Ways of Being Indian

Identity formation in non-western societies involves paradox, as doctrinesare frequently overridden by actual practices. The essays in this volumediscuss different ways in which identities are constructed in unique ’Indian’contexts.The emergence of deras in Punjab reflects how continuing casteinequality and divergence over spiritual leadership has affected the egalitarianspirit of Sikhism, contradicting a basic feature of the faith-the traditionof common worship. In the matrilineal Khasi community, men-looking togain equal inheritance rights-use arguments of ethnic purity and indigenousrights to downsize women’s autonomy and undermine the commandingsocio-economic position that their own tradition gives them.For male sex-workers, their profession, paradoxically, becomes a meansof sexual autonomy in the otherwise heteronormative world that theyinhabit. A different kind of paradox marks the social lives of many Indianwomen: in Assam for instance, celebration of menstruation coexists withprohibition on menstruating women’s entry into temples and participationin auspicious events.Workplace violence exemplifies how private biases infiltrate public spaces,reinforcing traditional marginalities, undeterred by legal safeguards.Similarly, the plight of indentured plantation workers in Malaysiademonstrates the operation of traditional patriarchy inside a foreign andhighly sequestered workspace of plantations-within these spaces, womenexperience ’double marginalization’. And the government and middleclassresponse to the COVID-19 pandemic across India demonstrated thepersistence of traditional biases which perpetuate inequality and oppressionin the world’s largest democracy.Comprising these and other discussions on the everyday lived realitiesof individuals and communities in India and the Indian diaspora,Ways of being Indian is a remarkable, eye-opening collection.