhoods have come to be understood, this book will be of great interest to scholars and researchers of gender studies, childhood studies, family studies, modern history, legal history, social policy, social psychology, education, and sociology. This volume will also interest parents, paediatricians, family health providers, teachers and educators, and anyone who works with children.

This book critically examines assumptions about age, women, and gender. Amidst all the attention that has been granted to difference and inequality, however uneven and unsatisfactory in terms of class and caste, race and ethnicity, sexuality and gender, disability, religion, and nation, questions of age and its importance for feminism have been less well defined. Drawing on recent literature on childhood, the chapters in this volume cover a range of fresh perspectives. These include:What kinds of biological, legal, chronological histories age has and the fundamental ways in which these links are being recastHow gender differences occupy a prominent place in historical constructions of identities, especially the frequent infantilisation of women, who are never seen as adults in the full sense of the term nor equally allowed to be children beyond the first years of lifeWays in which class, caste, gender, and ethnicity shaped classrooms and opportunities for education in the colonial period and the 20th century to produce new ideas of childhoodGendered outcomes for children in the context of a long entanglement of law with labour, transformations in practices of parenting over time, and how the concept of care emerged in both Western and non-Western societiesAn incisive study on how childhoods have come to be understood, this book will be of great interest to scholars and researchers of gender studies, childhood studies, family studies, modern history, legal history, social policy, social psychology, education, and sociology. This volume will also interest parents, paediatricians, family health providers, teachers and educators, and anyone who works with children.

Has there been a ‘conspiracy of silence’ regarding sexuality in India, be it within social movements or as a focus of scholarship? A Question of Silence? interrogates this assumption in order to thematise a crucial field. Prefaced by a detailed introductory overview, the essays use diverse perspectives to develop an understanding of the institutions, practices and forms of representation of sexual relations and their boundaries of legitimacy.From unravelling the Kamasutra (the text) to investigating KamaSutra (the condom) the volume includes essays on how sexuality has been framed by the law, within social movements, or has been the site for patrolled caste, ethnic or gender identities. Other essays analyse cinematic, televisual and literary representations of sexuality. Taken as a whole, this book makes room for more wide-ranging approaches for tackling the sexual economies of desire and violence among men and women in modern India.