Renegotiating Intimacies: Marriage, Sexualities, Living Practices (II)

Organised by School of Women’s Studies, Jadavpur University

and
Funded by Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung, Germany and the Indian Association for Women’s Studies

To be held at Jadavpur University, Kolkata

December 22-23, 2009

The School of Women’s Studies had organised a National Conference in December 2008 at
Jadavpur University, Kolkata on the above mentioned theme. The conference was inspired by
the School’s critical engagement with a project entitled, “Renegotiating Gender Relations in
Marriage: Family, Class, Community in Kolkata in the era of Globalisation” being funded by
Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung (RLS), Germany. The conference was successful in reassessing
important political debates and theoretical frameworks of gender relations with overlapping
frameworks of marriage, sexualities and living practices through an interdisciplinary feminist
perspective. The event received an overwhelming response with participants from different
regions of the country which contributed to its success.

The project on marriage is now in its third and final year and will end in December 2009.
Both as a response to the conference and the research work carried out in the third year of the
project, we felt the need to focus on some important issues on the theme which were not
addressed in the previous conference. We have hence planned to organise the second National
Conference under the same title, “Renegotiating Intimacies: Marriage, Sexualities, Living
Practices” on December 22-23, 2009, as a follow-up to the previous conference. Our
forthcoming proposed RLS project on domestic violence entitled, “Violent Intimacies: Law
and Marriage in Contemporary Kolkata” in 2010, the proposal of which has followed from
the findings of the current project on marriage, has also been a major factor influencing our
decision.

Though the previous conference had focussed on pervasive transformations in varying

spheres of intimacy, a historical investigation in the domain of the intimate was an area which
remained unaddressed. A historical analysis of intimate relations in the Indian context reveals
a continuous hegemonic status conferred to conjugality despite it being one of the many
relationships of gender. It leads us to examine the process of construction of such conjugality
in contemporary times as well as in different situations, whether situating it within or outside
marriage, in same-sex or heterosexual contexts, in terms of coupled cohabitation or other
unconventional living practices.

The eminence of conjugality is further enhanced through the hegemonic structure of the
institution of marriage as it continues to prevail successfully in practice as the ‘legitimate’
structure of family, rather than one among many. However, legitimacy has been a historically
constructed category from the 19th century till present where the definition of what is
legitimate has varied in the range between the institution of law and customary practices.
This wide scope gives rise to different possibilities ranging from freedom to violence, both in
individual and institutional terms. It thus becomes essential to analyse ‘legitimacy’ and its
effects both within and outside the paradigms of marriage.
In the post-independence rebirth of the women’s movement in the 1970s, the sites of
marriage and sexuality were subjects of protest and debate in the form of ‘violence against
women’ with varying experiences across castes/classes. Legal reform became the critical
lynchpin for change with effective gender legislations being enacted for ensuring justice to
victims of violence both within and outside the family. Feminists were critical of marriage
laws which, modelled on upper caste shastric religious texts, were given preference and
cultural-legal legitimacy over lower caste/class customs and practices of
marriage/conjugality. However, despite all attempts to homogenise these practices under the
umbrella of the legal institution, varied forms and practices of marriage and sexuality
continue to prevail. There has been a continuous effort from the 19th century to fix fragility of
marriages in terms of law and the fact that the process continues till date is evidence that it
continues to fail.

Feminist interventions have helped us to understand the politics behind the strict maintenance
of the superiority of endogamous marriages that serves to validate interests of dominant class
and caste groups. However, in contemporary times, this intervention has not led to further
critiques of the institution of marriage, which in itself has undergone major transformations
through various economic, cultural and political processes. What has been left unexamined
are important issues like marital negotiations, institutionalisation of motherhood, and sexual
division of labour which have remained as more ‘personal’ than ‘political’ and have not got
translated into wider forms of questioning.

One of the ways in which violence remains entrenched in the patriarchal structure of marriage
is the regulation of ‘entry into’ and ‘exit from’ marriage leading to multilayered gender
negotiations within the household. The assumption of ‘choice’, though a necessary condition
for individuals to exercise agency in marriage negotiations is however not a sufficient
condition to interrogate and critique gender injustice and oppression in marriage and it needs
to be contextualised in the larger social framework. It is important to remember that marriage
is essentially a public and political act that structures alliances and hierarchies. The principles
of marriage practice are inseparable from the very principles of caste and class hierarchy. It is
the structure of endogamous marriages premised on the exchange of women which reproduce
caste and class inequality. Caste, class and gender interact and shape each other through the
structure of marriage, sexuality and reproduction. The liberal state, deterritorialised media,
legal justice and capitalist global economy have provided conditions of existence for
marriage to flourish thereby reinforcing its hegemonic status.

We thus need to explore ways in which feminist politics has addressed the spectrum of
relationships and living practices to help create non-hegemonic and non-exploitative
structures for their existence.
The conference proposes the following broad themes for further exploration:

Intermediation of marriages

Evolution of different forms of intermediation and contemporary variations across class, caste
and community
Marital choice and agency
Multiple marriages (widow/widower remarriage, remarriage of divorcees, and others)

Marriage and Violence

Various forms of violence within marriage – domestic violence, forced marriages, enforced
motherhood, etc
Transgressive marriages leading to violence between different sections of class, caste and
community
Role of the state and legal system in combating violence within/due to marriage

Marriage and structures of class/caste hierarchies

Constructions of caste/class identities

Reproduction of gendered ideologies of marriage

Abstracts of approximately 500 words should reach the following address by 30.10.2009
–
Nandita Dhawan
School of Women’s Studies
Jadavpur University
Kolkata – 700032
E-mail: sws.conference@gmail.com

Those whose abstracts are accepted will be notified by 7 November 2009 and will be asked to
provide completed papers by 1st December 2009.