Monday, March 6 / 4PM
DODD CENTER Konover Auditorium
“Women’s Dynastic Politics, Gender Inequality and Democracy in India”
2017 Radha Devi Joshi Foundation Lecture by Amrita Basu / FLYER
Reception with Light Refreshments
AMRITA BASU is Paino Professor of Political Science and Women’s and Gender Studies at Amherst College (Massachusetts) and author most recently of Violent Conjunctures in Democratic India (Cambridge University Press, Contentious Politics Series / 2015) and editor of Women’s Movements in the Global Era: The Power of Local Feminisms (Westview Press, 2nd edition / 2016). Professor Basu’s most recent articles or contributions to edited books include: “More than Meets the Eye: Sub-Rosa Violence in Hindu Nationalist India,” in Karen Barkey and Sudipto Kaviraj ed, Democracy and Religious Pluralism, (Cambridge University Press, forthcoming); Commentary on “The Systematic Study of Women’s Movements in Western Democracies and the Difference It Makes” Politics, Groups and Identities, (Vol. 4, Issue 4, 2016); and “Women, dynasties and democracy in India,” in Kanchan Chandra ed., Democratic Dynasties: State, Party and Family in Contemporary Indian Politics (Cambridge University Press, 2016).
The 2017 Joshi Foundation Lecture will explore the phenomenon of dynastic ties among women who are elected to political office in India. In this talk, Professor Basu questions the widely held view that the large numbers of female leaders and Members of Parliament whose family members precede them in office is a residue of tradition and suggests that it is a product of democratic processes. She will also question the assumption that women’s dynasticism violates principles of democratic representation based on equal opportunities for qualified individuals. Instead, she will argue that high levels of women’s dynasticism partially rectifies the historical under-representation of women in political office. Dynasticism is a result of societal prejudices, electoral processes and party biases and structures that have prevented women from attaining political office. While dynasticism accentuates certain forms of privilege, particularly related to social class, it also allows for greater representation of low caste and minority women. Until and unless India introduces legislative quotas for women, dynasticism functions as its surrogate.
Sponsored by the India Studies Program of the Asian/Asian American Studies Institute in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, with support from the Office of Global Affairs, this event is free and open to the public.
For more information, contact: Ms Fe Delos-Santos at fe.delos-santos@uconn.edu