Gender Historiography

Abstract

Gender is undeniably one of the most important factors of any society. Not only gender molds socio-cultural relations, dictates terms of interaction of the sexes and exposes the underlying structures of patriarchy, it also provides an epistemology to understand different processes in different temporal-spatial zones and understand and help understand aspects of colonialism, nationalism, caste, religion etc. with a new lens. Over the time, different scholars have worked on different aspects of gender and have tried to understand various phenomenon and challenge the existing notions through its gender analysis. Here we will discuss these different historiographical traditions that emerged in gender particularly in reference to India. According to Geraldine Forbes, since 19th century we find the evidence of early evidence of writings on women, but rather than reflecting the concerns of women, it actually reflected the perceptions of both colonial government as well as the local population wherein women became just the site where patriarchal forces asserted their power. So, the histories of this period talked about a golden age of women, followed by a declining Middle Ages where the condition of women became worse. The colonial history projected history as women's evolution to modernity wherein Britishers acted as an agent of emancipation and savior of women. Secondly both the European text and ancient texts they cited to justify their claims, projected a particularistic image of women who was self-sacrificing, devoted and occasionally rebellious and dangerous.