Sonia Soans | Manchester Metropolitan University (original) (raw)
Papers by Sonia Soans
Psychology of Women Section review, 2015
In the last few years crime against women in India has increased dramatically. What stands out ab... more In the last few years crime against women in India has increased dramatically. What stands out about these crimes is how the perpetrators of these crimes use violence to disable a woman; through, for example, acid attacks, ‘honour crime’ and public stripping. The perpetrators often claim to do this in order to preserve their notion of ‘Indian culture’. These notions are tied within understandings of women’s roles as submissive, chaste, modest and ‘traditional’. Women’s bodies are the primary site for this violence as disfiguring the female body sends out a cautionary message to other women not to transgress boundaries that have been laid out by those who feel they must preserve this culture. These understandings of ‘Indian culture’ are often invented and are tied to nationalism which poses a threat to ‘Westernised Indians’ particularly women. Cases such as the Delhi Gang Rape case or the attack on pubs in Mangalore which led to the ‘pink chuddi campaign’ have caught the eye of the media, however, one sees them being justified by the perpetrators on the grounds of protecting ‘Indian culture’. When these crimes are presented in the Western media they are often collude with the perpetrators of these crimes by using these notions of ‘tradition’. Western ideas of India and how Eastern values must be preserved from Western civilisation often undermine the victim’s ordeal.
Neurodiversity in the Majority World Online Seminar Following on from our first successful onli... more Neurodiversity in the Majority World
Online Seminar
Following on from our first successful online symposium, we are pleased to announce the second Neurodiversity in the Majority World event. This year our focus will be on neurodiversity in India.
Autism and neurodiversity are terms that are gaining traction in everyday conversation. The recognition of the diversity of neurological being represents a paradigm shift. Discussions around this topic have traditionally been orchestrated in a few countries in the West. This is a problem because it cuts us off from relevant world history, human context and opportunities.
Join us as we start building a library of experiences and discuss how we can begin to understand the many challenges and opportunities to learn about autism and neurodiversity. We will be exploring the intersections of autism, culture, material conditions, policy and activism with our speakers in their respective fields. The event is free to register.
Date: 23rd July 2024
Time: 1700 hours - 1830 hours (Indian Standard Time)/12.30pm - 2.00pm (UK Time)
Registration link https://forms.office.com/pages/responsepage.aspx?id=ofZoiROsL0e4mfcxbkOfQ2R-n7SIUR9Pj2px-QrEZi1UMFkzOFVUMk5aVlY4MkxVSzNPVUxWTUhUUy4u
Annual Review of Critical Psychology, 2024
Psychology as a scientific discipline in India traces its roots to the colonial era, with the est... more Psychology as a scientific discipline in India traces its roots to the colonial era, with the establishment of a psychology department at Calcutta University. Since then, universities offering degrees in the discipline have increased. Psychology in India today is dominated by American concepts and literature. This is reflected in the way the discipline is often taught. While American authors and their textbooks tend to monopolise the discipline, indigenous theories also exist. The predominant focus of indigenous psychology is through ancient religious texts. Modern psychological concepts are often anachronistically attributed to the distant past. On the surface, endeavours made to indigenise and examine ancient texts might seem like a form of decolonising. However, it replaces one form of hegemony with another. The religious texts studied are neither accessible nor sacred to all communities in the country. Neither looking towards the west nor seeking insight from a selective image of the distant past, have much to say about conditions in contemporary India. As a result, psychology often transmits itself through banal, commonsensical ideas, which often fail to serve the interests of justice. In doing so, pre-existing prejudices have become normalised and justified. This paper will attempt to challenge the dominant discourse of psychology in India. Using personal experience and locating oneself within this system of knowledge production and dissemination, the author will examine how, at its most banal, the discipline transmits dangerous ideas about the human condition.
Annual Review of Critical Psychology, 2024
Postcolonial studies is an established discipline, providing critiques of obscured and erased nat... more Postcolonial studies is an established discipline, providing critiques of obscured and erased native knowledge. Decolonisation, a term that is increasingly being used, is associated with both activism and epistemic justice. Both of these positions promise the restoration of thought and identity lost under colonisation. With the rise of right-wing Hindu nationalism in India, the call to ‘decolonise’ often comes with violence in the form of erasing religion, languages, cultures and even people. These claims have not gone unchallenged, as a form of cultural violence from dominant groups in Indian society. In trying to address trauma inflicted by colonialism, ethnonationalist ideas of restoring authentic culture have been reified.
This paper challenges and examines interrogates the cultural loss and trauma that has been implied in the work of postcolonial theory and the hegemonies implied in that restoration. This paper will take Dalit and minority perspectives on how postcolonial authors in the region have been addressing erasures in their work. The surprising overlap between constuand right-wing ideology in writing about the ‘imagined nation’ needs to be examined and interrogated. Dalit scholars point to their subjugation through apparently liberatory practices which compartmentalise Indian culture and seek to restore pre-colonial hegemonies. From a critical psychology perspective, it becomes important to examine the power structures underlying postcolonialist scholarly assumptions. An important question to ask is whose indigenous worldview is being restored, and who will be excluded, from this process of decolonisation.
Studies in the Education of Adults, , 2023
Political conflicts propelled a wave of refugees that are seen as a force that threatens the stab... more Political conflicts propelled a wave of refugees that are seen as a force that threatens the stability of the UK and Western Europe. It has left many refugees bewildered and vulnerable in a transition to a new land, which may or may not cater to their cultural, religious, ethnic, and social needs. This paper examines the role of adult education in the lives of Syrian women and education's ability to bridge the gap between cultures. We posit that education serves as a tool of self-expression and integration for Syrian women refugees in their adopted communities. Using a feminist life history method, the stories of three Syrian women will be discussed. In doing so, we revisit the definition of 'refugees' and 'immigrants' as posited by various scholars to shed light on the crisis and how it has risen from a counter-terrorism strategy in the UK and reveal the implications that this has had over the past years on the British education system.
Psychology of Women and Equalities Review , 2023
Addiction is a complex condition, Bollywood’s engagement with the issue is often fraught with mi... more Addiction is a complex condition, Bollywood’s engagement with the issue is often fraught with
misrepresentation and sensationalism. There have been instances where on-screen violence has inspired
real-life incidents of violence against women. Four Bollywood !lms from different decades will be analysed
using a feminist theoretical lens. Tropes around women’s addiction/alcoholism will be examined as
will the culture in which violence is normalised. One particular trope is that of the intoxicated woman
whose body becomes the object of male sexual violence. While this trope is not limited to Bollywood
alone, it is however coded in a particular manner that encompasses nationalism. Eschewing reality
and therapeutic entanglements in place of melodrama becomes a means to convey a message against
excesses. The inebriated woman titillates but ultimately her lack of morality is her downfall. It is
pertinent to ask why death is presented as an inevitable possibility amongst other cinematic choices.
Keywords: Bollywood, addiction, sexual agency, male-gaze, death, cinematic morality.
Intersectionality in Social Work, 2018
Post independence India has seen many changes in the way it has reconstructed its identity. One o... more Post independence India has seen many changes in the way it has reconstructed its identity. One of the issues that remains contentious is alcohol and drug consumption. Gendered narratives on the subject tied with nationalism have ensured that the issue has stepped out of the clinical realm. Culture influences the way in which we understand disorders, alcohol consumption and addiction are understood through non-clinical means. Clinical diagnosis is not neutral it is influenced by the culture it is immersed in. Women who drink in India have to contend with non-clinical and clinical images of themselves. They often find themselves at the hands of vigilantes who claim to save Indian culture from dangerous westernisation. Women in India who transgress boundaries of 'culture' are frequently at risk of being sexualised even by their recreational use of psychoactive substances. These narratives are present everywhere, especially in cinema. The discourse that runs on screen through films is similar to incidents of violence against women in everyday life. Nationalism runs through these narratives, as does gendered violence.
Alcoholism and drug addiction have come to be regarded as psychological and social disorders in r... more Alcoholism and drug addiction have come to be regarded as psychological and social disorders in recent times. The international diagnostic system ICD (International Classification of Diseases) provides a diagnosis for severe cases of alcoholism/addiction that meet clinical standards. However, the consumption of these substances even recreationally has been challenged. In the case of India the problem of alcohol and drug consumption is tied to nationalism and is gendered. My work in a rehabilitation clinic in India introduced me to learning about the non-clinical side of the condition. While literature from around the world supports the idea that female alcoholics and addicts in recovery are treated differently by medical staff, it does not look at how some of these narratives about the addict are sometimes tied to the prejudice against the substances themselves. This leads to the research question How are gendered narratives of alcohol and drug consumption represented in Indian soci...
Invitation- My colleague Dr Mvikeli Ncube and I would like to invite you to our virtual confere... more Invitation-
My colleague Dr Mvikeli Ncube and I would like to invite you to our virtual conference on 5th May 2022.
This is the first Afro-Asian Critical Psychology Conference and we are very excited to host this event which will feature the work of scholars from around the world.
Our keynote speaker are -
Professor M. Değirmencioğlu
Professor Yasuhiro Igarashi
Dr Mvikeli Ncube
Dr Sonia Soans
We hope to grow our network and collaborate across academic communities.
The conference is open to academics, activists, students and people with an interest in critical psychology. Please share this amongst your networks.
The conference will be held online. To book your place please register via this link- https://www.bps.org.uk/events/afro-asian-critical-psychology-conference/registration
We look forward to meeting you at the event.
Invitation- My colleague Dr Mvikeli Ncube and I would like to invite you to our virtual confere... more Invitation-
My colleague Dr Mvikeli Ncube and I would like to invite you to our virtual conference on 5th May 2022.
This is the first Afro-Asian Critical Psychology Conference and we are very excited to host this event which will feature the work of scholars from around the world.
Our keynote speaker are -
Professor M. Değirmencioğlu
Professor Yasuhiro Igarashi
Dr Mvikeli Ncube
Dr Sonia Soans
We hope to grow our network and collaborate across academic communities.
The conference is open to academics, activists, students and people with an interest in critical psychology. Please share this amongst your networks.
The conference will be held online. To book your place please register via this link- https://www.bps.org.uk/events/afro-asian-critical-psychology-conference/registration
We look forward to meeting you at the event.
Psychology in the global south is heavily influenced by mid-twentieth century American psychology... more Psychology in the global south is heavily influenced by mid-twentieth century American psychology, this has often meant that the discipline has replicated American cultural ideals onto local contexts. In doing so, psychology has become a means of erasing local psychologies. The call to decolonise knowledge is not a new one, but in recent years it has been gathering a form. For critical psychology, this is a chance to challenge the hegemonies of cultural dominance and essentialisms. We invite scholars at any stage of their careers to participate in our conference.
Deadline for abstract submission is 15th December 2021
Link to submit abstracts https://www.bps.org.uk/events/afro-asian-critical-psychology-conference-0
Call for Papers - Afro-Asian Critical Psychology Conference. Calling critical psychologists and... more Call for Papers - Afro-Asian Critical Psychology Conference.
Calling critical psychologists and post graduate scholars in the field to participate.
Abstract submission-15th December 2021
Email-afroasiancritcalpsy@gmail.com
More details on our website-
https://wp.me/pdiYd9-1t
Feminist Trauma Theologies , 2020
Christianity has existed in India since the first century. However, it was during the colonial pe... more Christianity has existed in India since the first century. However, it was during the colonial period that the faith spread across the country. Post independence the faith has been growing across the country, with several denominations currently existing. The Christian faith occupies an uneasy position, often being seen as a foreign or colonial faith. While violence has characterised the Christian faith since its beginning the nature of that violence and condition differ. Christians in India face violence in various forms. Christian women occupy an ambiguous position in the collective imagination of the nation. Represented as the foreign other in cinema has lead to Christian women being depicted as promiscuous, un-virtuous and un-Indian. Christian women on screen often play characters who titillate the audience, but don't possess the virtues Indian women are expected to embody. The Anglicised nature of the community is exaggerated in order to highlight the community's foreignness. For Christian women this has been a double-edged sword, who face discrimination on the basis of both gender and faith. Violence depicted on screen has also spilled into everyday life. The impact of which can be felt in the way in which Christian women are subjected to horrific crimes and discriminated against. This paper, grounded in intersectionality will attempt to highlight the otherness and erasure Indian Christian women face due to several aspects of their identity. In light of the global movement to address violence against women and Christians the trauma faced by both aspects of identity cannot be separated.
Intersectionality in Social Work Activism and Practice in Context, 2019
In recent years India has marketed itself to become a tourist destination. Brand India is widely ... more In recent years India has marketed itself to become a tourist destination. Brand India is widely promoted through advertisement campaigns such as 'Incredible India'. There is an emphasis on unity in diversity in particular. Beyond this neo liberal erasure of national conflict lies the everyday struggles faced by women of the country. Declared to be the fourth most dangerous nation for women, women in India are caught in a system that endangers their lives prenatally till old age.
British Mensa’s: ANDROGYNY, 2018
By using feminism in my academic work, I look at narratives which are too oftenoverlooked. Person... more By using feminism in my academic work, I look at narratives which are too oftenoverlooked. Personally, I find the social sciences to be most interesting and relevant when they are not
imitating the natural sciences.
British Mensa’s: ANDROGYNY, 2017
Female deviance in Bollywood cinema has been relegated to westernised women, violence against th... more Female deviance in Bollywood cinema has been relegated to westernised women, violence against them being somewhat justified on screen. A combination of collective morality informs the way in which women and addiction can be imagined in cinema
British Mensa’s: ANDROGYNY, 2019
Mangte Chungneijang Mary Kom is a renowned Indian pugilist, and recipient of several prestigious ... more Mangte Chungneijang Mary Kom is a renowned Indian pugilist, and recipient of several prestigious awards including winning Asian Women Championship five times, Padma Shri (2006), Padma Bhushan (2013). This paper explores how the 2014 Bollywood film ‘Mary Kom’ ( mis) represent Mary Kom, a woman from in North east India.
Psychology of Women Section review, 2015
In the last few years crime against women in India has increased dramatically. What stands out ab... more In the last few years crime against women in India has increased dramatically. What stands out about these crimes is how the perpetrators of these crimes use violence to disable a woman; through, for example, acid attacks, ‘honour crime’ and public stripping. The perpetrators often claim to do this in order to preserve their notion of ‘Indian culture’. These notions are tied within understandings of women’s roles as submissive, chaste, modest and ‘traditional’. Women’s bodies are the primary site for this violence as disfiguring the female body sends out a cautionary message to other women not to transgress boundaries that have been laid out by those who feel they must preserve this culture. These understandings of ‘Indian culture’ are often invented and are tied to nationalism which poses a threat to ‘Westernised Indians’ particularly women. Cases such as the Delhi Gang Rape case or the attack on pubs in Mangalore which led to the ‘pink chuddi campaign’ have caught the eye of the media, however, one sees them being justified by the perpetrators on the grounds of protecting ‘Indian culture’. When these crimes are presented in the Western media they are often collude with the perpetrators of these crimes by using these notions of ‘tradition’. Western ideas of India and how Eastern values must be preserved from Western civilisation often undermine the victim’s ordeal.
Neurodiversity in the Majority World Online Seminar Following on from our first successful onli... more Neurodiversity in the Majority World
Online Seminar
Following on from our first successful online symposium, we are pleased to announce the second Neurodiversity in the Majority World event. This year our focus will be on neurodiversity in India.
Autism and neurodiversity are terms that are gaining traction in everyday conversation. The recognition of the diversity of neurological being represents a paradigm shift. Discussions around this topic have traditionally been orchestrated in a few countries in the West. This is a problem because it cuts us off from relevant world history, human context and opportunities.
Join us as we start building a library of experiences and discuss how we can begin to understand the many challenges and opportunities to learn about autism and neurodiversity. We will be exploring the intersections of autism, culture, material conditions, policy and activism with our speakers in their respective fields. The event is free to register.
Date: 23rd July 2024
Time: 1700 hours - 1830 hours (Indian Standard Time)/12.30pm - 2.00pm (UK Time)
Registration link https://forms.office.com/pages/responsepage.aspx?id=ofZoiROsL0e4mfcxbkOfQ2R-n7SIUR9Pj2px-QrEZi1UMFkzOFVUMk5aVlY4MkxVSzNPVUxWTUhUUy4u
Annual Review of Critical Psychology, 2024
Psychology as a scientific discipline in India traces its roots to the colonial era, with the est... more Psychology as a scientific discipline in India traces its roots to the colonial era, with the establishment of a psychology department at Calcutta University. Since then, universities offering degrees in the discipline have increased. Psychology in India today is dominated by American concepts and literature. This is reflected in the way the discipline is often taught. While American authors and their textbooks tend to monopolise the discipline, indigenous theories also exist. The predominant focus of indigenous psychology is through ancient religious texts. Modern psychological concepts are often anachronistically attributed to the distant past. On the surface, endeavours made to indigenise and examine ancient texts might seem like a form of decolonising. However, it replaces one form of hegemony with another. The religious texts studied are neither accessible nor sacred to all communities in the country. Neither looking towards the west nor seeking insight from a selective image of the distant past, have much to say about conditions in contemporary India. As a result, psychology often transmits itself through banal, commonsensical ideas, which often fail to serve the interests of justice. In doing so, pre-existing prejudices have become normalised and justified. This paper will attempt to challenge the dominant discourse of psychology in India. Using personal experience and locating oneself within this system of knowledge production and dissemination, the author will examine how, at its most banal, the discipline transmits dangerous ideas about the human condition.
Annual Review of Critical Psychology, 2024
Postcolonial studies is an established discipline, providing critiques of obscured and erased nat... more Postcolonial studies is an established discipline, providing critiques of obscured and erased native knowledge. Decolonisation, a term that is increasingly being used, is associated with both activism and epistemic justice. Both of these positions promise the restoration of thought and identity lost under colonisation. With the rise of right-wing Hindu nationalism in India, the call to ‘decolonise’ often comes with violence in the form of erasing religion, languages, cultures and even people. These claims have not gone unchallenged, as a form of cultural violence from dominant groups in Indian society. In trying to address trauma inflicted by colonialism, ethnonationalist ideas of restoring authentic culture have been reified.
This paper challenges and examines interrogates the cultural loss and trauma that has been implied in the work of postcolonial theory and the hegemonies implied in that restoration. This paper will take Dalit and minority perspectives on how postcolonial authors in the region have been addressing erasures in their work. The surprising overlap between constuand right-wing ideology in writing about the ‘imagined nation’ needs to be examined and interrogated. Dalit scholars point to their subjugation through apparently liberatory practices which compartmentalise Indian culture and seek to restore pre-colonial hegemonies. From a critical psychology perspective, it becomes important to examine the power structures underlying postcolonialist scholarly assumptions. An important question to ask is whose indigenous worldview is being restored, and who will be excluded, from this process of decolonisation.
Studies in the Education of Adults, , 2023
Political conflicts propelled a wave of refugees that are seen as a force that threatens the stab... more Political conflicts propelled a wave of refugees that are seen as a force that threatens the stability of the UK and Western Europe. It has left many refugees bewildered and vulnerable in a transition to a new land, which may or may not cater to their cultural, religious, ethnic, and social needs. This paper examines the role of adult education in the lives of Syrian women and education's ability to bridge the gap between cultures. We posit that education serves as a tool of self-expression and integration for Syrian women refugees in their adopted communities. Using a feminist life history method, the stories of three Syrian women will be discussed. In doing so, we revisit the definition of 'refugees' and 'immigrants' as posited by various scholars to shed light on the crisis and how it has risen from a counter-terrorism strategy in the UK and reveal the implications that this has had over the past years on the British education system.
Psychology of Women and Equalities Review , 2023
Addiction is a complex condition, Bollywood’s engagement with the issue is often fraught with mi... more Addiction is a complex condition, Bollywood’s engagement with the issue is often fraught with
misrepresentation and sensationalism. There have been instances where on-screen violence has inspired
real-life incidents of violence against women. Four Bollywood !lms from different decades will be analysed
using a feminist theoretical lens. Tropes around women’s addiction/alcoholism will be examined as
will the culture in which violence is normalised. One particular trope is that of the intoxicated woman
whose body becomes the object of male sexual violence. While this trope is not limited to Bollywood
alone, it is however coded in a particular manner that encompasses nationalism. Eschewing reality
and therapeutic entanglements in place of melodrama becomes a means to convey a message against
excesses. The inebriated woman titillates but ultimately her lack of morality is her downfall. It is
pertinent to ask why death is presented as an inevitable possibility amongst other cinematic choices.
Keywords: Bollywood, addiction, sexual agency, male-gaze, death, cinematic morality.
Intersectionality in Social Work, 2018
Post independence India has seen many changes in the way it has reconstructed its identity. One o... more Post independence India has seen many changes in the way it has reconstructed its identity. One of the issues that remains contentious is alcohol and drug consumption. Gendered narratives on the subject tied with nationalism have ensured that the issue has stepped out of the clinical realm. Culture influences the way in which we understand disorders, alcohol consumption and addiction are understood through non-clinical means. Clinical diagnosis is not neutral it is influenced by the culture it is immersed in. Women who drink in India have to contend with non-clinical and clinical images of themselves. They often find themselves at the hands of vigilantes who claim to save Indian culture from dangerous westernisation. Women in India who transgress boundaries of 'culture' are frequently at risk of being sexualised even by their recreational use of psychoactive substances. These narratives are present everywhere, especially in cinema. The discourse that runs on screen through films is similar to incidents of violence against women in everyday life. Nationalism runs through these narratives, as does gendered violence.
Alcoholism and drug addiction have come to be regarded as psychological and social disorders in r... more Alcoholism and drug addiction have come to be regarded as psychological and social disorders in recent times. The international diagnostic system ICD (International Classification of Diseases) provides a diagnosis for severe cases of alcoholism/addiction that meet clinical standards. However, the consumption of these substances even recreationally has been challenged. In the case of India the problem of alcohol and drug consumption is tied to nationalism and is gendered. My work in a rehabilitation clinic in India introduced me to learning about the non-clinical side of the condition. While literature from around the world supports the idea that female alcoholics and addicts in recovery are treated differently by medical staff, it does not look at how some of these narratives about the addict are sometimes tied to the prejudice against the substances themselves. This leads to the research question How are gendered narratives of alcohol and drug consumption represented in Indian soci...
Invitation- My colleague Dr Mvikeli Ncube and I would like to invite you to our virtual confere... more Invitation-
My colleague Dr Mvikeli Ncube and I would like to invite you to our virtual conference on 5th May 2022.
This is the first Afro-Asian Critical Psychology Conference and we are very excited to host this event which will feature the work of scholars from around the world.
Our keynote speaker are -
Professor M. Değirmencioğlu
Professor Yasuhiro Igarashi
Dr Mvikeli Ncube
Dr Sonia Soans
We hope to grow our network and collaborate across academic communities.
The conference is open to academics, activists, students and people with an interest in critical psychology. Please share this amongst your networks.
The conference will be held online. To book your place please register via this link- https://www.bps.org.uk/events/afro-asian-critical-psychology-conference/registration
We look forward to meeting you at the event.
Invitation- My colleague Dr Mvikeli Ncube and I would like to invite you to our virtual confere... more Invitation-
My colleague Dr Mvikeli Ncube and I would like to invite you to our virtual conference on 5th May 2022.
This is the first Afro-Asian Critical Psychology Conference and we are very excited to host this event which will feature the work of scholars from around the world.
Our keynote speaker are -
Professor M. Değirmencioğlu
Professor Yasuhiro Igarashi
Dr Mvikeli Ncube
Dr Sonia Soans
We hope to grow our network and collaborate across academic communities.
The conference is open to academics, activists, students and people with an interest in critical psychology. Please share this amongst your networks.
The conference will be held online. To book your place please register via this link- https://www.bps.org.uk/events/afro-asian-critical-psychology-conference/registration
We look forward to meeting you at the event.
Psychology in the global south is heavily influenced by mid-twentieth century American psychology... more Psychology in the global south is heavily influenced by mid-twentieth century American psychology, this has often meant that the discipline has replicated American cultural ideals onto local contexts. In doing so, psychology has become a means of erasing local psychologies. The call to decolonise knowledge is not a new one, but in recent years it has been gathering a form. For critical psychology, this is a chance to challenge the hegemonies of cultural dominance and essentialisms. We invite scholars at any stage of their careers to participate in our conference.
Deadline for abstract submission is 15th December 2021
Link to submit abstracts https://www.bps.org.uk/events/afro-asian-critical-psychology-conference-0
Call for Papers - Afro-Asian Critical Psychology Conference. Calling critical psychologists and... more Call for Papers - Afro-Asian Critical Psychology Conference.
Calling critical psychologists and post graduate scholars in the field to participate.
Abstract submission-15th December 2021
Email-afroasiancritcalpsy@gmail.com
More details on our website-
https://wp.me/pdiYd9-1t
Feminist Trauma Theologies , 2020
Christianity has existed in India since the first century. However, it was during the colonial pe... more Christianity has existed in India since the first century. However, it was during the colonial period that the faith spread across the country. Post independence the faith has been growing across the country, with several denominations currently existing. The Christian faith occupies an uneasy position, often being seen as a foreign or colonial faith. While violence has characterised the Christian faith since its beginning the nature of that violence and condition differ. Christians in India face violence in various forms. Christian women occupy an ambiguous position in the collective imagination of the nation. Represented as the foreign other in cinema has lead to Christian women being depicted as promiscuous, un-virtuous and un-Indian. Christian women on screen often play characters who titillate the audience, but don't possess the virtues Indian women are expected to embody. The Anglicised nature of the community is exaggerated in order to highlight the community's foreignness. For Christian women this has been a double-edged sword, who face discrimination on the basis of both gender and faith. Violence depicted on screen has also spilled into everyday life. The impact of which can be felt in the way in which Christian women are subjected to horrific crimes and discriminated against. This paper, grounded in intersectionality will attempt to highlight the otherness and erasure Indian Christian women face due to several aspects of their identity. In light of the global movement to address violence against women and Christians the trauma faced by both aspects of identity cannot be separated.
Intersectionality in Social Work Activism and Practice in Context, 2019
In recent years India has marketed itself to become a tourist destination. Brand India is widely ... more In recent years India has marketed itself to become a tourist destination. Brand India is widely promoted through advertisement campaigns such as 'Incredible India'. There is an emphasis on unity in diversity in particular. Beyond this neo liberal erasure of national conflict lies the everyday struggles faced by women of the country. Declared to be the fourth most dangerous nation for women, women in India are caught in a system that endangers their lives prenatally till old age.
British Mensa’s: ANDROGYNY, 2018
By using feminism in my academic work, I look at narratives which are too oftenoverlooked. Person... more By using feminism in my academic work, I look at narratives which are too oftenoverlooked. Personally, I find the social sciences to be most interesting and relevant when they are not
imitating the natural sciences.
British Mensa’s: ANDROGYNY, 2017
Female deviance in Bollywood cinema has been relegated to westernised women, violence against th... more Female deviance in Bollywood cinema has been relegated to westernised women, violence against them being somewhat justified on screen. A combination of collective morality informs the way in which women and addiction can be imagined in cinema
British Mensa’s: ANDROGYNY, 2019
Mangte Chungneijang Mary Kom is a renowned Indian pugilist, and recipient of several prestigious ... more Mangte Chungneijang Mary Kom is a renowned Indian pugilist, and recipient of several prestigious awards including winning Asian Women Championship five times, Padma Shri (2006), Padma Bhushan (2013). This paper explores how the 2014 Bollywood film ‘Mary Kom’ ( mis) represent Mary Kom, a woman from in North east India.