Women, Gender and Religious Nationalism

Amrita Basu is Domenic J. Paino 1955 Professor of Political Science, and Sexuality, Women's and Gender Studies at Amherst College, Massachusetts. She is the author of Violent Conjunctures in Democratic India, published with the Press in 2015. Tanika Sarkar is a historian of modern India based at the Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi. Sarkar's work focuses on the intersections of religion, gender, and politics in both colonial and postcolonial South Asia, in particular on women and the Hindu Right.

• Dedication; Introduction: Women of Hindu Rashtra Tanika Sarkar; Part I. Changing Modalities of Hindu Nationalist Organizing; 1. Right Wing Women's Mobilization: Notes from Colonial Western India Namrata Ganneri; 2. Track Changes: Women and the BJP from the 1990s to the 2010s Rina Williams; Part II. Gendered Techniques of Mobilisation: The Sangh and The Samiti; 3. The Shakha, the Home and the World: Going Beyond the Shakha and the RSS Family Lalit Vachani; 4. Spinning the Saffron Yarn: Lessons of Ideal Girlhood in Hindu Nationalist Storytelling Aastha Tyagi; Part III. Cultivating Women's Militancy: The Vishva Hindu Parishad; 5. Sanskaras, Street-activism, and Sexuality: VHP Women at Work Manjari Katju; 6. Conflicting Modes of Agency and Activism: Conversations with Hindutva Women Anshu Saluja; Part IV. Refashioning Gender & Sexuality; 7. Tracing the Rise of Ascetic Masculinity in India Arpita Chakraborty; 8. Trans Contestations in an Era of Heightened Nationalism: The Saffronisation of Transgender Identity Jennifer Ung Loh; Part IV. Alternative Activist Responses to the Hindu Right; 9. The Defense of Aacharaam, Femininity, and Neo-savarna Power in Kerala J. Devika; 10. The Revolution Will Come Wearing Bangles, Bindis and Hijabs: Women's Activism for Inclusive Citizenship Amrita Basu and Amna Pathan; Abbreviations; Glossary.