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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Open Access
About the Contributors :
(University of North Bengal, 2021)
Open Access
Colours and Crisis: A Study of Cosmopolitan Womanhood in Elkunchwar's Sonata
(University of North Bengal, 2020-12) Sarkar, Amrita
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 Sabina
In 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.
Open Access
Daring to Tell the Tale: A Thematic Analysis of Feminist Retellings of Popular Mythological Narratives
(University of North Bengal, 2024-12) Bandopadhyay, Shrestha
The paper critically examines the radical subversions of three popular mythological narratives, all centered around female protagonists-the good woman, the bad, and the one who could never be the former because of being a woman. Each of these narratives originally act as either tales of caution or as stories glorifying the noble cis male victor’s heroism in protecting the weak female and act as mechanisms to rid the society of deviance while perpetuating caste patriarchal norms of the times. Subverting the popular narrative structure, each of these three pieces- ranging from poetry to novel- re-imagine and rehierarchize not only the female protagonist but also debunks the vilification of many other female characters and question perpetual systems of oppression instead. They turn the narratives from tales of individual blame to questions of larger social processes that allow and facilitate the suppression of all who do not hold power. Taking a look at writing spanning almost a century and focusing on views of authors coming from distinct social, political and gender(ed.) locations, the paper tries to analyze the challenge to the dominant narratives from below through an intersectional feminist point of view. The paper tries to take a fresh look into old myths and critically examine ideas of solidarity, resistance and liberation and the potential they hold in the contemporary context.
Open Access
Double Vulnerability: Understanding Disability through Everyday Experiences of Women with Disabilities - a Brief Treatise
(University of North Bengal, 2024-12) Mahaldar, Santosh
The structure of Indian society is complex and heterogeneous, and it is pluralistic by nature due to its cultural and religious diversity. This aspect of pluralism has a massive impact on India's social order. In this social structure of diversity, though women are fighting for their basic rights, disabled women are more vulnerable to people’s notions of othering, which have muffled their voices. In Indian society, the position of a disabled woman is always inferior to that of a disabled man in comparison. Regarding women with disabilities, Fine and Asch write, “Disabled women are not only more likely to internalize society’s rejection, but they are more likely than disabled men to identify themselves as ‘disabled’ The disabled male possesses a relatively positive self-image and is more likely to identify as ‘male’ rather than as ‘disabled.’ (Fine and Asch,1981, p. 34). The idea of social acceptability dominates the minds of disabled women. In Indian society, women with disabilities have been subjugated through the dialogue and discourse of ‘deviant’ women because they do not fit into the society-made norms and cultures that determine and guide human behavior. This article delves into the theme of women with disabilities and their everyday lives. Following the lived experiences of disabled women, this essay supports and advocates their standpoints. What are some ways that women with disabilities face unique challenges? Is it possible to rethink the binary between disabled men and women? What could be the best way to address such burning issues? Based on the above questions, the researcher embarks on exploring the truth of the situations and positions of disabled women in society.
Open Access
Educational Scenario of Tribal Women in Dooars and Terai
(University of North Bengal, 2024-12) Roy, Purnima
In Dooars and Terai of North Bengal, Adivasi women have been suffering from illiteracy due to lack of proper education. The article focuses on the status and condition of their educational scenario and the hurdles faced by them in doing so. It is surveyed that the maximum number of women in tribal families are engaged mainly in tea garden. It also looked that they do not have interest in education and the Government facilities are not sufficient too to support their society. So, the gap between the general communities and the Scheduled Tribes in Dooars and Terai region in terms of low literacy may be attributed to different issues and the tribes remain illiterate in comparison to other societies.
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.
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“Equality and not about Equal Rights”: Redefining Fourth-Wave Inclusion and Intersectionality through the Digital Platform Agent of Ishq
(University of North Bengal, 2021) Hazra, Mousumi
The definition of the historically abounding F-Word, Feminism, is continuously being shifted from one notion to another, varying in accord with class, caste, and gender across generations. Starting with the website Everyday Sexism launched by Laura Bates in 2012, Fourth wave feminism has recently witnessed a paradigmatic shift from the previous waves of feminism. Currently, as we consider the fluidity of gender construction and interact with various forms of it every day, social media or representation of women on-screen has been one of the most influential factors behind constructing our ‘already gendered’ selves. As the applications of power disseminate the idea of empowerment, equality and freedom also differ alongside. Hence, today’s feminism looks up to a lot more exposure where people can put themselves out there without adhering to any kind of censorship or asceticism. This approach has been productively exercised through the online multimedia digital platform Agent of Ishq, directed and introduced by the filmmaker Paromita Vohra in 2015. This research will initially be focused on the way how some mainstream Indian movies, featured to be among the ‘top 10 feminist films’, formed the idea of feminism vis-à-vis how far the feminist implication through Agent of Ishq addresses and adheres to the current ‘wave’ of feminism in India. Keywords:
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Evaluating the Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam 2023: A Critical Analysis of Women's Reservation in Indian Politics
(University of North Bengal, 2024-12) Chanda, Supriya
This article critically examines the Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam 2023, a landmark legislation reserving 33% of seats in Indian legislative bodies for women. While the Act aims to promote women's empowerment and gender equality, its limitations and vulnerabilities must be acknowledged. The article argues that the Act's focus on numerical representation rather than transformative change may limit its potential to challenge patriarchal structures and promote substantive gender equality. Feminist scholars have raised concerns about tokenism, proxy candidates, and the lack of substantive representation. The article highlights the need for deeper structural changes to address the underlying social, economic, and cultural barriers that prevent women from participating in politics. The implementation of the Act will be crucial in determining its effectiveness in promoting women's empowerment and gender equality.
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Exploring Gender Discrimination and Oppression in Mahesh Dattani’s Tara: A Tale of Ableism and Social Disability
(University of North Bengal, 2023-12) Dutta, Sayantina
Mahesh Dattani's plays primarily revolve around the marginalised individuals and their quest to gain recognition within society. They challenge the established conventions, politically constructed mindsets, gender categorizations, and societal generalisations. He adeptly illustrates the intricate nature of socially approved gender norms. Dattani does not provide a definitive resolution for the social problems he addresses; instead, he encourages the audience to confront these concerns and develop an awareness of them. This research investigates gender inequality and the exclusion of women and disabled individuals in relation to Mahesh Dattani's play “Tara”. In this play, the playwright explores the topic of disability by analyzing the character dynamics, familial relationships, and societal expectations. The main character of the play, a disabled young girl named Tara, serves as the focal point of the arguments in this research paper. The story alludes to women’s subservient status in Indian society, which is a result of ingrained prejudice and gender bias. It challenges the roles and behaviours that society assigns to each gender as well as the specific ways that people—male and female—are supposed to behave. Dattani challenges viewers to consider their own views and fight towards a more equal society by exploring the linkages between gender and disability. This article emphasises how critical it is to address these problems in order to build a more equitable and inclusive society.
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Feminist Philosophy of Art
(University of North Bengal, 2023-12) Saha, Subham
The feminist philosophy of art is concerned with how feminist issues are involved in aesthetics. Like feminism, feminist aesthetics show how women are objectified in art. This article will show how and why women are depicted in an objectified manner in the traditional art canon and how feminist artists react against this.
Open Access
Gender Roles and the Quest for Identity: A Study of Shashi Deshpande’s That Long Silence
(University of North Bengal, 2021) Akram, Wasim
Women in all ages remain the object of suppression. They often neither have any voice nor an independent identity of their own. Men become the deciding factor about how a woman should behave and act. They have always been taught to be docile, submissive, and conventional to be accepted by the society. They are made to behave in a certain stereotypical way to maintain the male supremacy. They are given a position inferior to men in a hierarchical social structure, controlled and dominated by men and they merely serve as objects of this control and rule. The whole purpose of their existence revolves around serving in the family as someone’s daughter, wife, sister or mother. These stereotypical gender roles assigned to them by the society keep them confined within the four walls of familial entanglement where they do not have any voice or agency. Shashi Deshpande in her novel, That Long Silence captures this traumatized and painful existence of women in a middle-class Indian family. The novelist portrays the ever-suffering existence and the quest for independent identity of women through the presentation of the character of Jaya who has to maintain silence throughout her married life for the fear of disrupting familial comfort and security. I, in my paper, will attempt to address this crisis raised by the author and also show how the society creates a boundary for women to delimit their capabilities and stifle their voice and agency in a constrictive social structure that does not allow women to speak.
Open Access
Ignored Voices: An Overview of the life of the Women with Disabilities in India.
(University of North Bengal, 2022-12) Das, Tinku
It 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.
Open Access
Love Marriage: Women in Sri Lankan Civil War
(University of North Bengal, 2020-12) Mookherjee, Sanghamitra
Open Access
Marriage and Divorce over the Decades: An Analysis of the Portrayal of Marital Relationships in Select Indian English Fictions
(University of North Bengal, 2023-12) Chatterjee, Kaushik
The institution of marriage developed early in human society had its foundations in love, companionship, commitment, and mutual respect. The traditional view of marriage in India saw the institution as a bond for several lives. With exalted status given to men, the institution extended limited agency to women. Divorce became heavily stigmatized and discouraged. The issue of marital conflict is one of the dominant themes in Indian English fiction. Raja Rao, Arun Joshi, Kamala Markandaya, Nayantara Sahgal, Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, Bhabani Bhattacharya, Shobhaa De, Anita Desai, and many others frequently have used the theme of marriage and divorce as one of the central motifs in their works. The paper discusses marital strife in The Serpent and the Rope by Raja Rao and The Day in Shadow by Nayantara Sahgal. Raja Rao's novel was published in 1960, and Nayantara Sahgal's book was published in 1971. The paper discusses the theme of marriage and divorce in the two novels published a decade apart to examine whether the approach to marriage and marital differences has changed in a decade as represented in literature.
Open Access
‘Matinee Idol’ and his Spectators: The Female and the Male Gaze
(University of North Bengal, 2021) Sen, Sudarshana
The 24 July 1980 was a fateful day for the Bengali movie viewers. The superstar of Bengali cinema breathed his last. The year 2020 marked his fortieth death anniversary. The euphoria with the star of fifties and sixties lasts even today. His mannerisms, styled acting and his charisma had inflated profit for the producer, showered fame for himself creating a furor among the cine-goers. This article will focus on how spectatorship and gendered gaze can build a ‘star’ and what their relation to the star may be and what were the elements that acted as a catalyst to this.
Open Access
The Narratives of Displaced Women: Journey from Assam to Siliguri (1947-1991)
(University of North Bengal, 2022-12) Paul, Sweety
Siliguri 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.
Open Access
Plagiarism and Feminist Research Ethics
(University of North Bengal, 2020-12) Chakravorty, Dulika
Open Access
Power, Patriarchy and Women’s Agency in Microfinance
(University of North Bengal, 2021) Chakroborty, Bhaskar
Technological innovation and environmental degradation have been prime agents for the existence and altering of social systems, historically world over. If latter provides basic resources for survival and sustenance and builds essential link between man and nature for human existence; the other provides tools (machines, industries etc.) with which to exploit resources for the same by earning livelihood (central to work). There are the changes seen and experienced not only in material world in terms of change in economic production from agriculture to industry, but also in terms of gender relations, with respect to women and work; especially because their work has been considered as informal and soft menial household work. Various theorists have studied this relationship between women and work (especially in the context of rural agriculture and allied activities), by framing an essential link between women, production and technological innovations. The paper focuses on the changing nature of work in relation to women’s participation in agriculture, as central to development. Then it looks at women empowerment thorough microfinance assistances.
Open Access
Prostitution and Slavery: A Discussion of Abolitionist Perspective
(University of North Bengal, 2023-12) Paul, Ankita
According to the abolitionist position, prostitution is slavery. It is a moral evil. In this article, I will discuss the abolitionist perspective on prostitution. I will present another standpoint where sex workers are empowered and able to access agency.