A01=Lata Mani
Author_Lata Mani
british india
Category=JBCC6
Category=JBSF1
Category=JHB
Category=JHMC
Category=NH
Category=NHF
Category=QRD
Category=QRVJ1
colonial gaze
colonial india
colonial state
colonialism
devotion
emancipation
eq_bestseller
eq_history
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
evangelism
female subject
feminism
funeral pyres
gender studies
hindu
hindu traditions
india
marketplace
missionaries
missionary discourse
missionary writings
modern india
nationalist historiography
prohibition of widow burning
religion
religious rituals
religious traditions
religious worship
sati
social reform
violence
widow burning
widowhood
womens studies
Product details
- ISBN 9780520214071
- Weight: 408g
- Dimensions: 152 x 229mm
- Publication Date: 30 Dec 1998
- Publisher: University of California Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Paperback
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"Contentious Traditions" analyzes the debate on sati, or widow burning, in colonial India. Though the prohibition of widow burning in 1829 was heralded as a key step forward for women's emancipation in modern India, Lata Mani argues that the women who were burned were marginal to the debate and that the controversy was over definitions of Hindu tradition, the place of ritual in religious worship, the civilizing missions of colonialism and evangelism, and the proper role of the colonial state. Mani radically revises colonialist as well as nationalist historiography on the social reform of women's status in the colonial period and clarifies the complex and contradictory character of missionary writings on India. The history of widow burning is one of paradox. While the chief players in the debate argued over the religious basis of sati and the fine points of scriptural interpretation, the testimonials of women at the funeral pyres consistently addressed, the material hardships and societal expectations attached to widowhood. And although historiography has traditionally emphasized the colonial horror of sati, a fascinated ambivalence toward the practice suffused official discussions.
The debate normalized the violence of sati and supported the misconception that it was a voluntary act of wifely devotion. Mani brilliantly illustrates how situated feminism and discourse analysis compel a rewriting of history, thus destabilizing the ways we are accustomed to look at women and men, at 'tradition', custom, and modernity.
Lata Mani is an Indian feminist and historian who currently lives in California.
