Anuja Agrawal | University of Delhi (original) (raw)

Books by Anuja Agrawal

This interdisciplinary volume on Family Studies, focusing on the Indian context, makes a case for... more This interdisciplinary volume on Family Studies, focusing on the Indian context, makes a case for why ‘family’ as an ideological construct and ‘families’ as multitudes of lived relationships should continue to be subjects of critical social scientific attention. The chapters in the volume collectively demonstrate that in political, social, and economic contexts such as found in India, family as well as families are neither simply a remnant of tradition nor a domain representing insulated ‘private’ lives. Rather, they consist of malleable yet overpowering structures, relationships, and practices. Thus, while the ‘family’ is a crucial site of ideological and imaginative investments which play a vital role in reproducing and defining contemporary selves and societies, ‘families’ are responsive to and constrained by the complex political and economic dynamics in which they are embedded and enmeshed. Family relationships thus continue to occupy a central place in the imperative of survival and security, even as policy and legislative imperatives as well as reproductive and communication technologies play a crucial role in reshaping them. While reiterating the importance of building upon the impetus provided by gender and sexuality studies for a continued interest in family/families, the volume argues that Family Studies should embrace but not be subsumed by the questions that have been signposted by such scholarship. Critically interrogating the extant approaches to and concepts in the study of family, therefore the volume brings together a set of previously unpublished essays, authored by scholars from a range of backgrounds and varied orientations to focus on issues that are central to making sense of family/families and the multiple contexts in which they are implicated in Indian society.

This book is an anthropological study of the unusual coincidence of prostitution and patriarchy a... more This book is an anthropological study of the unusual coincidence of prostitution and patriarchy among an extremely marginalized group in north India, the Bedias, who are also a de-notified community.
It is the first detailed account of the implications of a systematic practice of familial prostitution on the kinship structures and marriage practices of a community. This starkly manifests among the Bedias in the clear separation between sisters and daughters who engage in prostitution and wives and daughters-in-law who do not. The Bedias exemplify a situation in which prostitution of young unmarried women is the mainstay of the familial economy of an entire social group. Tracing the recent origins of the practice in the community, the author goes on to explore the manner in which this familial economy manifests itself in the lives of individual women and the kind of family groupings it produces. She then examines the repercussion this economy has on the lives of Bedia men, how the problem of their marriage is resolved, and how the Bedia wives become repositories of female purity which otherwise stands jeopardized by Bedia sisters engaged in prostitution."

This volume studies the patterns and consequences of long-term migration among Asian women, prima... more This volume studies the patterns and consequences of long-term migration among Asian women, primarily ‘solo migrant women’, who migrate globally as well as across the Asian continent in order to find work. Covering a broad terrain of gender issues, the volume analyzes the changing gender composition of migration streams and the specific conditions under which they migrate, as also compares the different outcomes of male and female migration.

The contributors discuss a variety of issues from a fresh perspective including gender equality, household division of labor and state policies regarding welfare provisions. Overall, the volume maintains that the structural ramifications of women’s migration extend beyond the lives of migrant women themselves insofar as their labor plays a crucial factor in shaping gender relations in the societies of both the migrants and their hosts.

The picture of migrant workers that emerges from this volume suggests that the specificity of the migrant woman’s occupational class marks the degree of her vulnerability. Among the case studies presented are: the migration of Filipino women; Thai rural women’s migration to Bangkok; Indian nurses in the Gulf; and Asian women medical workers in the UK.

Papers and excerpts in edited volumes by Anuja Agrawal

Family Studies, 2024

This Introduction engages in a detailed discussion of the field of family studies in order to mak... more This Introduction engages in a detailed discussion of the field of family studies in order to make a case for a renewed focus of research on family in India. Beginning with a distinction between ‘family’ and ‘families’, the Introduction argues for the need to distinguish normative ideas of family from its lived realities. Arguing for making both an object of critical social scientific analysis without the constraints of disciplinary silos and extant frameworks, it delves critically into the trajectories which have shaped the current status of family studies in India. It examines in detail the significant role of women/gender/sexuality studies in keeping family alive as an object of critical analysis and highlights the areas which need much more emphasis as well as contexts across which dialogues would enrich family studies in India. Introducing the volume chapters, it engages with how Family Studies need to move in new directions.

Handbook of Gender And Mobilities. Eds. Valerie Preston, Sara McLafferty, Monika Maciejewska, and Brenda Yeoh Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2024

This chapter provides an overview of the gender-separated/segregated public transport policies an... more This chapter provides an overview of the gender-separated/segregated public transport policies and practices (GSPTP) that have become prevalent in many parts of the contemporary world, particularly in the global South, as a response to women's growing need for public transport. Based on available documentation and research about such practices, the chapter identifies two broad forms taken by GSPTP: one which involves the coexistence of women-only spaces with non-segregated spaces and the other which entails a strict segregation between men and women. The chapter engages in a detailed discussion of the contexts which give rise to these different forms of GSPTP and the responses that they evoke in different segments of society. It is argued that the factors which bring about the adoption of GSPTP are linked not only linked to attempts to address the problem of sexual harassment in public transport but also involve several other factors such as class dynamics, religious imperatives, and even transnational factors. In addition, the chapter sheds light on the considerable variability and ambiguity towards the adoption of GSPTP, including among feminists, as well as on the doubts about its efficacy in addressing the problem of sexual harassment in public transport. Finally, the chapter argues for the need for further research and analysis of GSPTP.

Parul Bhandari (ed.) Dissent with Love: Affect Ambiguity and Transformation in South Asia , 2024

The paper expands upon the argument that a focus on the tension between the demands of desire on ... more The paper expands upon the argument that a focus on the tension between the demands of desire on the one hand and domesticity on the other offers a valuable analytic framework to examine many forms that intimate relations take with a specific focus upon non-marital domestic relationships, popularly referred to as live-in relationships in Indian society. Although popularly conceived as a modern, Western phenomena, there is enough evidence which speaks of a longer and deeper timeline for the presence of such arrangements in Indian society. In the last approximately two decades, Indian courts are seeing a lot of cases in which such relationships figure owing to provisions regarding such relationships in legislation such as the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005. This paper examines the interface of such relations with law using the lens of the case law material which provides one visible index of the form of such relationships in India. The paper argues that this interface is a manifestation of the tensions between desire and domesticity in such relationships. The paper also asks whether, in originating in desire, such relations can be seen as offering a challenge to the conventional family forms or, do they tend to be co-opted into conundrums posed by domesticity.

Left Politics in South Asia: Reframing the Agenda, Edited by Ravi Kumar, Published by Aakar Books, 2018

For several decades now, the debate on sex work/prostitution has been polarized broadly between l... more For several decades now, the debate on sex work/prostitution has been polarized broadly between liberal and radical feminists. The liberal feminists focus upon prostitution as sex work which in its voluntary form should be treated as legitimate. Radical feminists on the other hand see prostitution as a gross instance of sexual violence against women which should be done away with. Although the signs of this polarization giving way to a common ground are not at all obvious, there are many further divisions within these camps and several complex alliances. However, it is worth remembering that not very long ago, feminist positions on the issue of sex work were categorized into three and not two groups: liberal, Marxist and radical. But at some point, the Marxist position was collapsed with radical feminism which now occupies the main space in the contentious debates with the liberal and other allied perspectives on sex work.
There is much that can be said about why this has happened. This paper presents a brief overview of the problems with the classical Marxist perspective on sex work alongside a discussion of how the same is undergoing a reworking which is however not yet widely acknowledged. I have argued that while the dominant feminist approaches to the prostitution question that occupy much of the discursive space are often one sided and inadequate to theoretically grasp the complexity of the empirical contexts in which sex work takes a material form, a reworked Marxist approach provides a desirable alternative as it is able to accommodate, make sense of and provide a complex understanding of many different empirical facts that get clubbed under the category of sex work/prostitution. This is of much use in the South Asian and Indian contexts as this region exemplifies many different conditions in which sex work occurs and the same can be usefully understood within a Marxist perspective which the paper outlines.
The paper draws upon my ongoing work on a short monograph on this issue which is trying to trace the major shifts that have occurred in the Marxist understanding of sex work. It also draws upon some of the insights which are derived from my earlier published work on sex work among the Bedia community in India.

Honour’ and Women’s Rights, IDRC and MASUM , 2012

Migrant women and work,Sage Publications, 2006

Migrant women and work, 2006

Papers in Academic Journals by Anuja Agrawal

International Journal of Social Welfare, 2021

This article is based on an analytic review of two major policy responses to the increasing demog... more This article is based on an analytic review of two major policy responses to the increasing demographic salience of older adults in India. Set against the backdrop of anti-natal family policies in India, the review focuses on two policy measures: the discontinuation of the earlier pension scheme alongside the commencement of the National Pension Scheme in 2004 and the enactment of The Maintenance and Welfare
of Parents and Senior Citizens Act, 2007. The analysis of these policies reveals the Indian state's increasing reliance on multiple forms of familialism and is indicative of the direction of family policy making in India. This review also indicates a need for specifying and critically engaging with such forms of familialism within the broader rubric of emerging family policies in the Asian context.

Indian Law Review, 2020

Contrary to what one may expect, some religious bodies such as Arya Samaj, are prominent in provi... more Contrary to what one may expect, some religious bodies such as Arya Samaj, are prominent in providing marriage services to Indian couples who marry in defiance of familial and social expectations. It is notable that with an increasing number of couples approaching courts to seek state protection after solemnizing their marriages via Arya Samaj, the latter has come under the judicial scanner. This has brought many issues related to such services to the fore. A detailed discussion of one of such cases has been undertaken and contextualized with reference to Arya Marriage Validation Act 1937 and Hindu Marriage Act 1955 to show how these services exist in a dynamic, accommodative, and conflicting relationship with the legal system. This has implications for those who use Arya Samaj services, in our case, couples in non-conformist marriages, as well as for our understanding and evaluation of the Indian variant of legal pluralism.

Social Change, 2019

This brief commentary seeks to extend an understanding of how sex work invites what has been call... more This brief commentary seeks to extend an understanding of how sex work invites what has been called ‘an unusually interested political gaze’ in the context of legislative interventions. Using examples of public pronouncements on sex workers by state functionaries as well as in judicial discourse in public interest litigation around their situation, the concern with addressing an ‘imaginary audience’ is demonstrated. It is argued that such pronouncements should be understood as serving other covert purposes and cannot be seen only in terms of stated intentions.

Antyajaa, 2018

The nomadic and denotified (DNT) communities are one of the extremely marginalized segments of In... more The nomadic and denotified (DNT) communities are one of the extremely marginalized segments of Indian society. Although they are internally differentiated, they have some significant common concerns that are not necessarily identical with those plaguing other marginal groups. This article provides a broad overview of gender issues which are particularly critical for these communities but which have barely received any systematic attention. Drawing upon the author’s research and interaction with members of these communities as well as government reports and other secondary sources, the article examines these issues from the point of view of the marginal position of these groups vis-à-vis the larger society as well as from the perspective of institutions and practices prevalent within these groups. The author argues that gender issues should be integral to policy frameworks as well as other debates about nomadic and DNT communities.

Explorations, 2018

This article seeks to situate the legal position on the vexatious issue of prostitution/sex work ... more This article seeks to situate the legal position on the vexatious issue of prostitution/sex work in India in order to address the widespread assumption that it has a simple legal fix. This is done via setting the Indian law on this matter within the range of possible legal positions on prostitution/sex work as well as via a brief historical overview of this legal framing. In addition, the article draws attention to the global context which shapes the debates on prostitution/sex work to indicate the range of factors which participate in the lawmaking on this issue.

Society and Culture in South Asia, Dec 1, 2016

This photo essay seeks to visually capture how the cultural preoccupation with photos and being p... more This photo essay seeks to visually capture how the cultural preoccupation
with photos and being photographed is manifesting itself in the context
of changing technologies...

Economic and Political Weekly

This paper discusses the findings of a socio-legal study on witch-hunting conducted by the Partne... more This paper discusses the findings of a socio-legal study on witch-hunting conducted by the Partners for Law in Development in Jharkhand, Bihar and Chhattisgarh. It highlights the results of the study in order to offer a critical perspective on the increasing reliance on special laws to address the problem of witch-hunting. The socio-legal evidence from the states which already have such special laws on witch-hunting shows their inefficacy in dealing with witch-hunting and related forms of violence. Criminalisation of witch-hunting through special laws is an inadequate response to the problem which has much in common with other forms of violence. There is a need to focus on accountability and reform of the agencies that activate the criminal justice system and to plug the vacuum in relation to reparative justice. - See more at: http://www.epw.in/journal/2016/13/special-articles/witch-hunting-india.html#sthash.sRBUozeO.dpuf

Indian Journal of Gender Studies

This article argues that there is a need to address how policy measures, such as, gendered segreg... more This article argues that there is a need to address how policy measures, such as, gendered segregation of space in public transport, reconfigure gender relations in such spaces. On the basis of a small survey, personal observations and blogs published online, it is suggested that new areas of gendered confusions and exclusions in the use of the Delhi Metro are sharply emerging in response to reservation of a coach for women. These confusions and exclusions are giving rise to notions of legitimate and non-legitimate gendering of spaces, which allow men to make new claims on public space. Notions such as these derive from entrenched ideas about overcrowding and differential needs. Such contestations deny women an unambiguous right to the reserved space and also undermine their capacity for negotiating for such rights. It is argued that these are emerging concerns that need to be addressed in a more proactive manner.

South Asian Popular Culture, May 1, 2015

This paper provides a sociological analysis of the increasing popularity of internet-based matchm... more This paper provides a sociological analysis of the increasing popularity of internet-based matchmaking services among the urban Indians and Non-resident Indians. The institution of arranged marriage is subject to numerous pressures, such as declining social networks, high geographical mobility and growing complexity in the choice of a marital partner, and is finding a new lease of life via such services that are increasingly replacing and penetrating other commercial matchmaking media. It is argued that while the extended family and kin are now less inclined to directly participate in the process of matchmaking, the use of internet-mediated services itself becomes a means of undertaking such ‘kin work’. The dominant Indian variant of online matchmaking is shown to be combining elements of varied global trends in online matchmaking insofar as it facilitates conventional marriage preferences under conditions that are less than favorable to perpetuation of such preferences. This analysis shows how the new technology is aiding in the sustenance of caste- and community-based identities and networks albeit in new forms.

Family Studies, 2024

Handbook of Gender And Mobilities. Eds. Valerie Preston, Sara McLafferty, Monika Maciejewska, and Brenda Yeoh Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2024

Parul Bhandari (ed.) Dissent with Love: Affect Ambiguity and Transformation in South Asia , 2024

Left Politics in South Asia: Reframing the Agenda, Edited by Ravi Kumar, Published by Aakar Books, 2018

Honour’ and Women’s Rights, IDRC and MASUM , 2012

Migrant women and work,Sage Publications, 2006

Migrant women and work, 2006

International Journal of Social Welfare, 2021

Indian Law Review, 2020

Social Change, 2019

Antyajaa, 2018

Explorations, 2018

Society and Culture in South Asia, Dec 1, 2016

Economic and Political Weekly

Indian Journal of Gender Studies

South Asian Popular Culture, May 1, 2015

Contributions to Indian Sociology

There are very few contextual accounts of bride-price payments among north Indian communities. De... more There are very few contextual accounts of bride-price payments among north Indian communities. Despite the paucity of ethnographic data, assumptions regarding transitions in the practice are commonplace. This article discusses marriage payments among the Bedia community within the broader context of their survival upon familial prostitution and focusses upon how they construe bride-price and dowry, both practiced under varied circumstances. I argue that Bedia marriage payments do not neatly fit into the prevailing assumptions regarding transitions from dowry to bride-price and are constructed differently under different conditions. The internal variations and contradictions in these constructions are interpreted in light of the social location and practices of Bedias.

Economic and political weekly, 2012

This paper focuses upon some of the legal moves which have brought adult heterosexual non-marital... more This paper focuses upon some of the legal moves which have brought adult heterosexual non-marital cohabitation patterns, popularly termed "live-in" relations, into public focus in India. These legal moves do not unambiguously signify legal sanction and recognition of new forms of non-marital heterosexual cohabitation patterns in India as some popular and judicial readings seem to suggest. Through a critical examination of some recommendations and aspects of the Malimath Committee and the debates ensuing from the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act 2005, it is shown that the legal changes are primarily directed at taking cognisance of women's vulnerable position within conventional forms of non-marital relations. Contradictory interpretations and conflicting implications arise in the absence of such legal changes being explicitly cognisant of and responsive to diverse forms of live-in relations prevalent in contemporary society.

Contributions to Indian sociology, new series, 2004

Canadian Woman Studies 22(3, 4): 131-35 , 2003

Thamyris: Mythmaking from past to present, 1998

Contributions to Indian Sociology, 1997

Chaste wives and prostitute sisters, 2008

Confluence: Science, Scientists and Society, 2021

The official enthusiasm for the online mode which derives from the obvious possibilities of exten... more The official enthusiasm for the online mode which derives from the obvious possibilities of extensive reach it offers must take into account that online education cannot be simply old wine in a new bottle. The new medium requires new modalities.

This is a socio legal study on witch-hunting conducted by Partners for Law in Development (PLD). ... more This is a socio legal study on witch-hunting conducted by Partners for Law in Development (PLD). It is based on action research conducted in collaboration with community organisations in the Indian states of Jharkhand, Bihar and Chhattisgarh. Against the backdrop of sensationalised narratives of witch hunting, and calls for state specific laws, this study reports critical insights that question narratives that mystify and 'other' targeting of women as witches: it questions the relevance of state responses in India that are framed exclusively for witch hunting.

The study, the first of its kind in India, provides evidence of contemporary social trends of witch hunting, and the interface of witch hunting related victimization with law. It draws upon a variety of sources: case studies from select blocks in the districts – Bilaspur and Janjgir-Champa (Chhattisgarh), Jamui (Bihar) and Ranchi (Jharkhand); police records collected from Jamui, Bilaspur , Gumla and Ranchi for the years 2010 to 2012; and High Court and Supreme Court judgments from ten states.

The findings suggest that that witch-hunting targets middle aged and older, mostly married women, across social groups. Although significantly fewer, there are male victims too. The data shows that the most violent acts, including murder, are one end of a continuum of violence which accompanies witch-hunting. Social stigma and ostracism, temporary or long term dislocation and resultant impoverishment are more common consequences of witch-hunting in the regions of the study. Threads of counter narratives challenge the flat discourse that conflates witch hunting with superstition and also highlight the relevance of structural contexts in which witch hunting occurs, bringing administrative neglect and governance concerns to the fore.

In relation to law and policy, the data and findings speak to the growing trend of enacting special laws at the state level in India. Though the three states where the field work was undertaken have special laws on witch-hunting- these are rarely, if at all, invoked on their own. Rather, action is likely to be taken under the Indian Penal Code when violence escalates. Preventive action is unlikely. Issues of reparative/ rehabilitation components of justice remain missing in the current legal responses including the special laws. The study thus offers an evidence based critique of current trends in law and policy making in response to incidences of witch-hunting.

Limited copies available on request: resources@pldindia.org

This paper is an overview of how gender is socially constructed. It discusses how the biological ... more This paper is an overview of how gender is socially constructed. It discusses how the biological basis to the differences between the sexes does not explain their lived differences and inequalities. The paper looks at the sex-gender distinction and the different explanations that have been given for the near universal inequality between men and women. A discussion on gender regimes in different domains of social life follows one on how religion and kinship shape particular constructions of gender. Finally the paper discusses how various dimensions of social stratification articulate with and construct gender.

Gender, Place & Culture: A Journal of Feminist Geography, 2022

Set in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, Shruti Chaudhry’s Moving for Marriage is a first full... more Set in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, Shruti Chaudhry’s Moving for Marriage is a first full-length ethnographic study which focusses upon the issue of ‘cross-regional marriages’ in Indian context. Such marriages, in India, involve seeking brides from poverty ridden far-flung regions (primarily within Indian territory) and over-look the usual concerns of caste endogamy, dowry payments and cultural similarity which
characterize the bulk of what the author of this book refers to as ‘regional marriages’....

International Journal of Feminist Politics, 2018

This book is an important new contribution to the emerging field of transnational legal feminist ... more This book is an important new contribution to the emerging field of transnational legal feminist scholarship. It seeks to fill the gaps in existing legal and policy frameworks that are increasingly called upon to address issues which arise in countries with significant migrant populations.