South Asian Women in the Diaspora

South Asian women have frequently been conceptualized in colonial, academic and postcolonial studies, but their very categorization is deeply problematic. This book, informed by theory and enriched by in-depth fieldwork, overturns these unhelpful categorizations and alongside broader issues of self and nation assesses how South Asian identities are 'performed'. What are the blind spots and erasures in existing studies of both race and gender? In what ways do South Asian women struggle with Orientalist constructions? How do South Asian women engage with 'indo-chic?' What dilemmas face the South Asian female scholar? With a combination of the most recent feminist perspectives on gender and the South Asian diaspora, questions of knowledge, power, space, body, aesthetics and politics are made central to this book. Building upon a range of experiences and reflecting on the actual conditions of the production of knowledge, South Asian Women in the Disapora represents a challenging contribution to any consideration of gender, race, culture and power.

Nirmal Puwar is Senior Research Fellow and Lecturer in Sociology, at the University College Northampton

Parvati Raghuram is an International Studies Lecturer, at Nottingham Trent University.

Acknowledgements, vii

Notes on Contributors, ix

1. (Dis)locating South Asian Women in the Academy, Nirmal Puwar and Parvati Raghuram, 1

Part I South Asian Women and Paradigmatic (Im)possibilities

2. Melodramatic Postures and Constructions, Nirmal Puwar, 19

3. Still 'In Progress?' - Methodological Dilemmas, Tensions and Contradictions in Theorizing South Asian Muslim Women, Fauzia Ahmad, 43

4. Fashioning the South Asian Diaspora: Production and Consumption Tales, Parvati Raghuram, 67

5. Conceptualizing Emigrant Indian Female Subjectivity: Possible Entry Points, Mala Pandurang, 87

Part II Embodying South Asian Femininities

6. Romantic Transgressions in the Colonial Zone: Reading Mircea Eliade's Bengal Nights and Maitreyi Devi's It Does Not Die, Nandi Bhatia, 97

7. Undressing the Diaspora, Bakirathi Mani, 117

8. Re-producing South Asian Wom(b)en: Female Feticide and the Spectacle of Culture, Tej Purewal, 137

9. Gendered Embodiments: Mapping the Body-Politic of the Raped Woman and the Nation in Bangladesh, Nayanika Mookherjee, 157

Part III Engagements

10. A Kiss is Just a Kiss. . . Or Is It? South Asian Lesbian and Bisexual Women and the Construction of Space, Rani Kawale, 179

11. 'Changing Views': Theory and Practice in a Participatory Community Arts Project, Samina Zahir, 199

12. South Asian Women and the Question of Political Organization, Shaminder Takhar, 215

och13. Engendering Diasporic Identities, Hasmita Ramji, 227

Index, 243