In her seminal book Religion and Women in India, eminent historian and feminist scholar Tanika Sarkar presents a nuanced exegesis of the intricate relationships among gender, religion, and politics in the South Asian subcontinent.
Employing a synthesis of feminist and Marxist frameworks through nine chapters developing chronologically, Sarkar interrogates the intersections of class, caste, and economic determinants with gendered and religious subjectivities over the ambitious span of two centuries from the late 18th to the late 20th century. Published in collaboration with Ashoka University, this monograph significantly contributes to subaltern studies and postcolonial feminist historiography.
In the preface, Sarkar incorporates classical debates on orientalism, modernity, post-coloniality, and public sphere scholarship through a feminist epistemological lens. Drawing on Edward Said’s seminal work from the late 1980s, which posits the Orient as a western construct of an inferior ‘Other’, and Partha Chatterjee’s theorization of Indian nationalists’ appropriation and reconfiguration of western knowledge, Sarkar aligns herself with postcolonial and Marxist feminist paradigms. Consonant with Chatterjee’s thesis, she advocates a critical engagement with socio-cultural forces and praxes, elucidating their impact on class and gender relations.