Journal of Women's Studies: University of North Bengal, Vol. 11

EDITORIAL

I am happy to announce that the 2022 issue of Journal of Women’s Studies is now published.

Women's Studies Journal has focused on problems related to women, gender, sexuality, caste, and literature since its first modest publication, in an effort to represent the concerns of repressed women, and women in general, who are usually beleaguered.

This issue of Women Studies Journal draws attention to the variety of women's social and political realities, centralizes the experiences of all women, particularly those whose social circumstances have not been researched or altered by political movements, and attempts to explore gendered experiences from new perspectives through its multidisciplinary essays. Meanwhile the journal has grown, it now has an editorial board and an advisory board (formed in 2020) and the essays are now sent for peer review.

At the heart of feminism is the fight against sexiest oppression. The objective of feminism is not to promote any particular race, class, or a group of women. It does not promote an edifice that will privilege women over other genders. It incorporates education and awareness that have the potential to significantly alter each of our lives. It is not a way of life or a prefabricated identity. Instead, it confronts identity politics by providing investigative tools that broaden our understanding of who we are, deepen our awareness of intersubjectivity, and strengthen our connection to collective reality. The Journal of Women Studies seeks to make a small contribution to this field.

Our history is a combination of conquests and conversions. History books and mass media overwhelmingly record stories of men’s achievements from which women are largely absent. To use the historian’s cliché, absence of evidence is not always evidence of absence. The participation of women in the sociocultural history of nation formation have been overlooked, or thought not fit enough for archive, and if archived, they were not brought to discussion and thus their contributions belittled. ‘The Narratives of Displaced Women: Journey from Assam to Siliguri (1947-1991)’, ‘Contribution of Muslim Women’s Participation in Non-cooperation Movement and Khilafat Movement with special focus on Bengal’, and Shades of South Asian Women in Rasheed Jahan’s Writings: Navigating Patriarchies, Spaces, Regime Control, and Colonialism’ are attempts to fill in the gaps in history and serve as a reminder of the contributions and involvements of women in the history of the country.

The word "power" is the most noticeable aspect of the term "empowerment". Power is one of the most distinct and perhaps the most contested concept in social theory. Steven Lukes in Power: A Radical View (1974) claimed that the perception of power is fundamentally contested and inherently evaluative. Nalia Kabeer in Reversed Realities: Gendered Hierarchy in Development Thought (1994) distinguishes between various conceptions of power that are crucial to the idea of empowerment. She draws a distinction between ‘power to’ and ‘power over’ and ‘power within’, that is equivalent to the idea of having control, having control over others and having control within oneself. The ability to affect a situation's result in opposition to the preferences of other actors is viewed as having power, and ‘power over’ which is strongly related to liberal theories on decision-making processes. In this understanding, ‘power’ is exclusively considered in terms of human decision-making while the structures and processes through which decision-making occurs are largely ignored. The struggle for control, as well as the question of who is making decisions and what should be decided, must also be addressed in the discussions on the process to empowerment. ‘Emancipation and Empowerment of Women – Barriers and Challenges’ engages into discussions on women’s empowerment.

While statistics points out the need for women empowerment in order to balance out society's imbalance, women with disabilities—who are commonly overlooked—face double oppression. They frequently lack access to basic services, have less social, political, and economic opportunities, and may be more vulnerable to poverty and social marginalization. ‘Ignored Voices: A General Overview on the Life of the Women with Disabilities in India’ talks about women with disabilities.

Gender politics in Girish Karnad’s writing are very well expressed in through his woman characters in his plays. Contrary to the majority of male authors of his generation, Karnad made it a point to give his female characters more than just a voice; they were integral to the progression of the plot and to what Karnad was attempting to convey to us about the world in which we live. and an idea of the improved world we may live in. Even when they are placed inside the oppressive limits of patriarchal organizations, Karnad’s women are independent in their thought and can assert their agency. ‘Subjugation and Emancipation: Women Characters in the Select Works of Girish Karnad’ discusses the portrayal of women characters in the select plays of Girish Karnad.

Over the past 40 years, the global popularity of Japanese visual culture has grown exponentially, making it a multifaceted cultural phenomenon. Since the 1980s, manga (Japanese comics) and anime (Japanese animation) have been incredibly popular among the young adult populace.

Superflat and Post-Gender: A Case Study of female bodies in Ghost in the Shell and Paprika’ studies the female body in Anime and Manga with reference to Mamoru Oshii’s 1995 cyberpunk masterpiece Ghost in the Shell, and Satoshi Kon’s 2006 film Paprika.

When we stop accepting the oversimplified explanations of discrimination against girls and women within a family or within an institution, or in society at large, we start to look at the ingrained patterns of existing domination in the society and also at how we contribute to their upkeep and perpetuation. Some groups who are exploited and oppressed are frequently pushed by people in positions of authority to believe that their circumstances are hopeless and that there is little they can do to alter the pattern of dominance. These groups have been socialized to believe that the only acceptable response to hegemonic power can be silence and passive acceptance of their situations. They are made to believe that their passive reaction is in no way threatening to their existence and rather contributes to the stability of the structure which is essential for their survival. When we stop accepting the oversimplified explanations we soon realize that this kind of strategy does not help to alleviate their oppression or domination. Only after we comprehend the structure of domination can we think of new possibilities and work towards them. Women’s Studies Journal offers a venue for expressing such viewpoints.

I extend my sincere thanks to the editorial board of Women’s Studies, University of North Bengal, to the authorities of the University of North Bengal for their support and encouragement, to the members of the Advisory Committee, and the Academic Board of Women’s Studies for their valuable inputs and support. I take this opportunity to thank all the contributors for their essays.

I thank NBU Press team for their patience and support. The authors reserve the responsibility of answering any future queries about content, methodology and referencing.

I express my gratitude to the entire editorial team whose commitment and perseverance has made this issue possible.

With best wishes.

Dr. Zinia Mitra
Professor, Department of English & Director, Centre for Women’s Studies