Modern South Asia. New York: Oxford University Press, 2021. xiii, 229 pp. (Tables, maps, B&W photos.) US$29.95, paper. ISBN 978-0-19-088190-0.
Poulami Roychowdhury’s book, Capable Women, Incapable States: Negotiating Violence and Rights in India, explores the complex interplay between gender, violence, and state institutions through a detailed analysis of a series of cases where women have sought justice against domestic violence in West Bengal, India. Even though gendered violence is a serious political issue in India, the criminal justice system and government institutions remain incapable and claustrophobic when it comes to enforcing legal mandates. The author questions the state’s institutional incompetence in providing justice to women and meeting human rights compliance. Through extensive ethnographic fieldwork and interviewing women’s rights activists, government officials, and victims of violence, the author sheds light on the challenges women face in accessing justice and exercising their rights in a society that is deeply patriarchal and marked by high levels of violence against women.
This book offers nuanced analyses of the structural and systemic barriers that hinder women’s rights, as well as the strategies employed by women activists to confront incompetent systems. The book also explores how different forms of violence intersect and reinforce each other within India’s “culture of control.” The book demonstrates how this culture of violence is perpetuated by a range of factors, including social norms that prioritize male power and control over women, a weak and corrupt justice system that often fails to hold perpetrators accountable, and a political climate that is hostile to feminist activism.
There are three main sections in the book. In the first section, the author provides a detailed description of a courtroom proceeding in which she introduces the major players and shares her conceptual positioning on the subject. The second section traces the origin of these cases and how legal claims emerge and how they are contested. And the final section examines how women evolve in the process of claiming rights and come to exercise a limited form of citizenship.
The author unfolds the key aspects of the struggle for women’s rights through four sets of findings. First of all, women generally distrust law enforcement and rarely assert their rights on their own. In most cases, they seek mediation from local authorities, neighbours, and extended family members. A few of those complaints may be taken up and pushed forward by organizations such as women’s organizations called “mahila samitis,” local non-governmental organizations, or political parties, which may result in engaging with law enforcement agencies and assisting the woman with her legal proceedings. Second, women rarely receive formal legal remedies when claiming their rights. The author tracks a total of 70 cases, and 10 out of them were eventually resolved, after lengthy waits. Third, women who have attempted to exercise their legal rights have gained notable extralegal gains. Besides preparing them for financial independence, it teaches them how to present themselves physically and mentally in the male-dominated public sphere. The author argues that they can sense their transformations through a gendered discourse of empowerment and self-transformation. As a result of becoming “incorporated” by the state, women learn the art of “capability.”
A final narrative that emerges from the book—one that is crucial to women’s success in claiming justice—addresses the dominant cultural norm of women’s vulnerability. Essentially, men have a moral obligation to protect a “good woman,” following the masculinist ethos of protecting a vulnerable and virtuous woman. In contrast, strong, vocal, and empowered women are viewed as sinful and as threats to male dominance. In the process of seeking justice, individual women internalize these institutional demands and perform victimhood through acting passively, demonstrating their innocence, and waiting for assistance at police stations or in court rooms to strengthen their legal claims. According to the book, these different forms of negotiation between law enforcement and women with disparate capacities result in qualitatively different governance models for acquiring justice and rights.
However, a recognition of rights is not guaranteed to every “good victim” due to the counter-threat of violence from other forces with stronger political resources. Law enforcement’s selection of good victims is shaped by the larger political systems within which it operates. This is where organized women’s groups come into play: as a source of “capability” rather than passivity and vulnerability. There are stories in the book that depict women fighting for their rights in organized groups that possess negotiation skills and political resources, though this diverse capability comes with risks.
The book also aims to highlight the agency and resilience of women who are fighting for their rights in the face of enormous obstacles. The author documents the strategies that women’s rights activists have developed to navigate the complex terrain of Indian politics and bureaucracy, including building alliances with sympathetic officials, using media to mobilize public support, and engaging in strategic litigation to hold the state accountable for its failures. The book concludes by evaluating the advantages and disadvantages of the capability model of women’s citizenship: opening opportunities for underprivileged groups while forcing women to carry dangerous burdens of labour.
This book is a must read for scholars and activists, especially those who are interested in deepening their understanding of gender-based violence, women’s empowerment, and agency in the context of the state and its political, administrative, and legal systems and mechanisms. The book provides a first-hand account of violence and women’s journeys through risky and labourious paths for claiming justice. Multiple stories of these women provide insight into the complex terrain of Indian politics and the judiciary. Each section flows smoothly into the next and is complemented by the previous, creating a curiosity to continue reading.
Rajib Nandi
Sambodhi Research and Communications, Delhi