Theft, poisoning, affairs, flights home, refusals to work, eat or have sex, threats to divide the joint household, and sly acts of sabotage are some of the domestic warfare tactics employed by Muslim women attempting to resist patriarchy. Gender, Law, and Resistance in India dramatically illustrates how a patriarchal ideology is upheld and reinforced through male-governed social and legal institutions and how women defy that control. Based on anthropological fieldwork in rural Rajasthan in northern India, Erin Moore's book details the life of an extended Muslim family she has known for twenty years. In many ways the plight of the central character, Hunni, is representative of dilemmas experienced by the majority of north Indian peasant women. Ultimately an account of cultural hegemony and defiance, Gender, Law, and Resistance in India reveals how so-called "modern" state institutions and practices reinforce traditional arrangements, resulting in women being silenced, deprived of equal rights before the law, and returned to their male guardians. Still, women resist in overt and covert ways. The first ethnographic work to focus principally on the law and legal institutions of gender and agency in South Asia, this unique volume examines the interpenetrations of north India's pluralistic legal systems. Moore adeptly connects engrossing case histories to national dialogues over women's rights, discussing these issues in terms of Muslim personal laws, secularism, and communal violence. Gender, Law, and Resistance in India is a rich and truly significant contribution to gender studies, South Asian studies, and sociolegal studies.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
Review
"An excellent starting point in the ethnographic study of women's struggle against the law and modern legal institutions that reinforce patriarchy in northern India." —Religious Studies Review "What the reader takes away from this analysis is a sense of the multiple means and multiple forums through which women in Rajasthan (and India more generally) are able to assert a considerable amount of control over their lives, even in the face of very strong patriarchal institutions and values." —American Journal of Sociology "Offers a stunning corrective to many mistaken stereotypes of South Asian womanhood . . . exciting to read and instructive to ponder." —Journal of Asian Studies "The book's accessible readability and provocative data make it an excellent text for courses in South Asian Studies, gender, legal anthropology, comparative justice systems, and introductory cultural anthropology." —Journal of Anthropological Research
--This text refers to the
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edition.
From the Inside Flap
Theft, poisoning, affairs, flights home, refusals to work, eat or have sex, threats to divide the joint household, and sly acts of sabotage are some of the domestic warfare tactics employed by Muslim women attempting to resist patriarchy. Gender, Law, and Resistance in India dramatically illustrates how a patriarchal ideology is upheld and reinforced through male-governed social and legal institutions and how women defy that control. Based on anthropological fieldwork in rural Rajasthan in northern India, Erin Moore's book details the life of an extended Muslim family she has known for twenty years. In many ways the plight of the central character, Hunni, is representative of dilemmas experienced by the majority of north Indian peasant women. Ultimately an account of cultural hegemony and defiance, Gender, Law, and Resistance in India reveals how so-called "modern" state institutions and practices reinforce traditional arrangements, resulting in women being silenced, deprived of equal rights before the law, and returned to their male guardians. Still, women resist in overt and covert ways. The first ethnographic work to focus principally on the law and legal institutions of gender and agency in South Asia, this unique volume examines the interpenetrations of north India's pluralistic legal systems. Moore adeptly connects engrossing case histories to national dialogues over women's rights, discussing these issues in terms of Muslim personal laws, secularism, and communal violence. Gender, Law, and Resistance in India is a rich and truly significant contribution to gender studies, South Asian studies, and sociolegal studies.
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2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The best recent study of gender and patriarchy in India,
By A Customer
This review is from: Gender, Law, and Resistance in India (Hardcover)
This is an excellent, in-depth portrait of the life of women in India, and in particular how women exert influence in a strongly patriarchal society. As a college teacher I am planning to use it regularly both in teaching about India and about women in traditional societies. It might also be useful alongside a text in an introductory course in social anthropology or women's studies.
2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
excellent first hand account of women's lives in India,
By A Customer
This review is from: Gender, Law, and Resistance in India (Hardcover)
This is a wonderful, moving academic book. It dispels the myth of monolithic patriarchy in Indian society by showing how women attempt to master their own fates. The author has done the best job in recent years of getting inside the life of a village in India, and we are given vivid descriptions of how women battle male attempts to control them. As a college teacher I plan to use it in courses dealing with women's issues and in cultural studies of India. I recommend it as a reading in intermediate and upper level undergraduate courses on India and on women.
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