Indian Feminisms

'This book focuses on a number of themes such as the legal regulation of women's sexuality and makes very interesting and significant use of parliamentary debates. The author successfully draws the arguments together in the conclusion and shows the complexity of the debates that have been an aspect of feminist engagements with the law; altogether, a very useful addition to writings on the Indian women's movement.' Uma Chakravarti, University of Delhi, India '...there are very few works that critically analyze the varied and multiple discourses of feminists on sexuality, and women's rights especially in the context of caste patriarchy and communal politics [t]his book attempts to rectify this...' Journal of Gender and Development 'Geetanjali Gangoli places her book in this theoretical context proposing to investigate "Indian femenist engagement with the law and legal strategies", especially given "the challenges posed by politics of caste, communalism and globalization". Tow decades of femenist struggle for legal reform, case law, interpretation by the police and the courts of law related to women, differences among the femenists over perspective and content of these laws, legislative responses to femenist demands for legal reforms are examined in detail. These, along with interviews with members of a range of women's and femenist organisations are used to assess the impact, effect, validity of "femenist engagement with law" in India...There is an intimate and insightful tone to the book drawn from an insider's knowledge of the women's groups and close observation of the women's movement over two decades ...' Economic and Political Weekly 'Gangoli navigates some fo the key debates that have dominated feminist agendas, showing debate, unamity, and variety...Gangoli points out the strong links between feminisms that claim autonomy and feminisms that are allied with left or other struggles...' Signs 'This book provides a comprehensive survey of the mutually e