"Indian history, reconstitution of patriarchies in 19th century Maharashtra."

Rewriting history: The life and times of Pandita Ramabai

Biographies & Memoirs

Chakravarti, Uma

Community & Culture

Kali for Women in association with the Book Review Literary Trust

About the Author\nUma Chakravarti taught history at Miranda House College, University of Delhi. Her publications include Delhi Riots: Three Days in the Life of a Nation (joint editor, 1987), The Social Dimensions of Early Buddhism (1987), Rewriting History: The Life and Times of Pandita Ramabai (1998), From Myths to Markets: Essays on Gender (joint editor, 1999) and Gendering Caste: Through a Feminist Lens (2003).\nThis volume of essays moves the historiography of ancient India in the service of a history of the present. The cultural onslaught of a brahmanical saffron culture within popular discourse, and the fight against entrenched class and caste interests led by women, dalits, and other marginalized groups, frame this battle for 'ancient' India. Through an in-depth analysis of myths and original sources, the author provides novel grounds for contesting the foundations of such charged concepts as 'nation', 'civilization,' and 'womanly honour'. Reading against the grain of canonical sources, she presents a distinctive reading of lesser known Buddhist Pali texts, the Jataka stories, and even contemporary texts like the TV serials Chanakya and Ramayana, to demonstrate the stratifications in early Indian society. The book brings to light several crucial concepts and categories that make possible a sensitive delineation of social alienation, class antagonism and gendered violence in ancient Indian society. The everyday histories of dasas, karmakaras, 'a'grihinis, bhaktins, and gahapatis provide an understanding of ancient India away from the clichéd invocations of ideal kings, brahmanas, and pativratas.

Everyday Lives, Everyday Histories: Beyond the Kings and Brahmanas of 'Ancient' India

History

Ancient Civilizations

Tulika Books

The Dying Lineage: The Crisis of Political Power in the Mahabharata

Asia

Primus Books

Pandita Ramabai was one of India’s earliest feminists. Honored with the title of Saraswati in Calcutta in 1879, she soon alienated the men who had initially supported her. A high-caste Hindu widow, Ramabai converted to Christianity, an act that was seen as not only a betrayal of her religion but of her very nation. A classic study, Rewriting History does more than introduce one of the foremost thinkers of nineteenth-century India; it rescues Ramabai from the marginalization of her contemporaries. Arguing that this controversial figure has been actively suppressed in the writing of India’s pre-independence history, Uma Chakravarti liberates Ramabai with an acute and nuanced critique of the power relations and hierarchies within a colonized society. Thoroughly researched and meticulously detailed, Rewriting History is essential reading for those interested in gender, class, and caste in nineteenth century India.

Rewriting History: The Life and Times of Pandita Ramabai

Historical

Zubaan

Review\n"The author appeals to young scholars to take up intensive religion-based studies…is another addition to rich contribution to feminist understanding of Indian society." -- The Tribune\nThe text is among the first critical feminist interventions and push-backs on the dominant discourse of caste that views caste as a consensual rather than oppressive system …. Gendering Caste is an excellent primer on caste and gender as bulwarks of Indian society and the role of the State in maintaining hierarchies. -- J-Caste: A Global Journal on Social Exclusion, Vol. 1, Issue 1\n"Chakravarti presents the complex and confounding process by which caste has become so entrenched in Hindu social life and, consequently, such a powerful (and often violent) tool in the subordination of women…. Chakravarti writes with clarity. Her erudition is deep and her research is extensive." -- The Book Review Literary Trust, 08 March 2020\nThe continuous demand for Gendering Caste: Through a Feminist Lens(2003) led to this revised edition which analyses the recent socio-economic and political changes that have taken place. Caste-based marriage and control over women′s sexuality have been crucial for the continuation of the caste system in India. Thus, caste and gender are linked. Brutal reprisals have followed when dalits and women have tried to challenge caste-based marriage and inequality which allots strict rules of conduct for women and all dalits. 
Maithreyi Krishnaraj, the Series Editor, highlights the author’s discussion on the new ways in which caste violence targets women and on the changes within the family―immediate and extended―that still keep women subservient to caste norms. She points to the new discussion on an economy in transition to capitalism, and persistent conflicts over religion, language, ethnicity and other differences that relate to gender. 
The book also includes a new ‘Afterword: Caste and Gender in the New Millennium’, which provides an updated discussion on the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act 1989 (known in short as Prevention of Atrocities Act: POA). Erudite, yet accessible, this book enables the reader to understand the ramifications of caste today.

Gendering Caste: Through a Feminist Lens

Politics & Social Sciences

Sociology

SAGE Publications Pvt. Ltd

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