Shiv Sena Women

This remarkable book tells the story of the women and children of the Shiv Sena, one of the most radical and violent of the Hindu nationalist parties that influenced Indian politics throughout the 1990s and into the present. Atreyee Sen immersed herself in the life of the low-income, working-class slums of Bombay, where the Sena women's front has been instrumental in creating and sustaining communal violence, directed primarily against their Muslim neighbors. The author presents the Sena women's own rationale for organizing themselves along paramilitary lines, as poor women and children have used violence and "gang-ism" to create a distinctive social identity, networks of material support, and protection from male violence in the explosive environment of the slums. Sen's moving account foregrounds the ethical dilemmas that surrounded her research and writing, and she explores wider questions involving women, violence, and religious fundamentalism. Book jacket.