Gender, caste, and spatiality: intersectional emergence of hegemonic masculinities in Indian Punjab

Abstract

In this article, I address hegemonic masculinities and their geographical contingencies. I focus on when and how space matters and how hegemonic upper-caste masculinities are socio-spatially produced, constituted, and contested. I draw on relational theories in the geographies of masculinities and feminist political ecology. Current theorizing in these fields highlights the role of space/place/environment in the production of subjectivities such that ideas of gender and space arise as co-constitutive. Drawing from these literatures, in this article, I explore the role of construction of and power over land and space; and how land is gendered and caste-laden in the performance of hegemonic masculinities. I also focus on the ways hegemonic masculinities respond to vulnerabilities and challenges within said space. Through this conceptualization, I advance the inter-disciplinary discourse in sociology and geography on the intersectional and spatial emergence of the masculine. Using empirical evidence from Punjab (India) I explore the construction of masculinized spaces and their control by dominant-caste men and highlight the mutually constitutive relationships between space, masculinities, and the caste axis of identity.