Fertility, reproduction and conjugal loyalty: Renegotiating gender relations amongst Dalits in rural Tamil Nadu

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Rao, Nitya (2018) Fertility, reproduction and conjugal loyalty: Renegotiating gender relations amongst Dalits in rural Tamil Nadu. South Asia Multidisciplinary Academic Journal, 19. ISSN 1960-6060

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Abstract

Much of the literature on Dalits, and Dalit women in particular, focuses either on issues of violence, and subordination based on class, caste and gender, or the relative egalitarianism within Dalit households, arising from a context of shared hardship. It leaves out the contradictions and negotiations inherent in their everyday lives, of victimhood alongside the exercise of strategic life choices. In this paper, using qualitative data primarily from Dalit women in rural Tamil Nadu, I draw attention to the growing emphasis on conjugal loyalty and (upper caste) norms of domesticity within Dalit households. Reflecting normative changes based on the ideas of respectability and status, this appears to be entrenching new forms of patriarchy. However, contextualising this phenomenon in relation to changes in the larger political economy, especially the significant shifts in labour relations, education, State social protection and Dalit mobilisation, reveals that rather than accepting a subordinate status, Dalit women are strategically using these ideas to negotiate their sexual and reproductive entitlements, and companionate conjugality.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	sdg 1 - no poverty,sdg 16 - peace, justice and strong institutions ,/dk/atira/pure/sustainabledevelopmentgoals/no_poverty
Faculty \ School:	Faculty of Social Sciences > School of Global Development (formerly School of International Development)
UEA Research Groups:	Faculty of Social Sciences > Research Groups > Health and Disease Faculty of Social Sciences > Research Groups > Life Course, Migration and Wellbeing Faculty of Social Sciences > Research Groups > Gender and Development Faculty of Social Sciences > Research Groups > Literacy and Development Group University of East Anglia Schools > Faculty of Science > Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research Faculty of Science > Research Centres > Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research
Related URLs:	https://journals.openedition.org/samaj/ https://journals.openedition.org/samaj/4...
Depositing User:	Pure Connector
Date Deposited:	19 Apr 2018 14:30
Last Modified:	12 Jun 2025 00:19
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/66817
DOI:	10.4000/samaj.4575

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