Fields Of Protest

A comparative analysis of womens struggle for change in India. The womens movement in India has a long and rich history in which millions of women live, work, and struggle to survive in order to remake their family, home, and social lives. Whether fighting for safe contraception, literacy, water, and electricity or resisting sexual harassment, they are participating in vibrant and active womens movements that are thriving in many parts of India today. Fields of Protest explores the political and cultural circumstances under which groups of women organize to fight for their rights and self-worth. Starting with Bombay and Calcutta, Raka Ray discusses the creation of political fields-structured, unequal, and socially constructed political environments within which organizations exist, flourish, or fail. Womens organizations are not autonomous or free agents; rather, they inherit a field and its accompanying social relations, and when they act, they act in response to it and within it. Drawing on the literature of both social movements and feminism, Ray analyzes the striking differences between the movements in these two cities. Using an innovative and comparative perspective, Ray offers a unique look at Indian activist women and adds a new dimension to the study of womens movements on a global level.