Our Women”: Construction of Hindu and Muslim Women's

"OUR WOMEN”: CONSTRUCTION OF HINDU AND MUSLIM WOMEN'S IDENTITIES BY THE RELIGIOUS NATIONALIST DISCOURSES IN INDIA A Dissertation by ZEBA IMAM Submitted to the Office of Graduate Studies of Texas A&M University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY December 2009 Major Subject: Communication "OUR WOMEN”: CONSTRUCTION OF HINDU AND MUSLIM WOMEN'S IDENTITIES BY THE RELIGIOUS NATIONALIST DISCOURSES IN INDIA A Dissertation by ZEBA IMAM Submitted to the Office of Graduate Studies of Texas A&M University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Approved by: Chair of Committee, Antonio C. LaPastina Committee Members, Charles R. Conrad Linda L. Putnam Cynthia Werner Head of Department, Richard L. Street December 2009 Major Subject: Communication ABSTRACT "Our Women”: Construction of Hindu and Muslim Women's Identities by the Religious Nationalist Discourses in India. (December 2009) Zeba Imam, B.A., Aligarh Muslim University; M.A., Jamia Millia Islamia, India; M.A., Texas A&M University Chair of Advisory Committee: Dr. Antonio C. LaPastina Secular nationalism, India’s official ideology and the basis for its secular Constitution, is being challenged by the rising religious nationalist discourses. This has resulted in an ongoing struggle between the secular and religious nationalist discourses. Since women are regarded as symbols of religious tradition and purity, the religious nationalist discourses subject them to increasing rules and regulations aimed at controlling their behavior to conform to the ideal of religious purity. In this study I examine the subject positions that the Hindu and Muslim nationalist discourses in India are constructing for “their women” and its implication for women’s citizenship rights. I focus my research on two topics, where religious nationalist discourses intersect with the women’s question in obvious ways. These are “the Muslim personal law” and “marriages between Hindu women and Muslim men”. The Muslim personal law has emerged as the most important symbol of Muslim identity over the years, and holds an important position within the Hindu and the Muslim nationalist discourses as well as the secular discourse. The debates around the Muslim personal law are centered on questions of religious freedom and equal citizenship rights for Muslim women. The issue of marriages between Hindu women and Muslim men is located in the Hindu nationalist discourse’s larger theme pertaining to the threat that the Muslim “other” poses to the Hindu community/nation. I juxtapose the religious nationalist discourses with the secular nationalist discourse to understand how the latter is contesting and negotiating with the former two to counter the restrictive subject positions that the religious nationalist discourses are constructing for Hindu and Muslim women. The study is based on the content of debates taken from three mainstream English newspapers in India. Further, interviews with people associated with projects related to women rights and/or countering religious nationalism are used to supplement the analysis. The analysis is carried out using concepts from Laclau and Mouffe’s discourse theory. The analysis suggests that the subject positions being constructed by the religious nationalist discourses for Hindu and Muslim women, although different from each other, freeze them as subjects of religious communities, marginalizing or rejecting their identities as subjects of State with equal citizenship rights. The women rights and secular discourse counters this by offering a subject position with more agency and rights compared to the former two. However, it is increasingly getting trapped within the boundaries being set by the religious nationalist discourses. I argue that there is a need for women rights and secular discourse to break the boundaries being set by the religious nationalist discourses. In order to prevent the sedimentation of the meaning “women as subjects of community”, the secular discourse needs to employ the vocabulary of liberal citizenship as rearticulated in feminist, pluralist terms. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Much as I try, it is difficult to mention everyone who helped me on this four year journey that led to the completion of my dissertation. To begin with, I would like to thank Antonio LaPastina for encouraging me to pursue a doctoral degree and complete my dissertation. It was your guidance and support, throughout my time at Texas A&M, that made me trust my ability to carry this forward. Most of all, you helped me by understanding my passion for this project. Linda Putnam, I thank you for introducing me to the literature on discourse and helping me think about its relevance to gender politics of India. Without your guidance this project could not have taken the shape that it did. Charles Conrad, you have been a source of clarity and understanding at numerous levels. Your inputs have always helped me think through ideas critically and keep track of what matters and what doesn’t. Cynthia Werner, you have been immensely helpful in my development as a researcher. In the classroom and through your feedback, you taught me to pay attention to details that make research meaningful and useful. The Melbern G. Glasscock Center for Humanities Research and College of Liberal Arts, Texas A&M University, generously provided the funds which made it possible to stay financially afloat. I am especially grateful to the research respondents who patiently answered my, often controversial, questions with so much clarity and conviction. I am also grateful to Sandra Maldonado. You saved me so much time and anxiety by your willingness to help with the endless queries and paperwork that international students have to navigate through in a university. Thank you! My friends and colleagues were a tremendous source of emotional and social support whenever I needed it. Yogita, I cannot begin to list the ways in which you have contributed, to not just my dissertation but to help me deal with the experience of life as a graduate student at Texas A&M. It is hard to imagine the completion of this project without your support and intellectual input. Ravi, your unique sense of humor and willingness to discuss everything under the sun, including my research, helped me more than you know. Richa, I thank you for devoting time to read my drafts and provide feedback. Shadab, thank you for convincing me that this was a project worth pursuing. Your help was invaluable in completing the field research that I carried out in India. Thanks also to Ranu for helping to get the interviews transcribed in India. I would also like to thank my mother, Laila Imam, for teaching me the value of persistence and my father, Raza Imam, for encouraging me to think critically and for his valuable feedback on the manuscript. This acknowledgement will be incomplete without mentioning my three siblings Parvez, Sehba and Shavez who have always contributed in every significant event in my life. I also thank my parents in law, Brajesh and Veena Sinha for being anxious but supportive observers all through these years. Finally, I would like to say to my husband, Tanmay Chetan, thanks for believing in me and never doubting that I could do it, for your support at every step, and for just being there. TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ABSTRACT ........................................................................................................................ iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ................................................................................................ v TABLE OF CONTENTS .................................................................................................... vii CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................ 1 Nationalism ........................................................................................... 1 Religious Nationalism and Women’s Identities ................................... 7 Why This Relationship Concerns Women’s Citizenship Rights .......... 9 The Scope of this Research ................................................................... 11 The Scheme of Chapters ....................................................................... 12 II CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK ..................................................................... 14 Identity .................................................................................................. 14 Indian Nationalisms .............................................................................. 20 Women’s Position in the Anti-Colonial Nationalist Movement ...... 23 Post-Colonial Nationalism ............................................................... 26 Citizenship ............................................................................................ 34 III METHODOLOGY AND MORE ..................................................................... 46 Why Study Religious Nationalist Discourse......................................... 46 The Two Issues ..................................................................................... 48 The Muslim Personal Law ............................................................... 48 Marriages between Hindu Women and Muslim Men ...................... 54 Discourse Theory .................................................................................. 56 Methodology ......................................................................................... 63 Newspapers: A Source

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