Gail Omvedt
Biographic Data
| ID | 94866 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Gail Omvedt |
| GIVEN NAMES | Gail |
| FAMILY NAME | Omvedt |
| SIGNATURE | OMVEDT G |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of California San Diego |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 54 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 132 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 54 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1973 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2010 |
| H-INDEX | 5 |
Caste in the Census
Because the census originally took up caste questions during the colonial period, the idea that such classifying and categorising was used for the purpose of domination took hold. In independent India there was a refusal to use caste in the census. This did not in any case lead to any lessening of caste divisions and conflicts; atrocities on dalits have continued; new life seems to be coming in the brutal traditionalism of many khap panchayats. T…
The Women's Movement in India Today-New Agendas and Old Problems
Big dams in India: Necessities or threats
Booker Prize-winning author Arundhati Roy (The God of Small Things) has become a vocal critic of the construction of big dams in India, particularly the Sardar Sarovar dam presently under construction on the Narmada river. (For a recent summary of her position see The Cost of Living [HarperCollins, 1999].) In July 1999 Gail Omvedt published an open letter to Arundhati Roy in which she claims that Roy is "missing many things" in her efforts defeat…
Rural women and the family in an era of liberalization: India in comparative Asian perspective
This essay looks at some aspects of the effects of liberalization on rural women and the family in Asian societies, with a particular focus on India.The author maintains that the "era of liberalization" has neither fulfilled the extravagant promises of liberalizers nor has it been as much of a burden for women as opponents of structural adjustment programs have argued.The author's perspective is that to move ahead from the stagnated development s…
Women and Sustainable Agriculture
(1995). Women and sustainable agriculture. New Political Science: Vol. 16, Ecology, pp. 43-59
Reflections on the World Bank and liberalization
The Bulletin of Concerned Asian Scholars (BCAS) had its origin in the radical upsurge of the 1960s, when the opposition to the murderous war in Vietnam united us around a political program and at least some shared theoretical perspective. The program had a simple slogan, “U.S. out of Vietnam!”; the theoretical framework was that of dependency theory, which saw integration into the world economy (or as some more simply put it, imperialism) rather …
Peasants, dalits and women: Democracy and India's new social movements
Additional informationNotes on contributorsGail OmvedtPaper presented at a workshop on "Social Movements, State and Democracy", organized by the Delhi University Group in Politics of Developing Countries and the Indian Statistical Institute Sociology Group, New Delhi, 5–8 October 1992
We want the return for our sweat: The new peasant movement in India and the formation of a national agricultural policy
Reinventing revolution: New social movements and the socialist tradition in India
Fount of plenty or bureaucratic boondoggle? India's Narmada project∗
The proposed Sardar Sarovar Project (SSP) is the keystone of India's Narmada Valley Project, consisting of 30 large, 130 medium, and 3000 small dams. Backed by the Indian government and the World Bank (the tatter to the tune of $450 million in loans), the SSP has generated unprecedented opposition from farmers and others whose lands would be submerged by the project, as well as from many Indian environmentalists and environmental and human rights…
India's reds and greens at Loggerheads
A prime minister and a finance minister who were never elected are pushing through a program of ‘economic liberalization’ which was never discussed or voted on. The rupee has been devalued, the ‘privatization’ of public sector enterprise is throwing workers out of their jobs, the liberalization of government regulations is allowing a freer reign to Indian monopolies and foreign multinationals, and a steady rise in prices is frightening communitie…
Theorists of the peasantry should at least have their feet on the ground: A response to Banaji
(1991). Theorists of the peasantry should at least have their feet on the ground: A response to Banaji. The Journal of Peasant Studies: Vol. 19, No. 1, pp. 138-141
The anti-caste movement and the discourse of power
Ambedkar and Dalit Labor Radicalism: Maharashtra, 1936–1942
Research Article| May 01 1990 Ambedkar and Dalit Labor Radicalism: Maharashtra, 1936–1942 Gail Omvedt Gail Omvedt Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East (1990) 10 (1): 12–22. https://doi.org/10.1215/07323867-10-1-12 Cite Icon Cite Share Icon Share Twitter Permissions Search Site Citation Gail Omvedt; Ambedkar and Dalit Labor Radicalism: Maharashtra, 1936–1942. Compa…
India's movements for democracy: Peasants, 'Greens', Women and People's Power
The “New peasant movement” in India
A new peasant movement is rising in India that is mounting a challenge not only to the Indian state but also to our traditional left concepts of analysis. It has its base among peasants of varying economic status (traditionally defined as “poor,” “middle,” and “rich”) in the most capitalistically developed rural areas of the country—Punjab, western Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra, and Karnataka—and is spreading in other areas as peasants beco…
Dalit Literature in Maharashtra: Literature of Social Protest and Revolt in Western India
Research Article| August 01 1987 Dalit Literature in Maharashtra: Literature of Social Protest and Revolt in Western India Gail Omvedt Gail Omvedt Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East (1987) 7 (1_and_2): 78–85. https://doi.org/10.1215/07323867-7-1_and_2-78 Cite Icon Cite Share Icon Share Twitter Permissions Search Site Citation Gail Omvedt; Dalit Literature in Mah…
India's green movements
Resolutions of the Adivasi-Jungle Parishad. Bhuteakaspur (Dhule District, Maharashtra) March 12, 1986
Research Article| May 01 1986 Resolutions of the Adivasi-Jungle Parishad. Bhuteakaspur (Dhule District, Maharashtra) March 12, 1986 Gail Omvedt Gail Omvedt Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East (1986) 6 (1): 47–50. https://doi.org/10.1215/07323867-6-1-47 Cite Icon Cite Share Icon Share Twitter Permissions Search Site Citation Gail Omvedt; Resolutions of the Adivasi…
Patriarchy: The Analysis of Women's Oppression
The left in India
The Tamil national question
Last year [1981] a major wave of guerilla struggle broke out in Sri Lanka, followed by widespread rioting. It was just ten years after the youthful JVP insurrection shattered forever the peaceful image of an island which had achieved its independence without any major mass struggles at all. Now once again a youth-led armed struggle is brewing, only the struggle now centers not for an immediate social revolution but for the national liberation of …
Conference Features Untouchables in India and Western Minority Condition: A Black Scholar Report
Capitalist agriculture and rural classes in India
In 1969, two years after Naxalbari, Ashok Rudra and two colleagues publised results of a survey on capitalist farming in Punjab. Their rather negative conclusions were responded to first by Daniel Thorner, a longtime observer of India's agriculture, who had concluded from his own rural tours that a new era of capitalist agriculture was beginning: “Rudra tells us that he is more interested in the ‘red revolution’ than the ‘green revolution.’ The c…
India, the IMF and imperialism today
Additional informationNotes on contributorsGail OmvedtAuthor of We Will Smash This Prison: Indian Women in Struggle
Migration in colonial India: The articulation of feudalism and capitalism by the Colonial State
In this article a particular factual model of the way in which imperialism worked with respect to the Indian economy, which is widely accepted, is contested. The model in question assumes that though imperialism acts to transform agriculture-disintegrating and dissolving the traditional village structure-because it also thwarted industrialisation, backwardness in agriculture and dependence were maintained: the transformation of agrarian relations…
Women and rural revolt in India
Women's major productive role (outside of the home) in agriculture and the crucial part which women play in peasant revolts have been more or less ignored by social scientists. In this paper an attempt is made to analyse the interconnections between class and sexual oppression, and between women's movements and class struggle, in rural India: with class structure, the nature of society, and the development of social movements looked at from the v…
Peasants, dalits and women: Democracy and India's new social movements
Additional informationNotes on contributorsGail OmvedtPaper presented at a workshop on "Social Movements, State and Democracy", organized by the Delhi University Group in Politics of Developing Countries and the Indian Statistical Institute Sociology Group, New Delhi, 5–8 October 1992
Patriarchy: The Analysis of Women's Oppression
We want the return for our sweat: The new peasant movement in India and the formation of a national agricultural policy
The “New peasant movement” in India
A new peasant movement is rising in India that is mounting a challenge not only to the Indian state but also to our traditional left concepts of analysis. It has its base among peasants of varying economic status (traditionally defined as “poor,” “middle,” and “rich”) in the most capitalistically developed rural areas of the country—Punjab, western Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra, and Karnataka—and is spreading in other areas as peasants beco…
Rural Origins of Women's Liberation in India
The political economy of starvation
India's green movements
Caste, class, and women's liberation in India
When Katherine Mayo wrote her notorious attack on the fitness of Indians for independence, Mother India, she used the subjugation and oppression of women as its driving wedge. In a sense, this was relying on an established Victorian tradition that the position of women was the measure of the advancement of a civilization. Writing in a year in which American women had only just attained the vote, Mayo had no doubts of India's failure in this respe…
The Women's Movement in India Today-New Agendas and Old Problems
Towards a Theory of Colonialism
Caste in the Census
Because the census originally took up caste questions during the colonial period, the idea that such classifying and categorising was used for the purpose of domination took hold. In independent India there was a refusal to use caste in the census. This did not in any case lead to any lessening of caste divisions and conflicts; atrocities on dalits have continued; new life seems to be coming in the brutal traditionalism of many khap panchayats. T…
Big dams in India: Necessities or threats
Booker Prize-winning author Arundhati Roy (The God of Small Things) has become a vocal critic of the construction of big dams in India, particularly the Sardar Sarovar dam presently under construction on the Narmada river. (For a recent summary of her position see The Cost of Living [HarperCollins, 1999].) In July 1999 Gail Omvedt published an open letter to Arundhati Roy in which she claims that Roy is "missing many things" in her efforts defeat…
Fount of plenty or bureaucratic boondoggle? India's Narmada project∗
The proposed Sardar Sarovar Project (SSP) is the keystone of India's Narmada Valley Project, consisting of 30 large, 130 medium, and 3000 small dams. Backed by the Indian government and the World Bank (the tatter to the tune of $450 million in loans), the SSP has generated unprecedented opposition from farmers and others whose lands would be submerged by the project, as well as from many Indian environmentalists and environmental and human rights…
Theorists of the peasantry should at least have their feet on the ground: A response to Banaji
(1991). Theorists of the peasantry should at least have their feet on the ground: A response to Banaji. The Journal of Peasant Studies: Vol. 19, No. 1, pp. 138-141
The left in India
Caste, Agrarian Relations and Agrarian Conflicts
Towards a Marxist Analysis of Caste: A Response to B T Ranadive
Rural women and the family in an era of liberalization: India in comparative Asian perspective
This essay looks at some aspects of the effects of liberalization on rural women and the family in Asian societies, with a particular focus on India.The author maintains that the "era of liberalization" has neither fulfilled the extravagant promises of liberalizers nor has it been as much of a burden for women as opponents of structural adjustment programs have argued.The author's perspective is that to move ahead from the stagnated development s…
The anti-caste movement and the discourse of power
India's movements for democracy: Peasants, 'Greens', Women and People's Power
Capitalist agriculture and rural classes in India
In 1969, two years after Naxalbari, Ashok Rudra and two colleagues publised results of a survey on capitalist farming in Punjab. Their rather negative conclusions were responded to first by Daniel Thorner, a longtime observer of India's agriculture, who had concluded from his own rural tours that a new era of capitalist agriculture was beginning: “Rudra tells us that he is more interested in the ‘red revolution’ than the ‘green revolution.’ The c…
India, the IMF and imperialism today
Additional informationNotes on contributorsGail OmvedtAuthor of We Will Smash This Prison: Indian Women in Struggle
The Bourgeois State in Post-Colonial Formations
Gandhi and the pacification of the Indian national revolution
Recently in Dhulia district in the state of Maharashtra in western India an exploited semi-tribal population of Bhils have mounted a revolt against their wealthy high-caste landlords. Oppressed by indebtedness, landlessness and unemployment, harassed with floggings and rapes by landlords, and provoked finally by the murder of a Bhil farm laborer by armed landlords in May 1971, the Bhils have mounted an increasingly intense and organized struggle.…
Towards a Theory of Colonialism
Revolution and the rural proletariat in contemporary Western India
Additional informationNotes on contributorsGail OmvedtGail Omvedt is a Sociologist who presented a thesis on ‘Cultural Revolution in a Colonial Society’ at the University of California, 1973
New perspectives on the subcontinent
Kathleen Gough and Hari Sharma's Imperialism and Revolution in South Asia marks something of a breakthrough in the field of South Asia scholarship: the first edited collection of Marxist writings by both Western and Asian scholars, journalists and activists covering most of the crucial issues in the field. It shows some omissions and contains some unresolved and not clearly delineated debates, but this is inevitable given the vast amount of work …
Agrarian crisis in India
Bihar, in the northeast of India, is one of the largest (population 56.4 million), most overcrowded and impoverished states of that country. The famine of 1966-67 which centered on Bihar and resulted in 60 million people fed for two years entirely on U.S. food, was one of the events which stimulated an awareness in the late 1960s of the developing food problems of Third World countries. The food riots which spread through the cities and small tow…
Marxism and the analysis of South Asia
Debate On the Union Of Insurgent Sociologists Or Whatever
Caste, class, and women's liberation in India
When Katherine Mayo wrote her notorious attack on the fitness of Indians for independence, Mother India, she used the subjugation and oppression of women as its driving wedge. In a sense, this was relying on an established Victorian tradition that the position of women was the measure of the advancement of a civilization. Writing in a year in which American women had only just attained the vote, Mayo had no doubts of India's failure in this respe…
Rural Origins of Women's Liberation in India
The political economy of starvation
Revolutionary music of India
(1977). Revolutionary music of India. The Journal of Peasant Studies: Vol. 4, No. 3, pp. 243-257
The Asiatic Mode of Production: Sources, Development and Critique in the Writings of Karl Marx
Case Studies on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms: A World Survey, Volumes 1 & 2
Inside India today
Women and Rural Revolt in India: Part Two
Women and rural revolt in India
Women's major productive role (outside of the home) in agriculture and the crucial part which women play in peasant revolts have been more or less ignored by social scientists. In this paper an attempt is made to analyse the interconnections between class and sexual oppression, and between women's movements and class struggle, in rural India: with class structure, the nature of society, and the development of social movements looked at from the v…
Towards a Marxist Analysis of Caste: A Response to B T Ranadive
The Politics of Cultural Pluralism
The difficulties inherent in any political analysis are compounded in the cases of the third world nations by the complexity of their socio-cultural makeup. Western political scientists are often ill-equipped to deal with a fundamental fact of the third world politics - cultural pluralism. The author explores patterns of conflict and integration in a variety of culturally plural societies, and he offers a number of theoretical postulates concerni…
Introduction to dalit poems
The word dalit in Marathi, the language spoken by 50 million people in the state of Maharashtra in Western India, means “downtrodden,” “ground down,” or “depressed.” A caste-less word which ex-Untouchables have chosen for the new school of literature they have created, it includes all those who have suffered from the religio-social system. Short stories by ex-Untouchables began to appear in the 1950s, but the great swelling of creativity — poetry…
The Moral Economy of the Peasant: Rebellion and Subsistence in Southeast Asia
Towards an Understanding of the Non-Brahman Movement
Marathwada: Reply to Dipankar Gupta
The Downtrodden among the Downtrodden: An Interview with a Dalit Agricultural Laborer
We will smash this prison: Indian women in struggle
Caste, Agrarian Relations and Agrarian Conflicts
Political science (45 works) · Sociology (35 works) · Law (27 works) · Law (26 works) · Economics (20 works) · Politics (18 works) · Geography (17 works) · History (17 works) · History (16 works) · Political economy (13 works)