Department of Women’s Studies
Permanent URI for this communityhttps://ir.nbu.ac.in/handle/123456789/4244
The learners will demonstrate a mastery of the subject by detailed engagement with evolution, development, and current practices in the field of Women's Studies and learn how to effectively conduct research in the field. The guest teachers on the teaching panel have international publications and visits to their credit. Some of them are engaged in collaborative work with the university and in projects in universities abroad.
The Department looks forward to producing a regular output of brilliant students and researchers.
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Item Open Access Shades of South Asian Women in Rasheed Jahan’s Writings: Navigating Patriarchies, Spaces, Regime Control, and Colonialism(University of North Bengal, 2022-12) Chakraborty, Anup Shekhar; Biswas, PraggnaparamitaWomen in South Asia had a different colonial experience compared to that of men. Colonialism liberated indigenous women from traditionally restrictive practices, expanding their mobility opportunities. It also introduced indigenous women to newer forms of colonial patriarchy and sometimes resurrected older forms of masculine privilege. Women attempted to overcome obstacles to education and healthcare, forced marriages, and restrictions on their freedom of movement. A group of women actively participated in the nationalist movement and advocated for women’s rights. Writing allowed colonised women in South Asia to convey their thoughts and experiences and to challenge the oppressive structures that confined them, ultimately leading to women’s liberation. By drawing attention to the intersectionality of gender, religion, and culture, women writers in South Asia, particularly the Islamic women writers have contributed significantly to the feminist movement. These writings have given Muslim women in the region a voice and have challenged patriarchal norms and stereotypes. The writings of Rasheed Jahan, Ismat Chughtai, and Qurratulain Hyder continue to serve as a source of inspiration and motivation for future generations of women. The present study delves into the literary works of Rasheed Jahan, with a focus on the portrayal of South Asian women and their experiences in overcoming various forms of patriarchal oppression, their navigation through regimes and their mechanisms of control, their struggle for establishment of identities in diverse social settings, resisting authoritarian regimes, and recovering from the aftermath of colonialism while carving out spaces for their survival.Item Open Access Subjugation and Emancipation : Women Characters in the Select Works of Girish Karnad(University of North Bengal, 2022-12) Mahaldar, SantoshA feminist perspective explores and analyzes among its other themes, the theme of gender inequality. It talks about the discourses of patriarchy and sexism that have kept women oppressed and marginalized economically, politically, socially and psychologically. Lois Tyson asserts: “Feminist criticism examines how literature (and other cultural productions) reinforces or undermines the economic, political, social and psychological oppression of women.” (Tyson, 2019, p. 79) Disparity against women based on gender distinction has been the core preoccupation of feminism. The role of women in our society has been confined within the boundaries of daughter, wife, and mother, which are suggestive of the restrictions that almost all women face in their homes. This paper draws on gender discourses to discuss the theme of subjugation of women in some select plays of Girish Karnad. The paper discusses four plays of Karnad to explore the issue ; Naga-Mandala, The Fire and the Rain , Hayavadana and Yajati . Discussion on women’s subjugation requires a proper theoretical and philosophical perspective. The essay refers to some deliberations and convictions of feminist critics like John Stuart Mill, Simone de Beauvoir, Kate Millet, and Michel Foucault. Girish Karnad was well aware that the sexist oppression of women is a feature of patriarchal dominance. We know the adage, “power sets the agenda for patriarchy.” The research aims to pinpoint how Karnad seeks for means of atonement in the select plays.Item Open Access Contribution of Muslim Women’s Participation in Non- Cooperation Movement and Khilafat Movement with Special Focus on Bengal(University of North Bengal, 2022-12) Yasmin SabinaIn the aftermath of the First World War, indications of far-reaching changes in Indian politics became evident. Mahatma Gandhi’s rise in national politics certainly brought novelty to the nationalist movement. The Rowlatt Act, the Jallianwala Bagh massacre and the martial law in the Punjab intensified the anti-British imperialism of the common people. After that came the Khilafat problem. Gandhiji associated himself with the Khilafat movement at its full height. Gandhiji associated himself and the Indian National Congress with the Khilafat movement in a sincere attempt to strengthen Hindu-Muslim unity. The decision of boycott of British goods was taken based on this decision and the non-cooperation movement started and took the form of mass movement. This movement played a very important role in Bengal as well.Item Open Access Ignored Voices: An Overview of the life of the Women with Disabilities in India.(University of North Bengal, 2022-12) Das, TinkuIt has been held from ancient times that men and women are not equal. Some socially prescribed identities have been forced onto both genders. Based on people's biological or physiological differences, performances, competence, retention, and other capacities, society has developed some negative conceptions and established some binaries such as normal/abnormal, able/disabled, fit/unfit, etc. In order to oppress women, patriarchal society has created separate standards for men and women. It views women as weak human beings who serve as spouses, mothers, nurses, and sisters. In a culture that is governed by men, women lack freedom and safety. Men have always held a higher standing than women and are still are viewed as more significant than women. There have been different waves of feminism with their own charter of demands regarding women’s rights but there was no particular demand for women with disabilities. It seems that women with disabilities have no purpose in this world and are considered as useless in the society. Even at the very onset the women who struggled for their rights and identities did not raise their voices for women with disabilities. Harlan Hahn, a disability activist and political scientist has observed that disabled women often encounter “asexual objectification”. Though the world of words masculine and feminine are categorized but women with disability have no category and have been deprived and treated as untouchables. The paper discusses this lack of voice in favour of women with disabilities that pushes them towards more uneasy world.Item Open Access Superflat and Post-Gender: A Case Study of female bodies in Ghost in the Shell and Paprika(University of North Bengal, 2022-12) Dewan, ArghyadipThis article studies the representation of female bodies in two anime films: Mamoru Oshii’s Ghost in the Shell (1995) and Satoshi Kon’s Paprika (2006) to study how the post apocalyptic cyborg and the dream realm’s alter ego both subvert the gender oriented paradigms by becoming Superflat bodies in a postgender space. Takashi Murakami’s Superflat manifesto talks about the bricolage of multiple flattened layers superimposed onto one another to create a composite surface of multiple focal points where meaning exists on the surface itself rather than the interior. In both Ghost in the Shell and Paprika we see the melting of the outside into the inside. The post apocalyptic Niihama City and the unstable kaleidoscopic dream realm both are examples of what Susan J Napier terms “fantasyscapes” where the body goes through the Guattarian “a-signifying semiotic” process to create unlimited intersections of signs, identities, images and self-images. This contributes to the Superflat “delimiting” (Looser, 2006: 108) of the body where its symbiosis with both technology and the cybernetically created alter ego takes place. It also blurs the boundaries between body and commodity. Thus the bodies of Major Mokoto Kusanagi/The Puppet Master in Ghost in the Shell and Dr.Chiba Atsuko/Paprika in Paprika become examples of Superflat bodies in a post-gender future.Item Open Access Emancipation and Empowerment of Women – Barriers and Challenges(University of North Bengal, 2022-12) Roy, Sayantani‘It is perfectly natural for the future woman to feel indignant at the limitations posed upon her by her sex. The real question is not why she should reject them: the problem is to understand why she accepts them’ -Simone de Beauvior, The Second Sex Since time immemorial, women have been held in the shackles of mediocrity under the guise of domesticity. The notion of inferiority complex silently embedded in their psyche. The invariably assertive surroundings forcibly made an inevitable resolution to push her down the same path that her matriarchal lineage committed to ages since. The fear of obligation and guilt persisted in following her in the subsequent time, no matter how hard a woman attempted to break free from the confines that had been deftly built to keep her in place. The terrifying outburst of self-criticism is a product of the generational transmission of a mental process that endorses patriarchy and relies on the idea that women are in fact a subordinate category incapable of being left on their own. A key component of feminist definition and politics is empowerment, which became a buzzword in the 1970s among development agencies, is not without obstacles and challenges.Item Open Access The Narratives of Displaced Women: Journey from Assam to Siliguri (1947-1991)(University of North Bengal, 2022-12) Paul, SweetySiliguri became the center of attraction for a bulk of Bengali immigrants from Assam to resettle in the new region. The extraordinary population-growth of the town especially during the second half of the twentieth century indicates the influx of the evacuees from Assam into the realm. After independence Siliguri Sub-division confronted with unusual pace in its development. Severe lucrative scope of secondary and tertiary sectors in the town favored the displaced people to get engaged in this new commercial field of the metropolis. The people commenced their new journey in a new way in the burg through their own initiatives. These massive number of people were mainly due to the East Bengali Hindu refugee Scheme of West Bengal in newly independent India. But unfortunately in reality they could not find any kind of facilities for their resettlement neither by the Central Government nor by the State Government. A voluminous number of evicted women had to go through many hazards and trauma in their lives. The words of these victimized women require special attention to reveal the truth about their struggle for existence in Siliguri after escaping from Bangladesh at first and then from Assam.Item Open Access About the Contributors :(University of North Bengal, 2021)Item Open Access Taming the Mind : Women in the Lunatic Asylums of Colonial Bengal(University of North Bengal, 2021) Bhattacharya, DahliaThe Lunatic Asylums in the colonial period did not have proper medical treatment or identification of female patients. The infrastructural facilities for the women were not given attention by the asylums.The Victorian morality recognized ‘work’ as a therapy and the ‘mentally ill’ were made to work in the garden, carpentry, grinding wheat and other works, leading to monetary gain in the asylums of Bengal.. The funds were applied to maintain the asylums, sometimes the local jails and led to profits for the British. The paper seeks to look into the colonial policy with regard to asylums and the hard work imposed upon the female lunatics leading to asylum ‘industries’ and how it received a new direction of economic gain.Item Open Access Scribbles on Theorizing the Personal in Feminism and Women’s Research(University of North Bengal, 2021) Mitra, ZiniaThe terms "personal" and "political," like "private" and "public," are undergoing important changes in the current era, where Carol Hanisch's famous dictum "the personal is political" still serves as a persuasive justification for more recent uses of primary evidences in research and autobiography studies. Second wave feminism has clearly benefited from the awareness that ‘the personal is political,’ which influenced the growth of social analyses and theories, sparked fresh activities, and expanded the range of topics that could be categorized as ‘feminist issues.’ We have a strong aversion to the notion of subjectivity even in the context of subjective writing projects and are aware of the impersonal, distant tone employed and encouraged in academic works. The article questions why certain personal/subjective information is valued as knowledge or truth while some other information is downplayed or dismissed as anecdotal or just as personal experience, and it proceeds to examine feminist research and interventions in the area.
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