Explain how people in South Asia organize resistance and challenge the status quo? Who are the people, individuals, or groups and what are the particular institutions that have attempted to challenge injustices and demand for human rights, and gender equality? In your final essay I expect you to discuss hurdles to gender equality in the region/ country of your choice, and analyze/ showcase those who pose challenges to those hurdles. The challenges can come from legal, religious, conservative, liberal, diasporic, nonprofit, etc. organizations, or individuals. You are expected to avoid generalizations, and use very specific references.
The course begins with an examination of the place figured for women in the nationalist struggle in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, and it goes on to analyze how the nationalist struggle and events following partition, the attempts to transition to a democracy with a just legal system, the struggle with control of institutionalized religion, and economic development, have all shaped postcolonial gender relations in the region. Readings in the main part of the course are organized around political and historical events, and social movements in the modern history of these three South Asian countries, especially those that have variously affected, shaped, challenged, or illustrated gender hierarchies. We looked at institutions that affect gender roles, and identities in the first long essay, and now we look at organizations, and individuals who challenge the status quo. You may use your first essay and responses to continue the discussion here of persisting problems to gender equality but the focus must be on those who are fighting against oppression, and demanding, or dispensing justice. You should use either ONE or both of the textbooks to display challenges to patriarchal norms, and discuss how resistance is a never ending, ongoing project that involves fits and starts, failures and partial successes. I am interested in reading about activism, resistance, and reform in this essay.
Think about topics that have attracted scholarly and activist commentary, organizing, and political mobilization in South Asian countries. These may include: environmental activism, sati, the separate legal codes for Hindus, Muslims and Christians in India, Pakistan and other South Asian countries, rape, ethnic and communal tensions, sweatshops, NGOs and micro-finance, dowry murder, marriage, and female-selective abortion, war, violence, right wing religious movements, etc. You can choose one you like, and then address other topics through its frame. For instance, discussion of sexual violence can allow a discussion of legal codes of punishment of criminals, or the criminalization of sex related crimes in South Asian countries like India. Some of these topics occur in the two books we have read. Whatever topic you choose, your focus MUST BE on resistance, and challenges to oppressive practices.
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