Hindu Wife and Hindu Nation

This text discusses the Hindu ideas and traditions that have shaped dominant conceptions of Indian women and the nation as a whole. It examines how these traditions are being subverted or transformed by fundamentalist forms of Hinduism. The concepts of Indian "womanhood", "domesticity", "wifeliness", "mothering", and India as a Hindu nation are examined through the literary and social traditions, popular culture and rhetoric, which have shaped the reality of modern India. This book is a critique of many of the dominating concepts by which some Indians live today.