Multiple Mediations: The State and the Women's Movements in India

Abstract

The women's movement in contemporary India is argued to work both within & against the patriarchal state. The development of such an ambivalent & complex strategy is traced through three successive phases -- affiliated, autonomous, & sustainable development -- each linked to the changing focus of the postcolonial state. Ways that the women's movement has challenged state development plans are demonstrated, focusing on the struggle of the Chhatra Yuva Sangharsh Vahini (CYSV) to allow women access to land & other productive resources beginning in 1975. Cooperative alliances between activists in the women's movement & other social movements are described, along with some of their challenges to the state's political & economic agenda. In the era of globalization, the Indian state has become much more subject to international pressures & agreements, often to the benefit of the goals of the women's movement. K. Hyatt Stewart