This landmark collection on colonial history is now available in a brand new edition as part of the Zubaan Classics series to celebrate Zubaan’s 10th anniversary.

This collection of essays stands at an unarticulated conjuncture within the feminist movement and women’s studies that have emerged in India since the 1970s. The anthology attempts to explore the inter-relation of patriarchies with political economy, law, religion and culture and to suggest a different history of ‘reform’ movements, and of class and gender relations. The book seeks to uncover the dialectical relation of feminism and patriarchy both in the policies of the colonial State and the politics of anticolonial movements. The writers in this volume include scholars from various disciplines.

KUMKUM SANGARI & SUDESH VAID taught literature at Indraprastha College for Women, Delhi University. Together they have edited a collection of essays entitled Women and Culture and have carried out extensive research on widow immolation in Rajasthan.