Feminism in India and the West

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Abstract
This paper discusses the established forms in which the westernness of feminism has been a problem in the Indian context, and suggests some alternate routes for addressing it. The colonial legacy and the identification of women with national culture have made for a selective identification of feminism with an inauthentic westernization. The paper goes on to discuss some of the divergences in the conceptual legacies of western and Indian feminism, and the problems of using analogous arguments from western contexts in India. It focuses especially on the misleading role that critiques of essentialism are currently playing in Indian feminist debates, and concludes by calling for a more careful appraisal of the effects of growing disparities on patriarchal structures.

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