Feminist Theory and the Right-Wing: Shiv Sena Women Mobilize Mumbai

Feminist scholars engaged in the study of women and religion often grapple with the problem of how to theorize the phenomenon of women’s attraction to, and active involvement in politico-religious movements characterized by strongly “patriarchal” authority structures, and by ideologies that either seem to denigrate women or assign them to subordinate social and symbolic roles. This paper looks at some of the approaches that have been taken by feminist scholars to this issue. It reviews some key adaptations of feminist theory to the rising phenomena of women’s public participation in religious, right-wing agendas. It specifically explores the relevance of feminist theory for understanding women’s involvement in movements driven by Hindu religious revivalism in India. Using ethnographic data collected on the activities of the women’s wing of the right-wing, Shiv Sena party (Shivaji’s Army) in India, it explores the alternative ways by which feminist theorization might engage with the construction of the female subject that comes into being through religiously motivated political and social agendas in the post-colonial world

Ethnonationalism and the politics of identity : the cases of Punjab and Assam

This analysis addresses the relationship between pre-political cultural identity and political outcomes. It posits that the political mobilization of sub-national groups cannot be understood without an examination of the cultural processes of identity formation. The analysis engages cultural discourse and its organization as an explanatory factor in the examination of the variation in ethnic political outcomes. Hence, important questions about ethnonational conflict can be answered by engaging the levels at which identity is constructed and reshaped through cultural discourse. It shifts the arena of analysis from the state to the ethnic groups themselves. The two empirical cases analyzed are that of Sikh nationalism in Punjab and 'ethnic' Assamese nationalism in Assam

Shiv Sena women and the gendered politics of performance in Maharashtra, India.

Shiv Sena women and the gendered politics of performance in Maharashtra, India