Women and Right Wing Movements: Indian Experiences

Feminism tends to identify women's political activism with emancipatory movements. Yet how can this view be reconciled with the current involvement of women in right-wing causes? In India today, violent communalism is pulling women into militant politics, particularly into the Hindu right. This book explores the supposed clash from legal, religious and political perspectives, and considers the questions and paradoxes that this provokes for feminism. It compares right-wing strategies and tactics with those of feminist groups, and considers the issue of violence, both against women and by women. It also examines gender and the Hindu right, including their relationship to religious processes, economic development, caste politics and constitutional crisis.