Rethinking Boundaries: Feminism and (Inter) Nationalism in Early-Twentieth-Century India

Abstract

his essay interrogates the boundaries within which we locate our his- torical narratives to suggest a move towards interconnected histories. I argue for the need to rethink the interactions among feminisms and their relationships to imperial and national politics. Drawing upon my research on the history of birth control in colonial India from 1871 to 1946, this essay demonstrates connections among the birth control movements in India, Britain, and the United States. 1 Recent feminist scholarship has moved toward such interconnected histories and dismantled the idea of hegemony of the nation as a historical category. Furthermore, feminists scholars have demonstrated that intellectual and social movements are interactive and evolve across national boundaries, thus linking interna- tional, national, and local politics, and public as well as private con- cerns. 2 Emphasis on interconnected histories also permits us to recognize how complex historical agencies operate within non-Western societies, and challenges the ubiquitous all-knowing Western subject. Within Indian his- toriography, this move will enable feminist historians to rescue the past from metanarratives of nationalism and from that of its other, communal- ism, making room for alternative narratives. To challenge the dominant metanarratives that restrict our under- standing of feminist history, however, the move toward interconnected histories is insufficient. We must also take seriously alternative imaginings, even if they sit uncomfortably with our own ideas or politics. Voices from the local fringes of Jaunpur, a tribal block in the Tehri Gaharwal district of Uttar Pradesh, allowed me to recognize the elitist assumptions that have shaped and continue to shape the project of determining and policing fer- tility behaviors. Moreover, Jaunpuri women's voices expanded my range of sources, allowing me to construct a more inclusive narrative for the history of birth control in India and elsewhere. I focus on the discourse of birth control to investigate the history of gender politics and its intersection with the emergence of the middle-class- dominated nationalist politics in colonial India. My research has shown me the limitations of trying to understand the discourse of birth control in colonial India in isolation from birth control movements in Britain and the United States. Therefore, I examine the dialogue between Indian birth control activists and their British and American counterparts to under-