Skip to main content

A Vindication for Indo-Caribbean Feminism

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Indo-Caribbean Feminist Thought

Part of the book series: New Caribbean Studies ((NCARS))

Abstract

This chapter clears a pathway within the dominant epistemological framework of Caribbean feminism to establish a genealogy of ideas specific to the history of Indo-Caribbean peoples. It forges a different starting point for a feminist consciousness among Indian women, positioning history and culture as generating another experience of gender consciousness within the same geographical space. Referencing Mary Wollstonecraft’s dictum on the value of education for women, the chapter proposes that Indian female access to education from the twentieth century, the varied nature of women’s challenges, and the writing generated by Indo-Caribbean women have produced a distinctive body of work that needs to be interrogated as Indo-Caribbean feminism. The chapter argues that the non-heterogeneous space occupied by feminism requires openness to critical infusions of thought.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Institutional subscriptions

Works Cited

  • Bahadur, Gaiutra. 2013. Coolie Woman: The Odyssey of Indenture. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Davis, Angela. 1981. Woman, Race and Class. New York: Random House.

    Google Scholar 

  • Davies, C.B. 2007. Left of Karl Marx: The Political Life of Black Communist Claudia Jones. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Haniff, Nesha. 1992. Blaze of Fire: Contributions of Caribbean Women. Toronto: Sister Vision Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Haynes, Tonya. 2011. Mapping the Knowledge Economy of Gender in the Caribbean, 1975–2010: Feminist Thought, Gender Consciousness and the Politics of Knowledge. Unpublished Ph.D. Dissertation, Dame Nita Barrow Institute for Gender and Development Studies, University of the West Indies, Cave Hill, Barbados.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hosein, Gabrielle. 2012. Modern Negotiations: Indo-Trinidadian Girlhood and Gender Differential Creolization. In Indo-Caribbean Feminisms: Charting Crossings in Geography, Discourse and Politics, eds. Gabrielle Hosein and Lisa Outar. Special issue, Caribbean Review of Gender Studies 6: 1–24. https://sta.uwi.edu/crgs/december2012/journals/Hosein.pdf.

  • Kanhai, Rosanne, ed. 1999. Matikor: The Politics of Identity for Indo-Caribbean Women. The University of the West Indies, Trinidad and Tobago: School of Continuing Studies.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mahabir, Joy. 2015. Naparima Feminism: Lineage of an Indo-Caribbean Feminism. Paper presented at the 40th Annual Caribbean Studies Association Conference, New Orleans, Louisiana.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mohammed, Patricia. 1988. The Creolization of Indian Women in Trinidad. In Trinidad and Tobago: The Independence Experience 1962–1987, ed. Selwyn Ryan, 381–397. University of the West Indies, St. Augustine: Institute for Social and Economic Research.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 1998. Towards Indigenous Feminist Theorizing in the Caribbean. In Rethinking Caribbean Difference, Special Issue, Feminist Review 59: 6–33.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 2002. Gender Negotiations Among Indians in Trinidad: 1917–1947. The Hague: Institute of Social Studies.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • ———. 2013. Khadija’s Daughters. In The Encyclopaedia of Caribbean Religions vol. 1 A-L, eds. Patrick Taylor and Frederick I. Case, 396–398. Urbana, Chicago, Springfield: University of Illinois Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Morrison, Toni. 1970. The Bluest Eye. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.

    Google Scholar 

  • Naipaul, Vidia. 1961. A House for Mr Biswas. Andre Deutsch: London.

    Google Scholar 

  • Persaud, Lakshmi. 1990. Butterfly in the Wind. Leeds, England: Peepal Tree Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Reddock, Rhoda. 1985. Freedom Denied: Indian Women and Indentureship in Trinidad and Tobago, 1845–1917. Economic and Political Weekly 20: WS79–WS87.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shah, Ryhaan. 2005. A Silent Life. Leeds: Peepal Tree Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Spivak, Gayatri. 1989. A Response to The Difference Within: Feminism and Critical Theory, eds. Elizabeth A. Meese and Alice Parker. Alabama: University of Alabama Press. https://benjamins.com/#catalog/books/ct.8.12spi/details.

  • Wollstonecraft, Mary. 1792. A Vindication of the Rights of Woman. http://www.bartleby.com/144/5.html. Accessed December 2015.

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Copyright information

© 2016 The Author(s)

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Mohammed, P. (2016). A Vindication for Indo-Caribbean Feminism. In: Hosein, G.J., Outar, L. (eds) Indo-Caribbean Feminist Thought. New Caribbean Studies. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-55937-1_2

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics