The two books under review tackle similar questions but reach their answers through somewhat different routes. Kumari Jayawardena examines the role played by women in the anti-colonial struggles in several Third World countries and the changes in the perceptions of women that emerged as a consequence, Liddle and Joshi study the position of urban, professional women in India today and attempt to , assess their status through the parameters of gender, caste and class. Both books address them¬selves to the vexed question of whether or not feminism is a western phenomenon transplanted to India or an indigenously generated movement. Both books decide in favour of the latter, but again through different routes and for different reasons. Kumari Jayawardena examines the nationalist responses to colonialism and quasi-colonialism (as not all the countries under study were actually occupied by an imperialist power) and the roles that were ascribed to and played by women in those struggles.
May-June 1987, volume 11, No 3