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Refashioning Futures: Dalit Women’s Education and Empowerment in Maharashtra

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Abstract

Since the end of the nineteenth century, Dalits (“Untouchables”) struggled for the right to public spaces, including temples, streets, water tanks, and education. What did education mean to Dalit men and especially to women? Why was it so important to women? How did women deal with double patriarchy: private and public, inside and outside their homes, and double discrimination—of caste and gender oppression? To examine these questions, my essay focuses on the life histories of three (Dalit) Matang, middle-class women from Pune, Maharashtra. I draw upon my book Dalit Women’s Education in Modern India: Double Discrimination to focus on education, caste and gender discrimination, Brahmani hegemony, new patriarchy, and employment after education in urban Pune.

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Paik, S. (2019). Refashioning Futures: Dalit Women’s Education and Empowerment in Maharashtra. In: Ullrich, H. (eds) The Impact of Education in South Asia. Anthropological Studies of Education. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-96607-6_6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-96607-6_6

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-96606-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-96607-6

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