Men and Feminism in India

The relationship between men and feminism is frequently assumed to be antagonistic. This volume confronts this assumption by bringing critical attention to men’s engagement in feminist research, pedagogy, and activism in India. The chapters in this collection respond to two broad thematic concerns: theoretical implications of men producing feminist knowledge and the history of men’s participation in feminist endeavours. The volume also explores the undocumented contributions of men to three domains of feminist activity: institutionalization of feminism in the academy, social movements aimed at gender justice, and male writings on gender and sexuality.

Delving into an important yet overlooked aspect of the social sciences, this volume will be of great interest to scholars and researchers of gender studies, masculinity studies, modern Indian history, sociology, and social anthropology.

Romit Chowdhury is a doctoral student in the Department of Sociology at the National University of Singapore. His research interests are in feminist studies, urban sociology, ethnography, and cultural studies. He has published on masculinity in the contexts of men’s rights movements, feminist methodology, urban sociability, male feminism, sexual violence, and care-giving. He held a visiting position at the Department of Anthropology, University of Amsterdam, for three months in 2016.

Zaid Al Baset is Assistant Professor of Sociology at St. Xavier’s College, Kolkata. His research interests are in feminist studies, sexuality studies and sociology of religion. He has published on queer identities in India. He has co-edited a special issue of Economic and Political Weekly on the theme of men and feminism in India (2015). He was a DAAD PhD fellow at the Centre for Modern Indian Studies (CeMIS) at the University of Göttingen (October and December 2016).