'As a woman I have no country'? - Gender analysis of women's political participation in the Indian National Movement

Abstract

This dissertation is a study of gender relations and the role that they play in the process of
nation-building and the construction of spaces of political participation. I am going to be arguing that
the political process of nation-building is an inherently gendered process - referring to the case of the
Indian National Movement (1885 - 1947). As well as arguing for the centrality of gender identities, I
will emphasise the importance of traditional and patriarchal gender relations and how active women
in the movement were in constant negotiation of these roles. My method is to analyse dominant
nationalist ideologies communicated by leaders of the movement and then explore the way in which
particular groups of women have interacted with, negotiated and challenged gender identities in order
to facilitate their own political action. My main approach is feminist as I will be exploring the ways in
which nationalist ideology and practice distinctly affects the political activities of women.