Non-normative Ethics and Feminism in India
Abstract:
Though it is ostensibly clear that the western and Indian ethical traditions are disparate, it is not always evident what these differences exactly are or what their significance maybe. Borrowing from the work of diverse scholars, both western and Indian, this paper argues that the Indian ethical tradition is essentially non-normative in nature. A contrast with Indian ethics is drawn to enlightenment ethics, especially the Kantian. The implications of non-normative ethics are then discussed with regard to feminism in India, its epistemology, politics, popularity and the backlash it evokes.
Keywords: Non-normative Ethics, Western Ethics, Kant, Feminism in India.
Abstract:
Though it is ostensibly clear that the western and Indian ethical traditions are disparate, it is not always evident what these differences exactly are or what their significance maybe. Borrowing from the work of diverse scholars, both western and Indian, this paper argues that the Indian ethical tradition is essentially non-normative in nature. A contrast with Indian ethics is drawn to enlightenment ethics, especially the Kantian. The implications of non-normative ethics are then discussed with regard to feminism in India, its epistemology, politics, popularity and the backlash it evokes.
Keywords: Non-normative Ethics, Western Ethics, Kant, Feminism in India.
Women's Subjectivity in the Manusmriti: Some Conceptual Clarifications.
Abstract: There is little doubt that Manusmriti is a contentious text with conflicting readings and interpretations. Scholars who read the text from historical, theological, philological or feminist points of view, offer opposing interpretations, each emerging from a separate ideological or analytical standpoint. Indeed, the text itself is infamously contradictory. Hence, a fairly congruous reading of the text that allows for the text’s coherence and authorial voice to be preserved is the need of the hour. This paper seeks to provide one, while addressing questions about the text’s presentation of women’s subjectivity. That is, the paper first shows how some of the significant work done on the Manusmriti suffers from anachronisms and then proposes conceptual clarifications through a deeper exploration of the historical origins of feminism as well as the understanding of the ethical nature of the world in Indian thought. The paper seeks to expand the scope of a feminist understanding by adopting an approach that avoids selective readings. A close-reading of the Manusmriti will be offered, based on a derivation of its context to the fullest extent possible and a theorization of the genre of the dharmashastras. The research methodology involves not privileging the reader’s subject position, thus providing a counter-move to current works on the text including the approach of ‘reading like a feminist.’
Keywords: Dharmashastra, streedharma, feminism.
Abstract: There is little doubt that Manusmriti is a contentious text with conflicting readings and interpretations. Scholars who read the text from historical, theological, philological or feminist points of view, offer opposing interpretations, each emerging from a separate ideological or analytical standpoint. Indeed, the text itself is infamously contradictory. Hence, a fairly congruous reading of the text that allows for the text’s coherence and authorial voice to be preserved is the need of the hour. This paper seeks to provide one, while addressing questions about the text’s presentation of women’s subjectivity. That is, the paper first shows how some of the significant work done on the Manusmriti suffers from anachronisms and then proposes conceptual clarifications through a deeper exploration of the historical origins of feminism as well as the understanding of the ethical nature of the world in Indian thought. The paper seeks to expand the scope of a feminist understanding by adopting an approach that avoids selective readings. A close-reading of the Manusmriti will be offered, based on a derivation of its context to the fullest extent possible and a theorization of the genre of the dharmashastras. The research methodology involves not privileging the reader’s subject position, thus providing a counter-move to current works on the text including the approach of ‘reading like a feminist.’
Keywords: Dharmashastra, streedharma, feminism.
Engagement with Tradition in Vaidehi’s Fiction
Abstract: Vaidehi’s fiction covers a wide range of themes, plots, characters and, styles while straddling the worlds both of tradition and modernity. Her memorable portrayals are of women and child-narrators that leave the reader with a unique visual perspective on everyday experiences, awakening memories with precision and probing gently into interrogable areas with simplicity. Though celebrated as a writer with feminist sensibilities and an essayist of the new and modern woman, this paper will argue that it is for her approach to tradition that we must treasure her, read and re-read her. It is her re-presentation of tradition as wholesome, logical, practical, worthy of engagement, questioning, dialogue and critique that is so rare that her works demand a re-evaluation of any quick dismissal of tradition in contemporary thought. For all the complexity she is able to bring to the approach, she insists that she only writes what she actually experienced in her large childhood home. Yet, it is not that her approach to tradition is the same throughout her varied works; it develops in leaps and bounds, once as pride and once as critique, true to Vaidehi’s repeated clarification that she is “not someone who grew up and then wrote, but someone who grew up by writing.” A subtle understanding of feminism is arguably made possible through the approach she has developed towards tradition; an approach that destabilizes the singularity of mainstream gender-feminist thought in India.
Keywords: Indian Feminism, Streeloka, Normative Femininity, Tradition, Modernity, Kannada Literature.
Abstract: Vaidehi’s fiction covers a wide range of themes, plots, characters and, styles while straddling the worlds both of tradition and modernity. Her memorable portrayals are of women and child-narrators that leave the reader with a unique visual perspective on everyday experiences, awakening memories with precision and probing gently into interrogable areas with simplicity. Though celebrated as a writer with feminist sensibilities and an essayist of the new and modern woman, this paper will argue that it is for her approach to tradition that we must treasure her, read and re-read her. It is her re-presentation of tradition as wholesome, logical, practical, worthy of engagement, questioning, dialogue and critique that is so rare that her works demand a re-evaluation of any quick dismissal of tradition in contemporary thought. For all the complexity she is able to bring to the approach, she insists that she only writes what she actually experienced in her large childhood home. Yet, it is not that her approach to tradition is the same throughout her varied works; it develops in leaps and bounds, once as pride and once as critique, true to Vaidehi’s repeated clarification that she is “not someone who grew up and then wrote, but someone who grew up by writing.” A subtle understanding of feminism is arguably made possible through the approach she has developed towards tradition; an approach that destabilizes the singularity of mainstream gender-feminist thought in India.
Keywords: Indian Feminism, Streeloka, Normative Femininity, Tradition, Modernity, Kannada Literature.
What Unites India?: On the Role of Translation and Culture in producing the nation
In Translation Today, Edited by Awadhesh Kumar Mishra and V Saratchandran Nair. Vol. 9, No. 1. Jun 1, 2015. pp 25-55.
Abstract: The Two-Worlds theory is a specific result of postcolonial grids of thought that provoke us to rethink the role of English as opposed to that of the vernacular languages of India. All too often, arguments take the form of defending the vernacular and questioning the role of English. Significantly enough, a connection is drawn between the role of English and its function as a proxy for nationalism. This paper examines the theoretical frameworks that articulate such connections and raises some questions with regard to the Two-Worlds theory in Literary and Translation Studies, while charting the current intellectual milieu. Methodologically, the paper discusses underlying assumptions about concepts of culture, nationalism, colonialism and Orientalism.
Keywords: Nationhood, Cultural unity, Translation.
In Translation Today, Edited by Awadhesh Kumar Mishra and V Saratchandran Nair. Vol. 9, No. 1. Jun 1, 2015. pp 25-55.
Abstract: The Two-Worlds theory is a specific result of postcolonial grids of thought that provoke us to rethink the role of English as opposed to that of the vernacular languages of India. All too often, arguments take the form of defending the vernacular and questioning the role of English. Significantly enough, a connection is drawn between the role of English and its function as a proxy for nationalism. This paper examines the theoretical frameworks that articulate such connections and raises some questions with regard to the Two-Worlds theory in Literary and Translation Studies, while charting the current intellectual milieu. Methodologically, the paper discusses underlying assumptions about concepts of culture, nationalism, colonialism and Orientalism.
Keywords: Nationhood, Cultural unity, Translation.
Womanhood Endeavours in Doris Lessing’s Alfred and Emily
Book Chapter in Fragmented Societies: Feminism, Love and Identity in the novels of Doris Lessing. Edited by Ajit Kumar and Oran Ryan. Delhi: Authorspress. (2015). pp. 214-233.
Abstract: Lessing’s last novel by self-declaration, Alfred and Emily, is undebatably a war-memoir with her parents as central characters. But what sets it apart is its form; a mixture of novel, memoir and history. Written in two parts, the first part is an imaginary account of Lessing’s parents’ life in the circumstance that England had not participated in the First World War. The second part maps what Lessing contrasts as the “in life” events of the same people. True to Lessing’s unique philosophy of gender, both men and women are victims here. Yet the challenges faced by them are each different and represent the history of gender. Their life as it gets charted in the two parts prompts rereading in a back and forth manner, especially since the contrasts highlight the tragedy of each part. This paper focuses on the women characters in the two parts and the fortunes and tragedies that befall them. It is argued that the importance of this work lies in the reader it invokes—who must read one part in the light of the other—to unravel the workings of patriarchy, to make meaning even and work out a plot where it is only implied.
Keywords: Doris Lessing, Philosophy of gender.
Abstract: Lessing’s last novel by self-declaration, Alfred and Emily, is undebatably a war-memoir with her parents as central characters. But what sets it apart is its form; a mixture of novel, memoir and history. Written in two parts, the first part is an imaginary account of Lessing’s parents’ life in the circumstance that England had not participated in the First World War. The second part maps what Lessing contrasts as the “in life” events of the same people. True to Lessing’s unique philosophy of gender, both men and women are victims here. Yet the challenges faced by them are each different and represent the history of gender. Their life as it gets charted in the two parts prompts rereading in a back and forth manner, especially since the contrasts highlight the tragedy of each part. This paper focuses on the women characters in the two parts and the fortunes and tragedies that befall them. It is argued that the importance of this work lies in the reader it invokes—who must read one part in the light of the other—to unravel the workings of patriarchy, to make meaning even and work out a plot where it is only implied.
Keywords: Doris Lessing, Philosophy of gender.
Rethinking Femininity and Transgression in Andal
In Journal of Vaishnava Studies. Edited by Steven J Rosen. Vol 22, No. 2, Spring 2014. pp. 147-166.
Abstract: It is now common knowledge that the Bhakti ‘movement’ of medieval India was initially theorized by the 19th century colonial missionaries and historians as being akin to the Protestant movement in Europe. Through this framework Bhakti was viewed as ethical, egalitarian, and monotheistic, among other things. Though this framework has been well-critiqued, it continues to be used in so far as scholars see Bhakti as at least egalitarian. So what should be the position of a non-orientalist appraisal of medieval Bhakti? This is the question the paper probes through a study of Andal, the only woman among the Alvar saints.
Keywords: Andal, Bhakti, Femininity, Streedharma.
In Journal of Vaishnava Studies. Edited by Steven J Rosen. Vol 22, No. 2, Spring 2014. pp. 147-166.
Abstract: It is now common knowledge that the Bhakti ‘movement’ of medieval India was initially theorized by the 19th century colonial missionaries and historians as being akin to the Protestant movement in Europe. Through this framework Bhakti was viewed as ethical, egalitarian, and monotheistic, among other things. Though this framework has been well-critiqued, it continues to be used in so far as scholars see Bhakti as at least egalitarian. So what should be the position of a non-orientalist appraisal of medieval Bhakti? This is the question the paper probes through a study of Andal, the only woman among the Alvar saints.
Keywords: Andal, Bhakti, Femininity, Streedharma.
On the Streedharmapaddhati of Tryambakayajvan
In International Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities, Edited by Ashwin Kumar A P, Vol 2:1, June 2013. pp. 73- 94.
Abstract: The Streedharmapaddhati of Tryambakayajvan (1665-1750) is an eighteenth century text that delineates the duties of women. This paper attempts to understand the text’s rationale. This is important in the context in which the text has been read previously: as patriarchal and as representative of ‘Hindu’ patriarchy. I discuss the work of Julia Leslie, scholar and historian who introduced and commented on this text and argue that the text can be viewed differently sans the textualisation in Leslie’s approach. I then locate the Streedharmapaddhati within the context of the dharmashastras and examine its statements through gender as a category of analysis. This is followed by a study of the text using a theory of ritual. I argue that the text needs to be viewed as embedded in the philosophical context of Indian self-transformative practices and thus endorsing the path of streedharma, one path among the many that led to ‘enlightenment’ within traditional Indian philosophy.
Keywords: Streedharmapaddhati, Patriarchy, Feminism, Dharmashastra.
Abstract: The Streedharmapaddhati of Tryambakayajvan (1665-1750) is an eighteenth century text that delineates the duties of women. This paper attempts to understand the text’s rationale. This is important in the context in which the text has been read previously: as patriarchal and as representative of ‘Hindu’ patriarchy. I discuss the work of Julia Leslie, scholar and historian who introduced and commented on this text and argue that the text can be viewed differently sans the textualisation in Leslie’s approach. I then locate the Streedharmapaddhati within the context of the dharmashastras and examine its statements through gender as a category of analysis. This is followed by a study of the text using a theory of ritual. I argue that the text needs to be viewed as embedded in the philosophical context of Indian self-transformative practices and thus endorsing the path of streedharma, one path among the many that led to ‘enlightenment’ within traditional Indian philosophy.
Keywords: Streedharmapaddhati, Patriarchy, Feminism, Dharmashastra.
