Ways of Being Indian: Essays on Religion, Gender and Culture

Identity formation in non-western societies involves paradox, as doctrines

are frequently overridden by actual practices. The essays in this volume

discuss different ways in which identities are constructed in unique 'Indian'

contexts.The emergence of deras in Punjab reflects how continuing caste

inequality and divergence over spiritual leadership has affected the egalitarian

spirit of Sikhism, contradicting a basic feature of the faith-the tradition

of common worship. In the matrilineal Khasi community, men-looking to

gain equal inheritance rights-use arguments of ethnic purity and indigenous

rights to downsize women's autonomy and undermine the commanding

socio-economic position that their own tradition gives them.

For male sex-workers, their profession, paradoxically, becomes a means

of sexual autonomy in the otherwise heteronormative world that they

inhabit. A different kind of paradox marks the social lives of many Indian

women: in Assam for instance, celebration of menstruation coexists with

prohibition on menstruating women's entry into temples and participation

in auspicious events.

Workplace violence exemplifies how private biases infiltrate public spaces,

reinforcing traditional marginalities, undeterred by legal safeguards.

Similarly, the plight of indentured plantation workers in Malaysia

demonstrates the operation of traditional patriarchy inside a foreign and

highly sequestered workspace of plantations-within these spaces, women

experience 'double marginalization'. And the government and middleclass

response to the COVID-19 pandemic across India demonstrated the

persistence of traditional biases which perpetuate inequality and oppression

in the world's largest democracy.

Comprising these and other discussions on the everyday lived realities

of individuals and communities in India and the Indian diaspora,

Ways of being Indian is a remarkable, eye-opening collection.