Articles by Usha Thakkar

Great Soul: Mahatma Gandhi and His Struggle with India by Joseph Lelyveld (New Delhi: HarperCollins Publishers), 2011; pp xv+425, Rs 699.

The Politics of Cultural Mobilisation in India edited by John Zavos, Andrew Wyatt and Veron Hewitt; Oxford University Press, New Delhi,
USHA THAKKAR Issues of culture and identity have acquired critical importance in postindependent India mainly due to constant interaction between newly established democratic institutions and centuries-old cultural and social traditions. Emergence of coalitional politics with the decline of single party dominance, subsequent regional and local political formations, rise of Hindu nationalism and political mobilisation of people around cultural symbols and identities now do not seem to be issues of ephemeral nature. The issues of politics and culture have come to dominate actual politics as well as theoretical debates. An understanding of the contemporary India cannot be complete without an understanding of the relation between culture and politics. This book is of immense value, as it helps us in this formidable task. Papers in the book attempt to investigate the relationship between the cultural incursions as well as the incursions of regional and local politics in the narrower sense of elections and coalitions, and draw our attention to the need to rethink the relationship between politics and culture.

An important feature of the recent general election was that it was a contest not between parties as such but between preelectoral fronts and alliances. With this, the republic seems to have irrevocably entered into an era of multi-party governance wherein the once mighty Congress has been forced to reluctantly adjust to the changed scenario in which regional parties have much more say.

Women and Social Reform in 19th Century Gujarati Society Usha Thakkar A libel case was filed by Jadunathji Maharaj, a leader of the Vallabhacharya sect, in 1861 against the social reformer Karsandas Mulji for alleging that the Maharaj practised immoral behaviour towards women of the sect The arguments mobilised by the contending parties, and the judgment passed, reveal, despite their differences in interpretation of sacred Hindu texts, a common concern with the moral prescriptions of Hindu religious tradition for man-woman sexual relationship. Nowhere are women, an equally important segment to be affected by the practice, seen articulating their position. Instead the reformist discourse recasts the amorous image of the woman in the Vallabhacharya tradition into virtuous, duty-abiding wife whose sexuality continues to be controlled by patriarchal familial norms.