Intimate Regulations: Sexuality, Caste, Gender, and the Politics of the Nation-State in India
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.31305/rrijm.2025.v10.n5.013Keywords:
Sexuality, Caste, Gender, Nation-State, Dalit Feminism, Honour, Intersectionality, Communal Politics, Patriarchy, NeoliberalismAbstract
This article explores how sexuality in India is governed through the entwined structures of caste, gender, and the nation-state. Drawing on feminist, Dalit, and postcolonial scholarship, it interrogates how sexuality is socially constructed and policed to uphold caste purity, patriarchal control, and communal identities. From the surveillance of inter-caste and inter-faith relationships to the banning of dance bars and the discourse of "Love Jihad," regulation of sexuality becomes central to the preservation of hegemonic nationalist imaginaries. Dominant narratives idealize upper-caste Hindu women as custodians of family and national honour while hypervisibilizing Dalit and working-class women as disposable and transgressive. Through an intersectional framework and interpretive methodology, the article foregrounds the lived experiences and voices of marginalized women, particularly Dalit feminists, to critique dominant feminist and state discourses. It argues that sexuality in India is not merely a private or moral concern but a deeply political site shaped by neoliberal and majoritarian imperatives. Understanding this intimate regulation is key to comprehending broader processes of identity formation, social control, and embodied resistance in contemporary India.
References
Abraham, L. (2001). Redrawing the Lakshaman Rekha: Gender differences and cultural constructions in youth sexuality in urban India. South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies, 24(1), 133–156. https://doi.org/10.1080/00856400108723441
Abu-Lughod, L. (1985). Honor and the sentiments of loss in a Bedouin society. American Ethnologist, 12(2), 245–261. https://doi.org/10.1525/ae.1985.12.2.02a00010
Anand, S. (2013). Pink Chaddi Campaign: Women Protest Against Moral Policing. Economic and Political Weekly, 48(3), 15–18.
Banerjee, S. (2006a). Armed masculinity, Hindu nationalism and female political participation in India. International Feminist Journal of Politics, 8(1), 62–83. https://doi.org/10.1080/14616740500415482
Banerjee, S. (2006b). Muscular Nationalism: Gender and Nation in Hindu Nationalist Discourse. Feminist Review, 83(1), 56–74.
Chakravarti, U. (1993). Conceptualising Brahmanical patriarchy in early India: Gender, caste, class and state. Economic and Political Weekly, 28(14), 579–585.
Chanana, K. (2001a). Hinduism and female sexuality: Social control and education of girls in India. Sociological Bulletin, 50(1), 37–63.
Chanana, K. (2001b). Paradigms of Female Sexuality in Hinduism. In Women and Religion (pp. 49–69). Oxford University Press.
Chowdhry, P. (2012). Contentious marriages, eloping couples. Oxford University Press.
Crenshaw, K. (1991). Mapping the margins: Intersectionality, identity politics, and violence against women of color. Stanford Law Review, 43(6), 1241–1299.
Dalwai, S. (2013a). Caste and the bar dancer. Economic and Political Weekly, 48(48), 68–73.
Dalwai, S. (2013b). Dance Bars and the Caste Question: Sexual Labour and Neoliberalism in India. Gender, Work & Organization, 20(1), 65–78. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0432.2011.00571.x
Dhillon, A. (2012). SlutWalks and the middle-class feminism debate in India. Feminist Studies, 38(2), 362–367.
Dixit, N. (2013). Love Jihad: Nationalism and Female Sexuality. Journal of South Asian Studies, 36(2), 283–300.
Foucault, M. (1978). The history of sexuality: Volume I. Pantheon Books.
Geetha, V. (2009). Gender. Stree Publications.
Gopal, M. (2010a). Body, gender and sexuality: Politics of being and belonging. Economic and Political Weekly, 45(17), 54–63.
Gopal, M. (2010b). The Construction of Female Sexuality through Caste and Class in India. Economic and Political Weekly, 45(41), 22–27.
Gopal, M. (2012a). Caste, sexuality and labour: The troubled connection. Current Sociology, 60(2), 222–237. https://doi.org/10.1177/0011392111429223
Gopal, M. (2012b). Sexual Labour and Feminist Critique in India. Journal of Feminist Studies, 28(1), 98–112.
Guru, G. (1995). Dalit women talk differently. Economic and Political Weekly, 30(41/42), 2548–2550.
Haraway, D. (1988). Situated knowledges: The science question in feminism and the privilege of partial perspective. Feminist Studies, 14(3), 575–599.
Kimmel, M. S. (2005). The Gender of Desire: Essays on Male Sexuality. State University of New York Press.
Margaret, S. (2005a). Dalit feminism. Countercurrents. http://www.countercurrents.org/feminism-margaret030605.htm
Margaret, S. (2005b). Patriarchy and Dalit Women: A Critical Analysis. Social Change, 35(2), 22–30.
Menon, N. (2006). Sexuality, caste, and honor: The politics of policing in India. Interventions, 8(1), 28–51.
Patil, S. M. (2014). Dalit feminist standpoint theory: A radical version of intersectionality. In A. Arya & A. Rathore (Eds.), Dalit women speak out (pp. 78–94). Zubaan.
Rege, S. (1998). Dalit women talk differently: A critique of 'difference' and toward a Dalit feminist standpoint. Economic and Political Weekly, 33(44), WS39–WS46.
Sarkar, T. (2014a). Inter-community Relationships and Policing in India. Journal of South Asian Studies, 37(1), 45–62.
Sarkar, T. (2014b, October 16). Love, control and punishment. The Indian Express. http://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/love-control-and-punishment
Stephen, C. (2009a). Dalit Womanism: A New Paradigm. In Dalit Women: Vanguard of an Alternative Politics in India. Indian Institute of Dalit Studies.
Stephen, C. (2009b). Dalit womanism: A new paradigm. Countercurrents. http://www.countercurrents.org/stephen161109.htm
Tambe, A., & Tambe, M. (2013). Policing women’s sexuality in public spaces: Pink Chaddi and SlutWalk in India. Feminist Review, 103(1), 56–73.
Wadley, S. S. (1977). Women and the Hindu tradition. Signs, 3(1), 113–125.
Weeks, J. (2010). Sexuality (3rd ed.). Routledge.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0).
