Fertility, Reproduction and Conjugal Loyalty

Renegotiating Gender Relations amongst Dalits in Rural Tamil Nadu

Datos Bibliográficos

ID2634851
AutoresNitya Rao (0000-0002-6318-0147, University of East Anglia, autor de correspondencia)
Año2018
Volumen19
Número19
Fecha de publicación2018-10-31
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaSouth Asia Multidisciplinary Academic Journal (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 1960-6060 • E-ISSN: 1960-6060
EditorialOpenEdition (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.4000/samaj.4575
OpenAlexW2899125370
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas2
Referencias citadas25

Much of the literature on Dalits, and Dalit women in particular, focuses either on issues of violence, and subordination based on class, caste and gender, or the relative egalitarianism within Dalit households, which arises out of a context of shared hardship. It leaves out the contradictions and negotiations inherent in their everyday lives, of victimhood alongside the exercise of strategic life choices. In this paper, using qualitative data obtained primarily from Dalit women in rural Tamil Nadu, I draw attention to the growing emphasis on conjugal loyalty and (upper-caste) norms of domesticity within Dalit households. Reflecting normative changes based on the ideas of respectability and status, this trend appears to be consolidating new forms of patriarchy. However, contextualizing this phenomenon in relation to changes in the larger political economy, especially the significant shifts in labor relations, education, State social protection and Dalit mobilization, reveals that rather than accepting a subordinate status, Dalit women are strategically using these ideas to negotiate their sexual and reproductive entitlements, and companionate conjugality

Caste · Egalitarianism · Geography · Loyalty · Masculinity · Negotiation · Patriarchy · Political science · Politics · Social science · Sociology · Tamil · Gender Politics and Representation · Gender Studies · Law · Social and Economic Development in India · South Asian Cinema and Culture