Woman versus Womanliness in India: An Essay in Cultural and Political Psychology

Cultural Studies/ Psychology

The essay involves an analysis of the constricted role of woman in Indian society and public affairs as part of an ongoing process of civilisational change.

Ashis Nandy

At the Edge of Psychology: Essays in Politics and Culture, Pp. 32 – 46

Oxford University Press, India

1980

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English

The essay involves an analysis of the constricted role of woman in Indian society and public affairs as part of an ongoing process of civilizational change. This demands an identification of the structure of individual and cultural defences which have traditionally given meaning to the role of women in Indian society. The author identifies the classic instance in the psychological defence of woman turning against self by identifying with the aggressive male, drawing attention to the way in which certain social institutions have made woman herself a participant in her self-repudiation and intra-aggression. To ignore this accept of womanhood in India is to abridge the Indian awareness of some of the latent justifications of oppression in this society

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