Womens Empowerment in India: From Rights to Agency

The volume brings together readings describing a range of less-traversed aspects and transferences of womens rights and struggles in India and develops a comprehensive understanding of the interface between womens activism and politics.

The book documents and discusses diverse ways in which Indian women have struggled for empowerment, political voice and representation, and rallied against injustice and discrimination. Against the backdrop of womens assertion of rights and negotiations for empowerment, the chapters in this volume explore diverse facets of collective agency, and emanations of womens politico-legal struggles against stereotypes of gender and class in post-independence India. While the donor-driven international community has been eager to celebrate the successes of its global normative agenda-setting and best practices approach, this book - based primarily on field research by the contributors - showcases authentic local ownership and womens own agency, taking seriously the need to understand the cultural context and pay attention to intersectionality. It presents various examples of womens activism for change, reflecting on the quotidian struggles and dynamic assertions of voice and political power, within and outside of formal political institutions. The book is a contribution to the debate about agency and ownership as key aspects of empowerment, highlighting women who defy dominant narratives.

It will be an essential read for students and academics of political science, gender studies, sociology and social sciences, and cultural studies. It will also be of interest to readers interested in the history of womens movements and their participation in national and local politics in India.