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Analyzes two contemporary short stories featuring widows to examine gender, caste, & citizenship in India. It is argued that widowed protagonists represent the writer's intervention into a debate about Indian humanism's relationship with feminism. A widow's need for both protection/sympathy & regulation/governance introduces questions related to citizenship & the political order. Gita Hariharan's "The Remains of the Feast" (1992) is about an upper-class Brahman great grandmother who was widowed young & conformed to the prescribed life of austerity until finally realizing liberation during her dying days. It not only describes a social order that fails to sustain the spirit, but reveals transition from the work/production-oriented spirit of national capital, to a liberalized economy of consumption. "Mother" (1969), by Baburao Bagul, centers on a young, lower-caste dalit widow's struggle with poverty, sexuality, caste oppression, exploitation, & violence. Revelations about caste politics in both stories are discussed, maintaining that they reflect two contesting forces within contemporary feminism, ie, the struggle of middle-class women to reform humanism, & issues raised by the dalit movement. J. Lindroth