Jahaji-bahin feminism: a de-colonial Indo-Caribbean consciousness

Abstract

ABSTRACT This essay examines the trope of jahaji-bahin consciousness through a de-colonial feminist lens to highlight the ways in which Indo-Caribbean women claim a sense of identity and belonging in the Caribbean while resisting colonial and patriarchal stereotypes, social marginality, and gender anomie in circumscribed spaces. What is the scope of jahaji-bahin consciousness as a form of de-colonial feminist thought? How does it engender localised forms of resistance to colonial and patriarchal forms of oppression within the Anglophone Caribbean? How are the silenced voices of Indo-Caribbean women given form and texture within these self-generating paradigms of feminism to create an important global south feminist positionality? These questions will be explored in the Anglophone writings of Indo-Caribbean authors Ramabai Espinet and Gaiutra Bahadur.