Off the Beaten Track Rethinking Gender Justice for Indian Women

by Kishwar, Madhu

• ISBN13: 9780195658316
• ISBN10: 0195658310
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2002-05-30
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

This book presents some of Madhu Kishwar's best essays which each tackle a topic of vital concern for Indian women today. Topics include dowry, unwanted daughers, the denial of co-ownership rights to wives, women's land rights, love and marriage, sexual harassment, living indentities vs. acquired ones, and the politics of beauty contests.

Author Biography

Madhu Kishwar is Senior Fellow at the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, Delhi.

Table of Contents

Introduction	1	(8)
Beginning with Our Own Lives: A Call for Dowry Boycott	9	(2)
Rethinking Dowry Boycott	11	(9)
Dowry Calculations: Daughter's Rights in her Parental Family	20	(17)
Knocking at the Portals of Justice: The Struggle for Women's Land Rights	37	(18)
The Burning of Roop Kanwar	55	(16)
Co-ownership Rights for Wives: A Solution Worse than the Problem	71	(7)
When Daughters are Unwanted: Sex Determination Tests in India	78	(15)
A Code for Self Monitoring: Some Thoughts on Activism	93	(19)
Violence and the 1989 Election: Implications for Women	112	(10)
Out of the Zenana Dabba: Strategies for Enhancing Women's Political Representation	122	(13)
Women's Marginal Role in Politics	135	(18)
Sex Harassment and Slander as Weapons of Subjugation	153	(20)
When India `Missed' the Universe	173	(19)
Love and Marriage	192	(17)
Women, Sex and Marriage: Restraint as a Feminine Strategy	209	(25)
Yes to Sita, No to Ram!: The Continuing Popularity of Sita in India	234	(16)
Who Am I?: Living Identities vs Acquired Ones	250	(18)
A Horror of `Isms': Why I do not Call Myself a Feminist	268