South Asian Femınısms South Asian Femınısms ANIA LOOMBA and RITTY A. LUKOSE, editors Duke University Press Durham and London ≤≠∞≤ ∫ 2012 Duke University Press All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper $ Designed by Nicole Hayward Typeset in Minion Pro by Keystone Typesetting, Inc. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data appear on the last printed page of this book. Contents ania loomba and ritty a. lukose South Asian Feminisms: Contemporary Interventions / 1 I. FEMINISM, RELIGION, AND THE SECULAR flavia agnes From Shah Bano to Kausar Bano: Contextualizing the ‘‘Muslim Woman’’ within a Communalized Polity / 33 amina jamal Global Discourses, Situated Traditions, and Muslim Women’s Agency in Pakistan / 54 atreyee sen Martial Tales, Right-Wing Hindu Women, and ‘‘History Telling’’ in the Bombay Slums / 75 II. FEMINISM, LABOR, AND GLOBALIZATION sonali perera Of Moments, Not Monuments: Feminism and Labor Activism in Postnational Sri Lanka / 97 anannya bhattacharjee Feminism, Migration, and Labor: Movement Building in a Globalized World / 117 III. FEMINISM, WAR, AND PEACE vasuki nesiah Uncomfortable Alliances: Women, Peace, and Security in Sri Lanka / 139 malathi de alwis Feminist Politics and Maternalist Agonism / 162 angana p. chatterji Witnessing as Feminist Intervention in India-Administered Kashmir / 181 IV. FEMINISM, FIGURATION, AND THE POLITICS OF READING AND WRITING lamia karim Transnational Politics of Reading and the (Un)making of Taslima Nasreen / 205 laura brueck At the Intersection of Gender and Caste: Rescripting Rape in Dalit Feminist Narratives / 224 anjali arondekar Subject to Sex: A Small History of the Gomantak Maratha Samaj / 244 V. FEMINISM, SEX WORK, AND THE POLITICS OF SEXUALITY firdous azim Keeping Sexuality on the Agenda: The Sex Workers’ Movement in Bangladesh / 267 toorjo ghose Politicizing Political Society: Mobilization among Sex Workers in Sonagachi, India / 285 ashwini sukthankar Queering Approaches to Sex, Gender, and Labor in India: Examining Paths to Sex Worker Unionism / 306 vi CONTENTS VI. FEMINIST CRISIS AND FUTURES ratna kapur Hecklers to Power? The Waning of Liberal Rights and Challenges to Feminism in India / 333 mrinalini sinha A Global Perspective on Gender: What’s South Asia Got to Do with It? / 356 Bibliography / 375 Contributors / 407 Index / 411 CONTENTS vii ania loomba and ritty a. lukose South Asian Feminisms Contemporary Interventions THIS COLLECTION OF ESSAYS, originating in a conference held at the University of Pennsylvania, presents recent interventions in key areas of feminist scholarship and activism in South Asia.∞ Over the last four decades, the various nations in this region— India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal, and Afghanistan —have been the location as well as the focus of important femi- nist work that has contributed to rethinking colonial and post- colonial history and literature, law, culture and the nation-state, domesticity and the family, religious and ethnic identities, sex- ualities, and labor relations. South Asian Feminisms builds upon this legacy as it engages complex new challenges to feminist theory and activism that have emerged in recent years. Our contention is that such feminist engagements in this region (with its long-standing and cross-cutting histories of colonial- ism, nationalism, and women’s movements, as well as contem- porary struggles around sexuality, religion, human rights, war, peace, globalization, and contemporary iterations of empire and the exploitation of labor) can productively enrich the larger horizon of feminist theorizing. Thus the volume attests to the specificity of diverse South Asian locations and concerns, while also staging a dialogue with other attempts to rethink the central question of ‘‘di√erence’’ within contemporary feminist theory and praxis. Recent developments in postcolonial South Asia have re-