Historicizing Gendered Modernities in India underscores how gender, as a category of historical analysis andidentity, is central to our imagination andunderstanding of modernity. The essaysin this volume unravel the complexitiesof modernity’s relationship to femininityand the cultures of gender constructionamidst the diverse manifestations ofcolonialism and nationalism in India.

The essays cover varied aspects of gender identities, including the private spheres of elite women who often expressed their freedom through their subversive, restricted sexuality, thus shaking off the shackles of domination; the debates regarding dress codes for women; the deplorable condition of girls after marriage and the concerns of social reformers; legislative battles to achieve the right to divorce; challenges to notions of sports as a masculine activity; the different meanings of modernity for women writers and poets; the implications of print cultures and cinema on women; gendered meanings of peace and partition; the ethics of care and responsibility; women’s preferences, perceptions and practices; the politics of resistance; and questions of agency and autonomy within and outside the private domain. The volume is an attempt to capture the cross-currents and debates on gender and modernity, which keep returning in newer and unexpected forms.