Behind the Veil: Resistance, Women, and the Everyday in Colonial South Asia

The overwhelming image of Indian women during the colonial period has been of passivity, of a sex ‘silenced’ doubly, first by nationalist discourses and second by the more recent postcolonial turn in academic writing. For some time now, scholars have been working on the theme of dissent and struggle among women in both contemporary patriarchal structures and gendering discourses. But the focus so far has been on the educated and the outstanding–either female public figures or relatives of important male personalities. This book unearths a narrative of deeper and perhaps more enduring subterranean resistance offered by less extraordinary women in their daily lives. Substantial evidence exists to support the contention: some from unconventional sources such as women’s songs, photographs, and embroidery, but equally from legal records, memoirs, and published work. This book is, however, as much about the nature of power as about women. It highlights the complex ways in which power operates within oppressive structures, making any simple valorization–and for that matter, theorization–of gendered resistance difficult if not impossible.