Gendered Citizenship

It has been shown time and again that even though all citizens may be accorded equal standing in the constitution of a liberal democracy, such a legal provision hardly guarantees state protections against discrimination and political exclusion. More specifically, why do we find pervasive gender-based discrimination, exclusion, and violence in India when the Indian Constitution supports an inclusive democracy committed to gender and caste equality? In Gendered Citizenship, Natasha Behl offers an examination of Indian citizenship that weaves together an analysis of sexual violence law with an in-depth ethnography of the Sikh community to explore the contradictory nature of Indian democracy—which gravely affects its institutions and puts its citizens at risk. Through a situated analysis of citizenship, Behl upends longstanding academic assumptions about democracy, citizenship, religion, and gender. This analysis reveals thatreligious spaces and practices can be sites for renegotiating democratic participation, but also uncovers how some women engage in religious community in unexpected ways to link gender equality and religious freedom as shared goals. Gendered Citizenship is a groundbreaking inquiry that explains why the promise ofdemocratic equality remains unrealized, and identifies potential spaces and practices that can create more egalitarian relations.

Behl, through autoethnographic writing, truly fills an immense gap between empirical and theoretical work on citizenship and brings to the forefront an important topic in political science. ... Further, Behl challenges the field of political science by arguing that if its members are not open to new sources of knowledge, they would continue to replicate gender-blind policies and restrict the capacity of Indians to move toward gender equality., Gendered Citizenship is an essential addition to the literature. ... It is a vital resource for those looking to explore silent unwritten rules and norms as new forms of knowledge to understand complex social relations making different ethnic, racial, and gender communities vulnerable in a democratic society., Gendered Citizenship is an original, important, and timely contribution to the study of democracy and citizenship[Behl] offers an alternative framework, situated citizenship, that serves to deepen not only theoretical understandings of citizenship but also provides methodological guidance for how to better study it empirically. Her rich and thoughtful ethnographic study of Sikh women and their experiences with citizenship in India offers critical insights that speak to political theorists and comparativists alike...Gendered Citizenship is well written and well worth the read for its deeply insightful theoretical discussion, thoughtful, and reflective methodology, and rich and compelling empirical work., Behl has written a thoughtful book on women's citizenship...this study provides future scholars with insightful and important observations as a point of departure for further scholarly work on citizenship., This book is definitely an important addition in the field of gender and citizenship and offers a possibility of interesting theorizations of time tested political concepts, especially in the present context, where constitutional and legal enunciations of citizenship are open for renegotiation and realignments.

Natasha Behl is Assistant Professor in the School of Social and Behavioral Sciences at Arizona State University. Behl specializes in gender and politics, race and politics, democracy and citizenship, feminist and interpretive methodologies, and Indian politics. Her research is published in Feminist Formations, Space & Polity, Politics, Groups, and Identities, Journal of Narrative Politics, and Journal ofPunjab Studies.