Communities of Women in Assam

This book uses communities of women as a framework for reading women’s experience, rights and aspirations in Assam and Northeast India. It explores the varying roles played by such communities in the formation of society, the emergence of a women’s public sphere and the representation of these communities in culture. The essays in the volume study a host of women’s communities including the Mahila Samiti, Jain women’s organisations, Lekhika Sanstha, lesbian communities, religious gatherings, scientific and environmental groups, women’s collaborations through cookbooks, as well as nebulous communities of victims of persecution. They examine how women’s communities are both empowering and transformational but may paradoxically also be regressive and static.

Lucid, analytical, and rich with case studies, this volume will be useful to scholars and researchers of gender studies, sociology, political science, history and cultural studies, particularly those interested in Northeast India.

Nandana Dutta is Professor of English at Gauhati University, Assam, India. Her areas of work include Assam and modernity, English literature, American studies, women’s studies and the politics of representations. She has published essays in journals such as Global South, Journeys, Interventions, Journal of Contemporary Thought, Journal of Creative Communication, Seminar and Australian Literary Studies besides contributing essays to edited collections on Assam, identity and violence. She is also the author of Questions of Identity in Assam (2012).