1st Edition
Muslim Women and the Changing Public Sphere in Secular India
Foreword
Preface
Acknowledgements
Introduction: Muslim Women and the Politics of Religion and Secularism in the Public Sphere: Revisiting the Journey in India
Evolution of the Muslim Public Sphere in West Bengal: Politics of Religion, Language and Community Identity
Locating the Muslim Women’s Question in the Public Sphere: The Changing West Bengal Scenario
Muslim Women and the Burqa (Veiling) in Modern Times: The Past and the ‘New’ Present
Visible Muslim Women and Their Invisible Citizenship Rights: Revisiting the Idea of Secular India
Muslim Women in Search of Democracy and Secularism: An Assessment of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh
Conclusion: Deconstructing Muslim Women and Theorising the Public Sphere: A New Journey
Bibliography
Index
Biography
Esita Sur is Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science at Scottish Church College, Kolkata. Her research interests include gender, religion, minority community identity and politics. She is the author of Revisiting Muslim Women’s Activism: Islam, Political Field and Women’s Rights (2022) and has contributed numerous articles and book chapters to reputed journals and volumes.
‘As India assumes the full-blown character of a Hindu majoritarian, authoritarian state, how are Muslim women negotiating the new and still emerging public sphere? Esita Sur asks this question with reference to West Bengal
which has been assumed to have a “progressive and secular” ethos, now increasingly showing signs of fracture. This book identifies Muslim women as an articulate counterpublic, both to the politics of Hindutva and to the patriarchy of the community. Based on extensive fieldwork and complex in its theorisation, this book is a powerful reminder that projects of assimilation and homogenisation are bound to fail, as counter narratives inevitably
emerge.’—Nivedita Menon, Author and Former Professor in Centre for Comparative Studies and Political Theory, School of International Relations, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi
