In Perspective

In this episode historian Dr. Shailaja Paik discusses the factors that have impacted Dalit women's access to and quality of education in India over time.‘In Perspective' is The Swaddle's podcast series where academics reveal little-known facts about Indian history, society and culture. Notes: 00:00:40:00- Why do mainstream feminists and dalit men believe that dalit women are more ‘liberated' than high caste women? What are the problems with this though pattern?00:04:55:12- What is ‘Dalit femininity' and ‘oppressed sexuality,' and how do we  interrogate and understand these two?00:07:20:00- How was ‘a new Dalit womanhood' forged in Colonial India? What role did social reformers like Jyotirao Phule and Dr B.R Ambedkar play in it?00:16:04:00- What kind of culture did upper-caste Marathi elite constitute in 20th century Maharashtra? How did it reinforce inequality in ‘high' and ‘low' communities and culture?00:21:47:00- How did women's education in India change their views about themselves?00:27:47:00- How did Dalit women have power relationships in the wider society, and how do these relationships have a bearing on  the access and quality of education?00:33:18:00- How was the access and quality of education in formal institutions received by Dalit girls?00:37:23:00- What was the prevailing view about access for Dali women?00:40:00:00- What direction does academic research, especially Indian historical research, need to take to tell stories and to unearth research?

In this episode,  historian, writer and filmmaker Lata Mani discusses colonial debates on sati, feminist discourse online, and why we need to engage with spiritual thought critically.‘In Perspective' is The Swaddle's podcast series where academics reveal little-known facts about Indian history, society and culture. Notes: 00:00:40:00- Can progressive aspects of religious faith and practices be used to advocate for the cause of social justice?00:09:49:00- Why is it important to engage with religion in a  critical way?00:15:24:00- Why do you think it's important to engage with religion? What value does it have to discourse in our country ?00:21:49:00- What were the factors at play when it came to social reform related to women in colonial India? How much of a role did women's welfare play, and how much agency did they have? 00: 27:25:00- How do different feminist discourses converge? 00:33:00:00-  What are ways to embody a feminism that is an oppositional force? What are the ways in which we can implement this in the way we practice feminist politics? 00:35:51:00-- What role does suffering play in the imagination and creation of solidarity? How do we ensure the autonomy of dignity from suffering?

In this episode, historian Dr. Anshu Malhotra discusses reformist bazaar literature, the attack against the native 'dai' and the writings of the Sufi poetess Piro, in colonial Punjab.‘In Perspective' is The Swaddle's podcast series where academics reveal little-known facts about Indian history, society and culture. Notes: 00:00:40:00- How did the rise of print media lead to new forms of ‘bazaar' literature in colonial Punjab, and how did this become a common yet complex site for social reform?00:01:49:00- Who was ‘Piro,' and what made her writing in life an act of resistance against the arbitrary hierarchy of gender, caste and religion?00:05:50:00- Why was there a Colonial attack on ‘dais' in nineteenth century Punjab? How did ‘scientific' midwifery become a marker of middle-class status?00:07:23:12-  How did Lala Lajpat Rai's writings discuss the fundamental reasons for women's oppression? Did his writings impact the notions of womanhood in India?00:26:07:00- How did Sikh reformers try to shape the idea of the 'new woman'? Did this differ from popular notions of womanhood supported by Hindu reformers?

In this episode, digital anthropologist, Dr. Payal Arora discusses why mobile leisure like online romance and entertainment is necessary, data policies across South Asia and why data privacy is a big concern.‘In Perspective' is The Swaddle's podcast series where academics reveal little-known facts about Indian history, society and culture.Notes: 00:00:40:00- Has there been a Western bias in the evaluation of the impact of big data?00:01:49:00- Is there a bias in framing big data as empowerment in the Global South, and what are the problems with this narrative? 00:05:50:00- How do we draw a line between doing good and the monopoly that comes with big companies helping the Global South with connectivity? How do we regulate it? 00:07:23:12- What is digital leisure? What ways can new media and the evolution of the internet enable this leisure? 00:10:34:00- How is the idea of leisure in the context of mobile internet played out for Indian youth? Can online romance, play and entertainment have a positive impact on people's life?  00:13:54:00- How has the approach to digital privacy been driven by neo liberal ideology? What will it mean to decolonise digital privacy?  00:18:19:12- Is data privacy still a big concern where there is  data surveillance by authorities?  00:22:39:12- What are some of the problems with the application of transnational data regulation policies in the contexts of the Global South?  00:26:07:00- What are the ups and downs of digital romance in India, and how does it affect the youth? Is the Indian youth aware of concepts such as data privacy? What are the downsides of romance playing out online?

In this episode, historian Dr. Seema Bawa talks about the common misconceptions about South Asian art, whether it is possible to read gender roles in early Indian art, and how artists view feminism differently today.‘In Perspective' is The Swaddle's podcast series where academics reveal little-known facts about Indian history, society and culture. Notes: 00:00:48:07- What common stereotypes about South Asian art are still prevalent globally? Are they misplaced?00:05:30:13- As opposed to the olden days when art was linked to people of elite classes, in contemporary India, are marginalized people getting space and/or recognition for their art? 00:08:39:05- How has the feminist art movement evolved in India? Should there be emphasis on the gender of the creator of a piece of art? 00:14:26:18- What kind of gender narratives do we see in early Indian art? Was there a fluidity of gender roles and desires? 00:19:37:21- In what ways has the female body been portrayed in early Indian art? And does the portrayal of female divinity offer an empowering narrative?  00:24:22:04- In what ways did colonization interact with early Indian art?  Was there a misinterpretation of our art, and what it said about India as a culture and nation?  00:28:50:13- Does art enable marginalized communities to  communicate and give us access to narratives which might otherwise have been inaccessible? Is enough recognition given to the work of marginalized communities in that formal art realm?   00:31:50:11- Why is it important to engage with art as a society?

In this episode, Urdu and Postcolonial Studies reader Dr. Amina Yaqin talks about Pakistani TV shows, female readership  of  Urdu novels in the 19th century, and understanding women's life narratives through autobiographies.‘In Perspective' is The Swaddle's podcast series where academics reveal little-known facts about Indian history, society and culture. Notes: 00:01:16:22- Why is Urdu perceived as a sectarian language of Indian Muslims today? In what ways has this increased communalization of the language post Partition been documented in Indian literature? 00:18:30:10- What led to the growth of the Urdu novel in the Indian subcontinent in the 19th century? How did it enable a fusion of narrative traditions of the East and West?00:43:41:14- Why are autobiographies largely looked at as a man's domain? What makes it a particularly interesting genre from the perspective of women's history and women documenting their own stories?00:59:11:21- Today's Pakistani dramas are hugely popular in India and many parts of the world. But in what ways has there been a shift in the portrayal of women in these dramas, from the assertive, liberal heroines of the 1980s to what you describe as “cautiously modern women” who are good wives and sisters in contemporary soap operas?01:17:00:04- How have contemporary Urdu writers in Pakistan explored narratives of gender and sexuality in subversive ways?

In this episode, gender and sexuality studies scholar Dr. Inderpal Grewal discusses the first modern Indian travelogs, Pandita Ramabai's advocacy for Indian widows, and media portrayals of honor killing.‘In Perspective' is The Swaddle's podcast series where academics reveal little-known facts about Indian history, society and culture. Notes: 00:01:01:10- What is transnational feminism? Why is taking a transnational approach to gender important to understanding it at a regional and global level? 00:07:32:03- How did notions of beauty from 19th century Britain impact Indian women's identities? 00:14:10:11- How did Toru Dutt appropriate the European travel narrative in the 19th century, and how did travel writing like this enable Indian readers to get a sense of life and freedom outside India?00:19:54:21- What were Pandita Ramabai and Parvatibai Athavale's travels like, and how did they achieve the support they got for Indian widows?00:27:36:15- How was the activism of Pandita Ramabai and Parvatibai Athavale perceived by male Indian nationalists at the time?00:30:38:03- What do memoirs of Indian bureaucrats from the 20th century reveal about notions of masculinity in post-colonial life, and did these ideas of masculinity differ before and after Independence?00:41:50:09- What did the introduction of Barbie in India mean for India's transnational Indian identity? Has that identity changed in recent years?00:49:49:21- How does Western media portray honor killing, and how does it differ from the kind of portrayals we see in India? Do racialized portrayals of honor killing impact the efforts to stop it?

In this episode, Dr. Jinee Lokaneeta discusses the absence of public debate on state torture in India, the murder of Thangjam Manorama, and the use of police violence at peaceful protests.‘In Perspective' is The Swaddle's podcast series where academics reveal little-known facts about Indian history, society and culture. Notes: 00:00:52:12- How has physical and mental torture been used as a tool for exercising state power in India?00:09:01:04- Why were tools like narco-analysis and lie detectors introduced? In what ways do they enable custodial torture in India? 00:18:05:15- Is there an absence of debate on torture in India? What are the theoretical framings that allow for a denial of torture despite an evidence of such high levels of custodial death in India?00:36:21:17- Was the Thangjam Manorama case a landmark moment in the mainstream discourse around AFSPA and torture? Or did it not end up becoming the catalyst it should have been?00:40:18:02- With regard to the role of the Supreme court, do concerns and interventions over social or equality trump political or liberty? How do aspects of political liberty get addressed even in the absence of a focus on it?00:51:28:09- What are the roots of the normalisation of the torture of protestors in movements like the anti-CAA-NRC protests?

In this episode, public health specialist Dr. Sapna Desai discusses why adolescent girls avoid seeking care for sexual health issues, the curious case of early hysterectomies in India, and why we need to broaden our understanding of women's reproductive health.‘In Perspective' is The Swaddle's podcast series where academics reveal little-known facts about Indian history, society and culture. Notes: 00:00:58:22- How has women's health policy in India addressed women's health? What issues have been highlighted and which deserve greater attention? And what are emerging priority areas to think about?00:05:36:19- Why do you think we've ignored incidences of non-communicable diseases like cardiovascular diseases? Why is there a perception that these are diseases of privileged women, or women from the West? 00:08:45:14- What are the main challenges with Indian women's access to treatment of sexual and reproductive health problems? And what about adolescents and young women? 00:11:40:19- Is the misrecognition of women's sexual health issues forming a barrier in terms of the stigma around seeking care?00:12:53:07- How does this shift when we talk about access for how adult women access care for reproductive issues? 00:14:42:00- How comfortable are married women speaking to their families about their sexual and reproductive issues? 00:18:30:02- Why do so many young women undergo hysterectomies in parts of India? What kind of state interventions are needed to address this problem? 00:25:29:23- Historically, has there in a shift in how we look at hysterectomies, in terms of dealing with gynecological issues which are misrecognised or not treated properly? 00:27:59:11- What are the potential health problems with a hysterectomy? And what other functions does the womb serve in the body? 00:32:01:03- How can we better utilize the potential of women's groups for better health and nutritional outcomes? And what does it mean for groups to go beyond information dissemination and actually engage in community building practices? 00:37:45:11- Why do solutions need to stem from questions about problems women are facing, as opposed to a top-down approach? When have top-down approaches failed? 00:42:36:23- How has the COVID crisis impacted the functioning of women's groups in India? What  interventions are needed to deal with these challenges?

In this episode, scholar and activist Professor Rosemary Dzuvichu discusses the absence of public debate on state torture in India, the murder of Thangjam Manorama, and the use of police violence at peaceful protests.‘In Perspective' is The Swaddle's podcast series where academics reveal little-known facts about Indian history, society and culture. Notes: 00:01:00:13- What are some of the major development challenges facing the Northeast today?00:05:21:13- What are the pitfalls of Northeast India becoming a buffer zone without being part of the development process? And what are some of the pitfalls of the way the Look East policy is playing out?00:09:05:01- Is there a lack of understanding of indigenous cultures of Northeast India? How does that play out in the Indian state's policies?00:15:48:19- How has the militarisation of Nagaland impacted women, and in turn the women-led civil social movements in the region? 00:20:12:17- Why does the responsibility of peacekeeping end up falling on women in Nagaland?00:22:36:19- How have questions around representation, such as reservation for women in municipal bodies in Nagaland, played out historically? 00:32:37:03- How do Naga women writers shape feminist perspectives on the region?

In this episode, environment researchers Kanchi Kohli and Manju Menon discuss environmental impact assessments in India, and the impact of environmental degradation on local communities.‘In Perspective' is The Swaddle's podcast series where academics reveal little-known facts about Indian history, society and culture. Notes: 00:01:01:03- As we navigate through an economic crisis, how important is it to focus on environmental regulations for industries, and ensure that they remain strong?00:04:37:21- How do companies around the world view environmental concerns? What is this mindset that drives how those in business look at environmental justice and environmental concerns around them?00:08:49:19- What is an environmental safety net? Does an industry need to ensure a perimeter around where they operate so their environmental impact doesn't flow beyond that? Is it an issue in regulation, enforcement or compliance? 00:11:36:07- What is the history of the Environmental Impact Assessments (EIA) in the global South? What was the context within which the EIA emerged in India in 1994? Why has it been so hotly debated? 00:19:14:01- Within this framework of the EIA, what is the role of the public hearing process? Is there any compulsion on the government to weave the outcome of this public hearing process into the assessment report of the EIA, or is it just for show?00:25:07:20- Why have you written that India's coastline is a space that epitomizes policy contradictions?00:33:46:12- Does environmental policy being a state matter (as opposed to being centralized at the national level) help, because it is more targeted to the ecology of the area, or is it detrimental, since it can become scattered and arbitrary? 00:38:03:23- How did natural elements transform into these mobile, tradable commodities over time? How do we change this idea that nature is a limitless resource? How does the policy discourse around nature need to change? 00:48:00:11- How has land transformation been at the center of economic growth of post-colonial, Asian nation states? Has this land use transformation impacted resource dependent communities? Has the Indian state been able to address this effectively? 00:56:22:10- Is there any potentially successful legal protection for local communities impacted by land degradation? If they were to mount a challenge within the legal system, what is their chance of success? 

In this episode, sociologist Dr. Chaitanya Lakkimsetti discusses how the AIDS epidemic changed the Indian state's relationship with sex workers, and the problems with the moral panic around bar dancing in Maharashtra.‘In Perspective' is The Swaddle's podcast series where academics reveal little-known facts about Indian history, society and culture. Notes: 00;01;01;02- How does sexual labor  act as a site for the pursuit of social mobility and well-being for women dancers?00;09;47;29- What are some scenarios where we see the dichotomy in how we treat women's sexual labor?00;14;07;26- How did the AIDS epidemic impact the Indian state's relationship with sex workers?00;24;08;17- Before Section 377 was read down in 2018, legal judgments often presented very conflicting attitudes towards sexual minorities in India. What were some of these conflicting judgements, and what problems did they pose in people's everyday lives?00;37;26;21- What are some of the problems with the Indian state's approach to legislation and protection of trans* rights post the NALSA judgment?

In this episode, sociologist Prof. Radhika Chopra discusses South Asian masculinity, and what it means for heterosexual men to be feminists.‘In Perspective' is The Swaddle's podcast series where academics reveal little-known facts about Indian history, society and culture. Notes: 00:00:58:07- How is ‘veiling' experienced in dual gendered ways, and how does it impact men in particular?00:10:08:03- What makes veiling such a contested issue when it comes to women? Do we need to expand the idea of ‘veiling' itself?00:13:53:15- What are the defining characteristics of masculinity in South Asia? What does it mean to be a man in the shifting context of the sub-continent?00:22:40:16- How is the figure of the househusband lampooned in popular culture? What does our understanding of economically dependent husbands tell us about mainstream and marginal masculinities in India?00:28:10:01- How do we understand a man's role in a familial structure? Why do we need to pay attention to the role that men play with respect to gender equality within households, or ‘domestic democracies'? 00:40:17:06- What are pro-feminist masculinities? What kind of tensions do they produce? What does it mean for heterosexual men to support the cause of gender equality? 

In this episode, historian Dr. Priya Satia talks about the evolution of the discipline of history, how Indian nationalists shaped British intellectual movements, and why historians need to speak truth to power.‘In Perspective' is The Swaddle's podcast series where academics reveal little-known facts about Indian history, society and culture. Notes: 00:00:58:04- Why do you say that the discipline of history itself has enabled the process of colonization by making it “ethically thinkable?”00:05:03:11- What are some instances of moments of crisis where historians intervened?00:09:57:19- How did the Indian nationalist movement (like Gandhi, Tagore and Nehru) shape British social history?00:18:14:18-  What are the problems with how the 1947 Partition of India took place? How did it lay the groundwork for the tensions between India and Pakistan that we see till today?00:27:11:07- How was gun trade an essential aspect of the emergence of industrial capitalism in Britain? How was this relevant for the colonized world like South Asia? 00:33:58:23- How has the discipline of history become devalued in the formulation of state policies? Why is it important that we consult historians in policy-making?

In this episode, researcher Dr. Usha Raman talks about cyberfeminism, algorithm biases, and reimagining the internet.‘In Perspective' is The Swaddle's podcast series where academics reveal little-known facts about Indian history, society and culture. Notes: 00:00:55:17- What is cyberfeminism? Why is it important to take a feminist approach to understanding digital media and the internet at large? 00:05:08:20- Has the involvement of women in technology and design on the internet actually made it more inclusive?00:09:10:06- How has digital feminist activism grown in India? What kind of obstacles does this form of activism face?00:15:06:08- Does digital feminism in India exclude any communities?00:18:59:13- Have media portrayals of the 2012 Delhi rape case been problematic? How did these portrayals impact popular understandings of feminism and women's safety? 00:24:21:19- What are the issues with the online discourse we see around women's safety, especially when initiated by the State? How did the ‘She Team' program under the Telangana police department change this narrative?00:28:53:12- How do people across the social spectrum use new media to create new identities? What kind of concerns around privacy and datafication does this raise? 

In this episode, historical and political anthropologist Dr. Atreyee Majumder talks about how colonialism shaped Indian environmentalism, and the ways in which capitalism impacts space and time.‘In Perspective' is The Swaddle's podcast series where academics reveal little-known facts about Indian history, society and culture. Notes: 00:00:52:07- How did colonial rule shape India's attitude towards the environment? Do we see a continuity in this attitude in India's postcolonial environmental regime as well?00:05:49:09- Why has it continued to remain a status regime in postcolonial times as well?00:09:32:06- What would it mean to resist this framework, and resist this environmental vocabulary that is defined by the state in the activisms that emerge from ground up?00:12:20:01- How did resource extraction become the basis of colonialism? In what ways does this idea of resource extraction transform in the postcolonial era of globalization? 00:24:37:08- How has globalization impacted global labor dynamics, enabling countries from the global north to profit from exploitative labor in the global south? 00:29:09:17- Could you give an example which we see in the context of India selling out labor in a similar way without any  sort of protection? Have we seen negative consequences of that in terms of its impact on people?00:31:54:19- What is the relationship between the accumulation of capital and environmental degradation? 00:36:46:09- How do we find ways of resisting it, when most of our world order is based on capitalism, especially when pertaining to the climate emergency?00:39:34:05- How has industrial capitalism shaped the trajectories of time and space in India?

In this episode, political scientist Dr. Pavithra Suryanarayan talks to us about understanding how the Brahmin elite 'hollowed out' state capacity in colonial India, and why Indians vote to protect status interests.‘In Perspective' is The Swaddle's podcast series where academics reveal little-known facts about Indian history, society and culture. Notes: 00:00:53:03- What is ‘state capacity?' What does it mean to hollow out state capacity? 00:05:33:02- How did the Brahmin elite hollow out the bureaucracy in the Bombay and Madras Presidencies at the time the Indian state was being democratised?  00:10:48:07- How does this play out in India even today?00:13:26:14- What makes right-wing political parties popular among the poor?00:18:21:16- What role does people's income play in voter turnout in India?00:19:54:23- Why are caste and class so relevant when it comes to voting and politics in India?00:22:53:17- Why does India see a huge proliferation of various political parties across states? 00:27:55:02- In the recent 2021 West Bengal elections, almost all news sites' pre-poll data predicted that the BJP would win, which turned out to be wrong when the All India Trinamool Congress won by a landslide. Where does the mismatch between voters' attitudes and perceptions of the media come from?

In this episode, legal activist Prita Jha talks to us about the problems with implementation of  laws pertaining to violence against women and child sexual abuse.‘In Perspective' is The Swaddle's podcast series where academics reveal little-known facts about Indian history, society and culture. Notes: 00:00:56:12- You're written about how the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act is a groundbreaking piece of legislation. What kind of legal and social activism went into passing this law, and what were some of the public debates around it?00:08:17:16- Is a lack of awareness the cause for the difference inaccess to protections of the law in urban and rural areas? 00:09:19:11- There's a gap between the progressive nature of the law, and the judiciary's understanding and application of it. What are some constraints with the judiciary's application of the law? 00:11:58:23- Where does the notion that dowry law can be misused by women in false cases against their husbands and in-laws come from? Is there any research or data to back this notion? Are there problems with how we legally define what a false case is?00:20:31:06- What are some problems with criminalizing consensual sexual activity among adolescents? How do we address this complicated issue? 00:25:44:18- Is the law which was intended to address child sexual abuse being used by parents of girls to protect them even from consensual adolescent relationships?  00:26:55:02- Do we have the legal frameworks and protections in place to address the way that domestic violence played out during the Covid-19 lockdown?

In this episode, historian Dr. Jessica Hinchy talks to us about the colonial ‘panic' surrounding the hijra community in the 19th century, the circumstances leading to their criminalisation, and the ways in which family became the focus of surveillance under the 1871 Criminal Tribes Act.‘In Perspective' is The Swaddle's podcast series where academics reveal little-known facts about Indian history, society and culture. Notes: 00:00:52:11- What were the factors that led to a colonial ‘panic' surrounding the hijra community in the 19th century?00:17:14:05- In the context of the 1871 Criminal Tribes Act, how did state policy seek to eliminate the hijra community altogether?   00:27:15:20- In what ways did the hijra community undermine this colonial legislation and policing? 00:36:29:12- How did some biographies and autobiographies of hijras challenge the colonial understanding of the hijra community? 00:46:47:17- How did the family unit emerge as the central target of surveillance under the Criminal Tribes Act of 1871? How did this understanding impact middle-class Indian gender and caste politics? 00:58:20:23- What matchmaking campaign did the colonial state launch in north India in 1891? What role did their concern with marriage practices and conjugality play in shaping the attitudes towards criminal tribes?

In this episode, cultural studies scholar Dr. Swati Moitra talks to us about reading cultures, women's travel in the 19th century, and the subversive potential of femslash fanfiction.‘In Perspective' is The Swaddle's podcast series where academics reveal little-known facts about Indian history, society and culture. Notes: 00:01:03:11- In 19th century Bengal, what were the anxieties around ‘modern' women travelers? And how did these anxieties make their way into popular writings and art at the time? 00:11:15:04- How did the travel writing of Kailashbashini Debi enable her to claim a voice in public space and advocate for the restructuring of domestic life?00:19:15:18- How did communitarian reading groups in colonial Bengal assert the importance of reading as a leisurely practice for Bengali women? And how did this shape the ideal of the Bengali bhadra mahila (the ideal, chaste woman)?00:29:00:20- How has print culture been impacted by the changes in contemporary reading cultures? 00:34:43:19- What do instances of enforcement of morality tell us about society's discomfort with women being in public?00:39:35:22- What is femslash fiction? How can we understand it in the context of Indian popular culture? Can subcultures like femslash contribute to queer visibility in India? 

In this episode, anthropologist Dr. Aarti Sethi talks to us about understanding debt, distress and social relations in agrarian societies in India.‘In Perspective' is The Swaddle's podcast series where academics reveal little-known facts about Indian history, society and culture. Notes: 00:01:05:03- How has agriculture been central to the emergence of modern industrial capitalism around the world?00:08:01:01- How did monetary debt become central to the production process for farmers in central India? In what ways has this contributed to farmers' distress in the region? 00:20:46:02- In what ways has the centrality of debt impacted social relations and hierarchies in rural society? 00:33:05:14- Does the interconnection of everyday life and inter-family social relations with farming have anything to do with the pressure that the centrality of debt puts on farmers?00:41:05:05- Why do say that the 2016 Jallikattu ban centers around the differing social conception of animals?00:48:14:17- Was the media coverage of the Jallikattu ban and animal cruelty  unfair, or not nuanced enough to capture the complexity of human-animal relationships in rural India?

In this episode, historian Dr. Janaki Nair discusses why religious scriptures formed the basis for colonial law in India, how women fought against child marriage in the 20th century, and why Indu Malhotra's dissenting judgement in the Sabarimala verdict is significant.‘In Perspective' is The Swaddle's podcast series where academics reveal little-known facts about Indian history, society and culture.Notes: 00:01:00:20- How and why did religious texts and traditions become central to determining women's position in colonial legal frameworks? 00:04:58:03- What are the difficulties with deciding when religious custom becomes law? 00:07:08:01- What was the Madras case on the question of ‘can women inherit under Mitakshara law?'00:09:24:02- What were the problems with interpreting scriptures, especially with norms pertaining to sati and child marriage?00:12:27:09- How did the notion of not interfering in social customs define the attitude towards child marriage laws in colonial India? Do we see a continuity in that till today, or did something change in the 1920s? Was there an active pushback then? 00:27:06:19- What was the significance of Indu Malhotra's dissenting judgment in the Sabarimala verdict?

In this episode, sociologist Dr. Niharika Banerjea speaks with us about transnational feminisms, the queer critique of happiness, and the revolutionary possibilities of friendship.‘In Perspective' is The Swaddle's podcast series where academics reveal little-known facts about Indian history, society and culture. Notes: 00:01:09:07- In sexuality studies, is there an invisibilization of certain sexualities that do not follow categorisations, especially in the global south? Does transnational queer research hold radical possibilities in addressing some of those power dynamics and research hierarchies? 00:07:02:19- What place does lesbian feminism occupy within postcolonial feminism and the movement for LGBT rights? Is this limiting in any way?00:14:31:07- What factors were responsible for the rise  in discourse around women loving women and the need to spotlight this kind of violence? 00:16:26:04- Why are legislative changes important for queer rights around the world? What are the limitations of legislative changes in addressing exclusion? 00:22:11:11- What is the critique of the ‘pursuit of happiness' by queer theorists? What does it mean to put the liveability of LGBTQ+ lives in conversation with critical engagements with happiness?00:31:36:02- Is friendship political? What power does it hold when it comes to social justice movements?

In this episode, feminist historian and social critic Dr. Jayakumari Devika speaks with us  about the Channar rebellion in the 19th century, women's writing, and changing gender relations in Kerala.‘In Perspective' is The Swaddle's podcast series where academics reveal little-known facts about Indian history, society and culture. Notes: 00:00:56:06- What led to Malayali women gaining access to public life in the late 19th and early 20th century in Kerala? What effect did this have on women's liberation? 00:17:20:11- In what ways was the work of women writing in 20th century Kerala oppositional? And how was it received in literary circles at the time, and by the general public?00:29:53:10- Where did Nadar women's impetus to resist and fight for their right to wear an upper garment come from? What was the significance of it? 00:51:56:05- The targets of family planning in Kerala have invariably been women. Did a lot of the women understand what was happening? Did they resist this?00:57:15:13- What impact did liberalization and the opening up of the global labor market have on gender relations and the nature of the nuclear family in Kerala? 01:07:33:23- Can you contextualize the opposition from neo-savarna and sangh-parivar organizations and campaigns after the 2018 verdict on women's entry in the Sabarimala temple? How does discourse from campaigns like the ‘Ready to Wait' campaign complicate the idea of women's agency? 01:13:36:00- Did we anticipate the kind of public discourse that arose around the issue of women's entry to the Sabarimala temple in 2018?  Have there been precedents to this?

In this episode, historian Dr. Ishita Pande speaks with us about the Phulmoni Dasi case and the problems with gender justice debates around child marriage in India.‘In Perspective' is The Swaddle's podcast series where academics reveal little-known facts about Indian history, society and culture. Notes: 00:01:03:15- How did legal norms around age for regulating sexuality come into existence in India?00:06:23:03- What was the Phulmoni Dasi rape case? How did that case reconstitute child marriage as a socio-medical problem, with a substantial focus on the child-wife's body? What were the problems with this kind of discourse?00:12:49:19- How did arguments around boys and boyhood become important in the passage of the Child Marriage Restraint Act? Were similar concerns expressed about protecting girls? 00:12:49:19- In what ways did the public debate around the Child Marriage Restraint Act of 1929 end up rendering Muslims a political minority? 00:19:48:09- What debates did the ‘Rangeela Rasool' tract generate in 1924?00:26:20:21- How did developments in the field of sexology affect the debates and arguments in favor of regulating children's sexuality and child marriage in the 20th century? 00:31:55:07- What inspired your work around age in relation to sexual relations?

In this episode, anthropologist Dr. Mahuya Bandyopadhyay speaks with us about the idea of imprisonment, human rights, and the linkages between violence within the prison system and violence in society at large.‘In Perspective' is The Swaddle's podcast series where academics reveal little-known facts about Indian history, society and culture. Notes: 00:01:00:02- How has human rights law evolved to take a more humane approach towards imprisonment and punishment? 00:09:19:13- Have we seen examples of a more humane approach towards law and order on the ground where we have been able to strike a balance between  questions of human rights and security?00:13:26:07- What role did colonialism play in shaping the prison system in India - from the design of the prison system to the very idea of what constitutes the prison system? How heavily does this still weigh down on us today? Does it stand in the way of implementing a more humane approach?00:18:05:20- What are the key problems with the societal perception of prisoners today? How does this perception stand in the way of securing human rights for  prisoners?00:21:52:14  What unique challenges do women prisoners in India face? What kind of systemic reform could help in the betterment of conditions and access to justice within prisons? 00:28:28:21- Is there a linkage between custodial violence and the centrality of violence to the prison system in India? How do we understand this linkage? How do we see the linkages between violence in the prison system in the practice of policing and the way violence is viewed in Indian society at large?00:33:35:05- What needs to change for us to question some of the ideas about the conflict between the human rights approach and the concept of security? 

In this episode, anthropologist Dr. Sarah Pinto talks to us about the links between women's societal position and the diagnosis and treatment of their mental illnesses, and the powerful counter-narratives of women's trauma in South Asian literature.‘In Perspective' is The Swaddle's podcast series where academics reveal little-known facts about Indian history, society and culture. Notes: 00:01:11:00- How does geopolitical positioning impact the diagnosis, treatment and perception of mental illness? What sort of patterns and differences can be seen in the global north and global south? 00:06:11:20- What does the history of hysteria in India tell us about societal perceptions of women and their emotions here? How does the Indian perception of hysteria differ from the historical notions of hysteria in the Western context?  00:11:53:13- How is the Indian society's perception of women's mental illness related to factors like marital relationships, kinship and policing of women's bodies? How does this play out differently in urban and rural contexts?00:18:33:08- Does sexual policing in the treatment of women's mental illnesses come from shortcomings in clinical training, or internal biases that shape the lens with which medical practitioners operate?00:21:25:06- Does the societal position of women in India impact treatment of their mental illnesses? How does this gendered lens impact the treatment they get in their homes, in psychiatric wards and in clinics?00:26:30:22- When we think of traditional healing methods used to treat mental illnesses in India, it's usually in a negative context. Is there an alternate, positive perspective with which we can look at this? 00:32:52:09- What sort of perspectives on caregiving and on living with mental illness do we see in Indian literature? What can we learn from these narratives? 

In this episode, historian Dr. Arunima Datta talks to us about the lesser known history of thousands of Indian coolie women who worked on plantations in British Malaya in the 19th century, the surprising reasons for them joining the Rani of Jhansi regiment during the freedom struggle, and the contemporary relevance of their stories. ‘In Perspective' is The Swaddle's podcast series where academics reveal little-known facts about Indian history, society and culture. Notes: 00:00:21:09- What led to colonial administrators and European planters promoting Indian coolie women's migration to British Malaya in the 19th century? 00:02:44:10- Why did they recruit Indian coolie women in particular? 00:04:44:00- How did the representation of coolie women in popular nationalist and colonial discourses on British Malaya misrepresent Indian coolie women? Did these depictions take away from the coolie women's agency?00:06:06:24- Could you tell us about the famous 1910 case involving Letchmee, a coolie woman, and Deyal Singh? Why did the trial become ‘sensational'? 00:08:54:19- What were the issues with the “moralities” colonial administrators deployed when describing or adjudicating this and other cases related to coolie women's intimate relationships?  00:12:03:05- How did Indian coolie women become central to the power struggle that escalated between the British imperial governments and Indian nationalists between the 1920s and 1930s?   00:14:21:00- Why did many coolie women end up joining the Rani of Jhansi Regiment, and how did they describe this shift in their lives in their own accounts?      00:19:13:24- What is the contemporary relevance of these narratives of Indian coolie women in British Malaya? Why is it important for us to look back at this and what can we learn from it?

In this episode, gender and language studies scholar Dr. Geeta Patel discusses why Ismat Chughtai's Lihaaf was charged for obscenity, the 'homely' girl in matrimonial ads, and challenging notions of respectability in Indian society.‘In Perspective' is The Swaddle's podcast series where academics reveal little-known facts about Indian history, society and culture. Notes: 00:00:53:00- What role did modern Indian literature play in nationalist discourses in the 20th century? How does the work of Meeraji (Mohammad Sanaullah Dar) help us conceive of new modernizing nationalisms in this context? 00:09:54:04- What is ‘homeliness?' How have linkages between domesticity and a woman's identity been forged since 19th century India? Is this changing today? 00:16:16:03- Why was Ismat Chughtai's 1942 short story ‘Lihaaf' charged for being obscene? What do the narratives around that story tell us about the Indian state's perceptions of gender and sexuality at the time?00:19:52:21- What is the heteronuclear family? In what ways do we see the ideal of the heteronuclear family propagated in advertisements post independence in India? 00:24:57:15- What are the problems with how we understand sex and desire in popular discourse in India today? What does reclaiming narratives around pleasure and desire entail?

In this episode, independent dance practitioner and writer Ranjana Dave talks to us about the evolution of Indian classical dance, and what it means for dance to be political.‘In Perspective' is The Swaddle's podcast series where academics reveal little-known facts about Indian history, society and culture. Notes: 00:00:47:09- How do we interrogate the relationship between classical dance and contemporary Indian society? Is classical dance a rigid art form, or is there scope for fluidity and evolution of the form with time?00:05:17:06- What notions of gender and gender roles do we see in these narratives, and do dancers question some of these narratives through the way in which they perform them?00:08:50:04- Are contemporary performers of classical dance bringing ideas of queerness and consent into stories they depict, especially canonical ones? 00:10:39:24- Are there common notions of the perfect ‘ideal' body that are espoused across different dance forms? How are contemporary movement artists questioning these notions?00:13:38:15- Do ideas of transgressive desire percolate in classical dance forms? Are there ways in which contemporary movement artists are making those speak to society?00:17:41:18- Does theIndian classical dance community resist these transgressive narratives and interpretations of canonical stories, because of ideas about the purity of form?00:19:33:16- Has there been a history of resistance through dance in India?00:22:28:02- As the internet becomes central to our content consumption, in what ways is dance interacting with the digital medium, and is this resulting in an evolution of the form?

In this episode, historian and gender studies scholar, Dr. G. Anurima talks to us about why we've misunderstood the nature of matriliny in Kerala, Ravi Varma's legacy as a 'public artist,' and how family photos reflect domestic hierarchies.‘In Perspective' is The Swaddle's podcast series where academics reveal little-known facts about Indian history, society and culture.  Notes: 00:01:07:02- Why do you describe Ravi Varma as India's first public artist? What are the broader implications of Ravi Varma's Work, and the ways in which it was circulated and reproduced? 00:14:12:17- What representations of friendships do we see in different cultural mediums in 19th century Kerala?00:23:54:02- How is Nair matriliny understood outside Kerala, and within Kerala? 00:53:46:17- What notions of family do family photographs represent? How does this complicate the idea of a visual being a mirror of society?

In this episode, literature scholar Dr. Shampa Roy talks to us about why widows were villains in early Bangla detective novels, portrayals of women criminals in daroga accounts, and descriptions of zenanas in British women's travel writings‘In Perspective' is The Swaddle's podcast series where academics reveal little-known facts about Indian history, society and culture. Notes: 00:01:03:09- What depictions of violence in domestic spaces do we see in Bankim Chatterjee's domestic novels in the 1870s?00:13:52:09- How do Priyonath Mukhopadhyay's immensely popular darogah accounts from the late 19th century dismantle cultural stereotypes around Hindu femininity? 00:26:11:23- What social factors  impacted portrayals of women criminals in early Bangla detective fiction? Are there any parallels with depictions of the vamp in Bombay cinema? 00:38:58:07- What is the significance of the letters that British feminist Eleanor Rathbone exchanged with Indian feminists? What were the questions it raised about intersectionality, and intersections and interactions between Indian and imperial feminism?00:49:30:12- Who was Fanny Parkes? How did her travel journals subvert the stereotypical colonial understandings of royal women who resided in zenanas?

In this episode, historian and gender studies scholar Dr. Mytheli Sreenivas discusses women writing about the need for desire in marriage in Tamil magazines in the 1920s, the complicated impact of modern property laws, and the Dravidian nationalist vision for casteless marriage in colonial South India.‘In Perspective' is The Swaddle's podcast series where academics reveal little-known facts about Indian history, society and culture. Notes: 00:01:17:11- What kind of debates did we see in lawsuits brought by women in colonial Indian courts around what constitutes a wife versus what constitutes a concubine? 00:04:46:12- What was the mercantile vision of a family versus the joint family? What kind of debates around women's access to family property do we see in court cases in 20th century colonial South India? And how was the mercantile vision of the conjugal family used to exclude women from individual ownership of property? 00:10:57:08- How did Dravidian nationalism approach the issue of marital reform in the 20th century? 00:15:38:20- If we think more broadly about women's role in the domestic sphere, how was it shifting in the 19th century? And in what ways did this shape national identity in 19th century South Asia? 00:19:59:14- What led to a shift in the Tamil magazine landscape from an emphasis on appropriate domesticity to a more radical critique of gender relations by the 1920s and 30s?00:23:51:09- In that space of Tamil print culture, did we see any outright criticisms of marriage itself? 00:25:01:14- How did reproductive self-regulation get linked to national sovereignty in inter-war India? And was this reproductive regulation targeted at all Indians?00:30:44:10- How was the ‘hum do, hamare do' or the small family ideal popularised in India in the 1960s, and how did it tie the idea of a happy future to heteronormative reproduction?

In this episode, essayist and documentary filmmaker Dr. Shohini Ghosh discusses the changing notions of media censorship, Indian movie stars embracing queerness, and how Rituparno Ghosh shaped queer cinema in India.A link to Shohini's documentary film — Tales of the Night Fairies‘In Perspective' is The Swaddle's podcast series where academics reveal little-known facts about Indian history, society and culture. Notes: 00:01:13:06- Media censorship is often informed by this notion that the media that people consume has a direct and harmful impact on their behaviour. Where does this notion come from? And what are the problems with conceiving media impact and harm in this way?00:05:36:09- What impact has Bollywood had on sexual harassment, stalking and people's behaviours in romantic relationships? How do we look at this vis-a-vis the argument that media impact on human behavior is exaggerated? 00:10:12:03- What public debates around censoring songs and advertisements do we see  in the late 20th century in India?00:13:48:08- Have social media and OTT platforms changed state conceptions of obscenity or have they pushed boundaries in any way?00:21:27:02- What does the 2009 ban on the Savita Bhabhi website and the debate between the detractors and the supporters tell us about our attitude towards pornography and sex and sexuality in India?00:26:16:23- Why did the movie ‘Fire' lead to so much controversy and moral panic in the late 1990s? How did it change the public discourse around women loving women in India? 00:34:44:14- In what ways do we see the emergence of a new queer cinema in 20th century India? How does it displace conventional cinematic codes of masculinity and femininity?00:43:14:04- How did Rituparno Ghosh's films and star persona make queer issues central to public debates in Bengal?

In this episode, historian Dr. Divya Kannan talks to us about the evolution of education in colonial India, and how caste and gender have played a huge role in shaping access.‘In Perspective' is The Swaddle's podcast series where academics reveal little-known facts about Indian history, society and culture.  Notes: 00:01:00:10- How do you deal with the difficulties of doing archival work on childhood, particularly with understanding what constitutes the child's voice in the archive? 00:03:57:20- How did India's National Education Policy come into being in the 19th century? And in what ways has it evolved from its colonial roots?00:08:10:19- In what ways have these early ideas around primary education and the purpose of education seeped into  the kind of mindset we have towards education today? 00:11:57:01- How has the British empire impacted the notion of childhood and children's identities in colonial India? Do we see similar patterns in colonized nations across the globe?00:16:58:18- When can we trace back the beginning of girls' education in India to? What were some of the formative factors that played a role in girls' education in the 19th century? 00:21:47:23- Have we moved away from this idea of gendered labor and looking at education within the larger framework of nurture and care? Or does it still persist in a lot of ways? 00:26:36:10- What types of values about femininity were espoused in schools run by missionaries for girls in the 19th century? Why was there an emphasis on being good wives and mothers? Could you elaborate on the history of Home Sciences? 00:33:49:15- In what ways did colonial missionaries seek to fashion the identity of poor natives that they educated? How did the gulf between primary and secondary education end up reproducing social caste and class hierarchies? 00:39:58:11- What is the importance of archiving childhood? What is the significance of studying the history of childhoods in South Asia and beyond?

In this episode, historian Dr. Charu Gupta discusses how the growth of print culture led to public debates around gender, sexuality and erotic literature in 19th century India.‘In Perspective' is The Swaddle's podcast series where academics reveal little-known facts about Indian history, society and culture. Notes: 00:01:18:06- What role did print media play in furthering communalism in contemporary India?00:04:47:22- Do you think that there has been a build-up on how communalism is furthered through print media over the years? And has print media affected the way in which it has played out on TV media and digital media?00:07:05:17- What kind of debates around obscenity do we see with the growth of print culture in 19th century colonial north India, and in what ways did these ideas of obscenity clamp down on women's sexuality and agency? 00:16:20:00- Could you tell us a little bit about the shuddhi and sangathan movements? In what ways did they define ideas of masculinity and femininity vis-a-vis the communal Hindu identity in early 20th century United Provinces?00:22:08:14- In what ways did Swadeshi rhetoric impact norms for middle-class, upper caste Hindu women's clothing in colonial India, and how did this lead to the creation of a new sartorial morality?00:25:53:20- What was the relationship between women, gender and medicine in colonial India?00:29:45:20- How did sexology become popular in colonial India?00:32:40:01- How does the vernacular help us in studying colonial India?00:38:52:00- What do you think about the current censorship rules that have been passed recently by the Information and Broadcast Ministry, saying that it would now begin to cover OTT digital platforms like Amazon and Netflix? Do you see any continuities with censorship laws laid out over time?

In this episode, gender studies scholar, Dr. Ashwini Tambe talks to us about debates around girlhood, age of sexual consent, and state regulation of commercial sex work in colonial India.‘In Perspective' is The Swaddle's podcast series where academics reveal little-known facts about Indian history, society and culture. Please note that the word 'prostitution' is used in this podcast because it is historically specific to that time. The practice being referred to is commercial sex work.Notes: 00:00:54:18-Why has the minimum age for sexual relations been such a contested issue around the world?00:03:11:20- If we specifically look at the case of India, what arguments have been made regarding the legal definition of ‘girlhood' when it came to non-marital sex in the 20th century? What kind of contradictions did we see around the definition of girlhood for sexual relations within and outside of marriage?00:05:47:22- Was the difference between the age of consent (or the age of sex outside marriage) and the age of marriage a conscious choice, made after much public debate and discourse, or was it something that happened because it was not thought through enough? 00:09:32:12- What were the circumstances that led to the legal age of marriage being raised to 18 at the end of the 20th century? What factors played a role here, especially in regards to state policy on birth control?00:15:29:19- What kind of debates are we seeing around the age of marriage in contemporary India, and why are feminists arguing in favour of reducing the age of both sexual consent and marriage? 00:19:24:02- How was the Contagious Diseases Act introduced in colonial India, and how was it used to control sex work in colonial India from 1860 to 1890? How did the treatment towards European and Indian sex workers differ?00:29:24:22- How did debates around Indian, British and East European commercial sex workers become a sight for arguments around contesting nationalism and national pride in colonial India?

In this episode, researcher and Director of the Internet Democracy Project, Dr. Anja Kovacs discusses using the feminist idea of consent to prevent data misuse, how anonymity can empower women online, and why we need to reimagine how data governance works.‘In Perspective' is The Swaddle's podcast series where academics reveal little-known facts about Indian history, society and culture. Notes: 00:00:59:20- Why and how do physical and data bodies matter in debates around the governance of data?00:06:51:14- How does one respond to people who say that this is the price you pay for being on the internet?00:12:07:02- What is data sovereignty, and what are the problems with the discourse around sovereignty and data colonialism in India?00:19:13:23- What would it mean for the Indian state to actually step in and take steps to protect individual freedom and autonomy with regard to their data, and are there any instances of strong policy-making for this in other countries? 00:30:21:23- What impact have gender and sexuality issues had on the development of freedom of expression online in India, and what role do Indian courts play in this regard?00:41:07:20- How has evolving discourse on gender and sexuality impacted digital rights in India including through the judiciary?

In this episode,  researcher Amrita Nandy talks to us about the romanticisation of maternal sacrifice, perceptions of voluntary non-mothers, and the imposition of caregiving on women.‘In Perspective' is The Swaddle's podcast series where academics reveal little-known facts about Indian history, society and culture. Notes: 01:01:20- Why is the mother seen as the "epitome of femininity and womanhood?" What kind of mother do moralistic narratives around motherhood centre, and who do they exclude as a corollary to that? 11:11:20- What is maternormativity? How has the notion of motherhood been romanticised in Indian society, and how does it get linked to notions of the nation and morality?15:10:10- How is voluntary non-motherhood treated in society, and does the choice to not be a mother actually enable more freedom and autonomy for women?19:18:08- What are the challenges that voluntary non-mothers face in society? What does it mean to emphasise being ‘childfree' rather than the negative connotations that come with the idea of being childless? 24:32:22- What socio-economic and gender dynamics play out in an unmarried couple's abortion decision-making process in India and how does shame and stigma shape a man's involvement in his partner's abortion? 31:12:24- What is the context behind a lot of early marriages, where women voluntarily elope and marry their partners? Why are punitive legal responses harmful in such cases? 

In this episode,  anthropologist Dr. Naisargi Dave joins us to discuss letter exchange as a form of community-building for women loving women in the 1990s, the fraught relationship between the lesbian movement and the autonomous women's movement in India, and the problems with arguing for queer rights on the basis of the right to privacy.‘In Perspective' is The Swaddle's podcast series where academics reveal little-known facts about Indian history, society and culture. Title Image Credit: Outlook Magazine Notes:01:05:23- What led to the emergence of lesbian activist movements in India? How did the word lesbian open up new possibilities of personal attachment and community?02:50:08- How did letter writing come to play a significant role in the formation of lesbian communities in India?06:42:08- Where did the idea of exchanging letters to build a community come from? The involvement of Sakhi, Bombay Dost magazines.07:55:15- Did they face any resistance back then? Was there any censorship against these ads?11:29:16- Why was the relationship between the lesbian movement and the autonomous woman's movement in India fraught in the 1990s?15:02:03- Did we see these conflicts in any of the public debates or exchange of articles?16:38:00- Are the two goals of queer activism — of creating and attaining legal rights and the achievement of justice — in conflict? Could you explain this in the context of the landmark Naz Foundation case?20:57:16- When did modern animal rights activism originate in India and what different forms did it take? How does it relate to the larger history of liberalism in India? 27:22:03- How did some of the first few  historic moments in Indian animal rights activism look at protection of animals without looking at oppression of humans?30:53:08 - What is this emphasis of the ‘witnessing human subject' in animal rights activism?

 In this episode, film studies scholar Dr. Ranjani Mazumdar joins us for a deep dive into film posters, the anti-hero, travel in celluloid, and the history of Bombay cinema.‘In Perspective' is The Swaddle's podcast series where academics reveal little-known facts about Indian history, society and culture. Notes:00:01:08:17- How did the film poster emerge in 20th century India? How has its artistic value and role in film publicity evolved since then?00:03:05:23- Has the role of the movie poster diminished today? 00:06:56:11- How did the cinema of the 1960s capture globalization in India and the anxieties that came with it?00:12:27:12- What led to the rise of the vamp in Bombay cinema and what led to her merging with the heroine in the 1990s?00:18:35:22- How did the ‘angry young man' of the 1970s evolve into the psychotic anti-hero in the 1990s?00:25:37:13- What do the interiors of consumerist family films of the 1990s tell us about the imagination of urban spaces and cities  at that time and the anxieties surrounding it? 00:32:41:10- What role does cinema play in how we memorialize traumatic events that India has experienced collectively, especially in terms of the way the Babri Masjid demolition has been depicted in Indian cinema?

 In this episode, Dr. Tanika Sarkar talks to us about the first public debates on sati, widow remarriage and age of consent, and locating  the woman's voice in colonial India.‘In Perspective' is The Swaddle's podcast series where academics reveal little-known facts about Indian history, society and culture. Notes:1:13- With the example of the Age of Consent debate or the debate around the Widow Remarriage Act in the 19th century, could you explain the complicated power dynamics that were at play when it came to framing laws around gender and family justice in colonial India? Was women's perspective taken into consideration?13:22- Was the public debate around the Age of Consent Act the first instance of a public discussion on the question of women's consent? 15:11-Do you see similarities or continuities till today in the kind of discourse we are seeing around an issue like marital rape?19:09- How do you think  public discourse and debate around women's consent has evolved over time? 22:52- How did Hindu women become the symbols of the Hindu nation?29:23- What sort of narratives come through in some of the early writings by Indian women in the 19th century? 

In this episode, historian Dr. Sanjam Ahluwalia talks to us about how middle-class men led India's birth control advocacy in the 19th century, how contraception is used to surveil women, and why reproductive rights is such a fraught issue around the world.‘In Perspective' is our podcast series where academics reveal little-known facts about Indian history, society and culture.Notes:1:16- In the late 19 and early 20th centuries in India, what kind of debates around contraception do we see within the medical establishment and among colonial authorities, and why was the colonial state hesitant to make active policy interventions to actually encourage birth control?6:24- How did the rise of the Indian middle-class lead to the emergence of birth control advocacy at this time? 14:04- Could you elaborate on what ‘eugenic patriotism' means? 18:30- What positions did first generation India middle-class feminists take on birth control in colonial India? 23:52- How did British and American advocates of birth control get involved in Indian efforts in 20th century India, and what impact did this have on global campaigns on birth control?  31:13- Why did Western birth control activists find it necessary to intervene in India? 46:14- How did birth control become a tool of surveillance and control of women subaltern classes, and is this a legacy that remains strong till today?

In this episode, legal historian Dr. Mitra Sharafi talks to us about how racial differences shaped the development of forensic science in colonial India, why the anti-abortion law was poorly enforced back then, and how death by poisoning became common during epidemics.‘In Perspective' is our podcast series where academics reveal little-known facts about Indian history, society and culture.Notes:1:04 - What was the motivation behind setting up forensics departments, why were these set up to investigate crime in colonial India, and in what ways did notions of racial difference inform these motivations?5:05 - What were the problems surrounding expert witnesses in criminal cases in colonial India?11:44 - Was death by poisoning common in colonial India and what kind of narratives around poison do we see in forensic files?19:59 - The discourse around the female poisoner, and when it came to European fear of getting poisoned by their servants, was there an emphasis on the aayah as a more likely poisoner?21:52 - What led to the rise in murder by poison during epidemics?28:21 - Why was the implementation of anti-abortion laws lax in South Asia during the late 19th and early 20th centuries?35:00 - In what kind of sources do we see mention of  upper caste Hindu widows being at the centre of the debate around illegal abortions?37:26 - Could we discuss some specific cases where the anti-abortion law was actually enforced in colonial India?  

In this episode, anthropologist Dr. Dolly Kikon talks to us about why the 2020 Baghjan crisis in Assam is a global issue, the exploitative politics of resource extraction in the Northeast, and why development often excludes local communities.‘In Perspective' is our podcast series where academics reveal little-known facts about Indian history, society and culture. Notes:1:25- Natural resource extraction projects and their impact on social relations in a region6:48- The 2020 Baghjan gas blowout and oil and gas developments in Assam  13:12- Oil and natural gas extraction in Assam and how it is exclusionary of the local communities19:33- The politics of coal mining in Nagaland and Meghalaya26:07- The role that militarisation plays in resource extraction and how it affects the mobility of people and resources differently

In this episode, historian Dr. Mrinalini Sinha talks to us about the emergence of the stereotype of the 'effeminate Bengali', why Katherine Mayo's 1927 book 'Mother India' became controversial, and how women got divided along caste lines in the fight for their right to vote in colonial India.‘In Perspective' is our podcast series where academics reveal little-known facts about Indian history, society and culture. Notes:1:27- The manly Englishman and the effeminate bengali 7:40- Gendering of society and the ‘domestic manuals' of 19th century Bengal 12:50- Controversy surrounding Katherine Mayo's 1920 book ‘Mother India' and the reconfiguration of the relationship between the social and political spheres in India 27:00- Discourse around child marriage shifting in early 20th century and how it became a political issue 33:10- How Indian women got the right to vote 41:52- Leela and Urmila's marriage in 1987 and discussing the problems with how we understand queerness in India 

In this episode, Dr. Harini Nagendra, ecologist and Director of Research Center at Azim Premji University, talks to us about the need for re-imagining environmental sustainability, reframing the development versus environment binary, and creating more equal cities by fostering urban commons.‘In Perspective' is our podcast series where academics reveal little-known facts about Indian history, society and culture. Notes: 1:41- How have we created lived environments that have worsened the impact of natural disasters?06:50- How do we responsibly grow urban economies while building sustainable living environments?  10:34- Is there an ideal definition of what an environmentally and socially sustainable city looks like? Are there examples of Indian cities that have successfully built green infrastructure?11:37- How do we resolve the conflict between development and sustainability?22:13- Why are urban commons important?28:50- What are some traditions of the 'Global South' that make cities ecologically sustainable?

In this episode, gender and sexuality studies scholar Dr. Ruth Vanita talks to us about narratives of same-sex love in early India, and the challenges of running one of India's first feminist magazines back in the 1970s.‘In Perspective' is our podcast series where academics reveal little-known facts about Indian history, society and culture. 

In this episode, feminist scholar Dr. Mary John talks about the relationship between feminism and the nation, the skewed sex ratio in India, and changing attitudes towards sexual violence.‘In Perspective' is The Swaddle's podcast series where academics reveal little-known facts about Indian history, society and culture.

In this episode, gender studies scholar Dr. Vibhuti Patel talks about the history of the autonomous women's movement, gender-responsive budgeting, and the problems with women's political representation in India.‘In Perspective' is The Swaddle's podcast series where academics reveal little-known facts about Indian history, society and culture.