The volume of the Project of the History of Science, Philosophy and Culture in Indian civilization aim at discovering the main aspects of India’s heritage and present them in an interrelated way. These volumes, in spite of their unitary look, recognize the difference between the areas of material civilization and those of ideational culture. The Project is not being executed by a single group of thinkers who are methodologically uniform or ideologically identical in their commitments. In fact, contributions are made by different scholars with different ideological persuasions and methodological approaches. The Project is marked by what may be called ‘methodological pluralism’. In spite of its primarily historical character, this Project, both in its conceptualization and execution, has been shaped by scholars drawn from different disciplines. It is for the first time that an endeavour of such a unique and comprehensive character has been undertaken to study critically a major world civilization like India. The volume, Women of India: Colonial and Post-Colonial Periods, in six sections viz., Family/Law, Body/Sexuality, Knowledge System, Work, Creativity/Voices, and Politics, offers insights into women’s lives in colonial and post-colonial India, fully cognizant of the complex interlinking of class, caste, ethnicity, religion, nation, state policy and gender. Historically, the period discussed in this study coincides with the end of one era and the beginning of another, with two hundred years of British colonial rule and, following that, fifty years of an independent India. The essays in this volume explore the operation of power and the resistance to it, the space that was denied to the disadvantaged gender-women-and the space they created for themselves, and the history of the mutual roles of women and men in colonial and post-colonial India. Eminent scholars on women’s studies and reputed scientists, drawn from diverse disciplines and located in different parts of India, present themes that are crucial to the understanding and experience to gender in India. In so doing, they add to our historical knowledge and also, it is hoped, partly change our vision of Indian history. Taken as a whole, the essays raise our awareness of overt and hidden discriminations, and restricted options and possibilities for women’s agency, while reminding us of the multiple ways in which women manage to survive and thrive despite familial, community and state neglect.
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