The Scandal of the State

Women, Law, and Citizenship in Postcolonial India

Author: Rajeswari Sunder Rajan
ISBN: 9780822330486

The Scandal of the State is a revealing study of the relationship between the postcolonial, democratic Indian nation-state and Indian women’s actual needs and lives. Well-known for her work combining feminist theory and postcolonial studies, Rajeswari Sunder Rajan shows how the state is central to understanding women’s identities and how, reciprocally, women and “women’s issues” affect the state’s role and function. She argues that in India law and citizenship define for women not only the scope of political rights but also cultural identity and everyday life. Sunder Rajan delineates the postcolonial state in implicit contrast with the “enlightened,” postfeminist neoliberal state in the West. Her analysis wrestles with complex social realities, taking into account the influence of age, ethnicity, religion, and class on individual and group identities as well as the shifting, heterogeneous nature of the state itself.The Scandal of the State develops through a series of c

Publisher: Duke University Press
Publish Date: 2003-04-09

Subjects: Social Science / Feminism & Feminist Theory, Social Science / Women's Studies

This book is available in the following Community Centers: Cross-Cultural Center (Location: Asian/Pacific Islander American (APIA)), Cross-Cultural Center (Location: Middle-East/Desi Studies (MEDS))