Viramma, Life of an Untouchable

Viramma, Life of an Untouchable

Author: Viramma

Publisher: Verso

Published: 1997

Total Pages: 336

ISBN-13: 9781859848173

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Viramma is an agricultural worker and midwife in Karani, a village near Pondicherry in southeast India. Viramma is a member of the caste called Untouchable. Of her 12 children, only three survive. Viramma's story--told over the course of 10 years--is a vivid portrayal of a proud and expressive woman living at the margins of society. 12 photos.


Everyday Life in South Asia

Everyday Life in South Asia

Author: Diane P. Mines

Publisher: Indiana University Press

Published: 2010

Total Pages: 581

ISBN-13: 0253354730

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

An introduction to the peoples and cultures of South Asia


Flesh and Fish Blood

Flesh and Fish Blood

Author: Subramanian Shankar

Publisher: Univ of California Press

Published: 2012-07-02

Total Pages: 205

ISBN-13: 0520952340

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

In Flesh and Fish Blood Subramanian Shankar breaks new ground in postcolonial studies by exploring the rich potential of vernacular literary expressions. Shankar pushes beyond the postcolonial Anglophone canon and works with Indian literature and film in English, Tamil, and Hindi to present one of the first extended explorations of representations of caste, including a critical consideration of Tamil Dalit (so-called untouchable) literature. Shankar shows how these vernacular materials are often unexpectedly politically progressive and feminist, and provides insight on these oft-overlooked—but nonetheless sophisticated—South Asian cultural spaces. With its calls for renewed attention to translation issues and comparative methods in uncovering disregarded aspects of postcolonial societies, and provocative remarks on humanism and cosmopolitanism, Flesh and Fish Blood opens up new horizons of theoretical possibility for postcolonial studies and cultural analysis.


Locating Gender in Modernism

Locating Gender in Modernism

Author: Geetha Ramanathan

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2012

Total Pages: 212

ISBN-13: 041550970X

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This book visits modernism within a comparative, gendered, and third-world framework, questioning current scholarly categorisations of modernism and reframing our conception of what constitutes modernist aesthetics. It describes the construction of modernist studies and argues that despite a range of interventions which suggest that philosophical and material articulations with the third world shaped modernism, an emphasis on modernist "universals" persists. Ramanathan argues that women and third-world authors have reshaped received notions of the modern and revised orthodox ideas on the modern aesthetic. Authors such as Bessie Head, Josiane Racine, T.Obinkaram Echewa, Raja Rao, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Sembene Ousmane, Salman Rushdie, Ana Castillo, Attia Hossain, Bapsi Sidhwa, and Sahar Khalifeh, are visited in their specific cultural contexts and use some form of realism, a mode that western modernism relegates to the nineteenth century. A comparative methodology and extensive research on intersecting topics such as post-coloniality and the articulation between gender and modernist aesthetics facilitates readings of the modern in twentieth century literature that fall outside standards of western modernism. Considering the relationship between aesthetics and ideology, Ramanathan lays out a critical apparatus to enhance our understanding of the modern, thus suggesting that form is not universal, but that the history of forms, like the history of colonialism and of women, indicates very specific modalities of the modern.


Gender, Governance and Empowerment in India

Gender, Governance and Empowerment in India

Author: Sreevidya Kalaramadam

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2016-03-22

Total Pages: 159

ISBN-13: 1317246845

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Since the mid-1980s, the presence of women in governance has become a major marker of successful democracy in global and national discourses on the democratization of society. A diverse set of nation-states have legislatively mandated gender quotas to ensure the presence of elected women representatives (EWRs) in various rungs of governance. Since 1993, the Indian state has legislated a massive program of democratization and decentralization. As a result, more than 1.5 million EWRs have taken office within the lower rungs of governance or the Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRI). This book is an ethnography of the Indian state and its policy of legislated entry of women into political life. It argues that political participation of women is necessary to change the political practices in society, to make institutions more gender, class and caste representative, and to empower individual women to negotiate both formal and informal institutions. Its locus is the everyday life contexts of EWRs in the southern Indian state of Karnataka who negotiate their own meanings of politics, state, society, empowerment and political subjectivity. Analysing three factors – structural boundaries, sociocultural divisions and conjunctural limitations imposed on the participation of EWRs by political parties – the book demonstrates that the social embeddedness of PRIs within everyday practices and social relations of identity and power severely constrain and shape the political participation and empowerment of EWRs. Providing a valuable insight into contemporary state and feminist praxis in India, this book will be of interest to scholars of grass-roots democracy, gender studies and Asian politics.


Telling Lives in India

Telling Lives in India

Author: David Arnold

Publisher: Indiana University Press

Published: 2004-12-30

Total Pages: 342

ISBN-13: 9780253217271

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Considers the meaning and nature of life history narrative in India.


Reading the Fifth Veda

Reading the Fifth Veda

Author: Alf Hiltebeitel

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2011-07-27

Total Pages: 695

ISBN-13: 9004185666

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Bringing together Hiltebeitel's major essays on the the Mah?bh?rata, the R?m?ya?a, and the south Indian cults of Draupad? and K?tt???avar along with new articles written especially for this collection, this two volume work offers a comprehensive re-reading of the Indian epic tradition by the foremost scholar in Indian epic studies today.


The Socialist Feminist Project

The Socialist Feminist Project

Author: Nancy Holmstrom

Publisher: NYU Press

Published: 2002-08

Total Pages: 433

ISBN-13: 1583670688

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Socialist Feminism brings together the most important recent socialist feminist writings on a wide range of topics: sex and reproduction, the family, wage labor, social welfare and public policy, the place of sex and gender in politics, and the philosophical foundations of socialist feminism.


Women's Mental Health

Women's Mental Health

Author: Sarah E. Romans

Publisher: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins

Published: 2006

Total Pages: 440

ISBN-13: 9780781751292

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Women's Mental Health: A Life-Cycle Approach brings together the latest research and clinical information on the wide variety of psychiatric problems that affect women in unique ways. The book is organized around the female life cycle—childhood, adolescence, adulthood, reproduction, and aging—and addresses specific disorders as they present at each stage. Chapters examine the biological, hormonal, and psychosocial foundations of female psychiatric disorders at each life-cycle stage and offer a framework for thinking about clinical problems. Expert commentaries are included to expand on key issues and provide an insightful overview of each life-cycle stage. The international group of contributors ensures complete coverage of cross-cultural issues. Concluding chapters discuss mental health services for women worldwide.


Contesting Categories, Remapping Boundaries

Contesting Categories, Remapping Boundaries

Author: Krishnamurthy Alamelu Geetha

Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing

Published: 2015-01-12

Total Pages: 195

ISBN-13: 1443873047

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Literature produced by historically marginalized communities has often been argued to function as an important tool for social change. However, much depends on how this literature is received and interpreted. Since the university operates as a potential site for social change, it is significant to enquire whether such literature, specifically that produced by Tamil Dalits, has been incorporated into mainstream curricula. It is equally vital to explore how students respond to Dalit literature. This book traces the evolution of Tamil Dalit writing from the early decades of the twentieth century to the present, and explores its impact on academia. Furthermore, it analyses the literary works of Tamil Dalits and explores how students of Tamil and English literary studies have responded to Tamil Dalit literature and its English translations. The book addresses the following research questions: What were the socio cultural conditions that led to the emergence of contemporary Tamil Dalit literature? What are the dominant themes and trends in contemporary Tamil Dalit literature? How does academia respond to the emergence of Tamil Dalit literature? In particular, how do students respond to Dalit literature, a literature which has found a place in both English and Tamil literature curricula? As a literature which has an ideological function, how is it received and understood by readers?