Domestic Goddesses (Urban Anthropology)

230 Pages·2008·1.04 MB·English

by  Henrike Donner

DOMESTIC GODDESSES

For Jorrit
Urban Anthropology Series
Series Editors:
Italo Pardo and Giuliana Prato both at University of Kent, UK
Urban Anthropology is the first series of its kind to be established by a major academic
publisher. Ethnographically global, the series includes original, empirically based
works of high analytical and theoretical calibre. All volumes published in the series
are peer-reviewed.
The editors encourage submission of sole authored and edited manuscripts that
address key issues that have comparative value in the current international academic
and political debates. These issues include, but are by no means limited to: the
methodological challenges posed by urban field research; the role of kinship, family
and social relations; the gap between citizenship and governance; the legitimacy of
policy and the law; the relationships between the legal, the semi-legal and the illegal
in the economic and political fields; the role of conflicting moralities across the
social, cultural and political spectra; the problems raised by internal and international
migration; the informal sector of the economy and its complex relationships with the
formal sector and the law; the impact of the process of globalization on the local level
and the significance of local dynamics in the global context; urban development,
sustainability and global restructuring; conflict and competition within and between
cities.
Domestic Goddesses
Maternity, Globalization and Middle-class Identity in
Contemporary India
HENRIKE DONNER
London School of Economics and Political Science, UK
© Henrike Donner 2008
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system
or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording
or otherwise without the prior permission of the publisher.
Henrike Donner has asserted her moral right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act,
1988, to be identified as the author of this work.
Published by
Ashgate Publishing Limited Ashgate Publishing Company
Gower House Suite 420
Croft Road 101 Cherry Street
Aldershot Burlington, VT 05401-4405
Hampshire GU11 3HR USA
England
Ashgate website: http://www.ashgate.com
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Donner, Henrike
Domestic goddesses : maternity, globalization and
middle-class identity in contemporary India. - (Urban
anthropology)
1. Motherhood - India - Calcutta 2. Middle class women -
India - Calcutta - Attitudes 3. Family - India - Calcutta
I. Title
306.8’743’0954147

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Donner, Henrike.
Domestic goddesses : maternity, globalization and middle-class identity in
contemporary India / by Henrike Donner.
p. cm. -- (Urban anthropology)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-7546-4942-7
1. Motherhood--India--Calcutta. 2. Mothers--India--Calcutta--Social conditions. 3.
Mothers--India--Calcutta--Economic conditions. 4. Middle class families--India--
Calcutta--Social conditions. 5. Middle class families--India--Calcutta--Economic
conditions. 6. Calcutta (India)--Social conditions. 7. Calcutta (India)--Economic
conditions. I. Title.
HQ759.D64 2008
306.874’3086220954--dc22
2008015372
ISBN 978-0-7546-4942-7
Contents
List of Map and Figures vii
Acknowledgements ix
Introduction 1
1 Middle-class Domesticities and Maternities 31
2 Of Love, Marriage and Intimacy 63
3 The Place of Birth 91
4 Education and the Making of Middle-class Mothers 123
5 Motherhood, Food and the Body 155
Conclusion 179
Glossary 183
Bibliography 187
Index 203
This page intentionally left blank
List of Map and Figures
Map of Calcutta with Taltala xii
Figure 1.1 Street Scene in Taltala 7
Figure 1.2 Courtyard in a Multi-storey Building in Central Calcutta 11
Figure 2.1 Foodcourt at the Swabhumi Heritage Plaza 63
Figure 5.1 Vegetarian and Non-vegetarian Fast Food Menu 156
This page intentionally left blank
Acknowledgements
This book would have not been possible without the support of many people who
helped me in different ways to complete my research and writing.
Although the book is based on fieldwork conducted from the mid-1990s onwards
in Calcutta,1 many of the initial contacts and issues had emerged within a longer time
frame. Calcutta had already been indirectly present through my father’s involvement
with non-government organizations (NGOs) in the city throughout my childhood, a
fact which no doubt furthered my interest in India and the choice of Calcutta as a
site for fieldwork.
During my studies in Munich, I was part of a student group engaging with feminist
theory. The discussions, activism and critical debates we shared have shaped my life
and my work in many ways.
In London I have profited greatly from the stimulating academic environment of
the Department of Anthropology at the London School of Economics. I am grateful
for the many helpful comments and critical suggestions I received from my fellow
students in the course of post-fieldwork seminars, and the friendship and support of
Geert De Neve, Maria Kausträter and Danna Levin-Rojo. Oliver Wooley worked
hard on the manuscript of this book many years later.
During the initial stages of preparation for fieldwork, the sometimes difficult
research process in Calcutta, the writing-up, and for many years after these
experiences, Chris Fuller and Johnny Parry have been critical, open-minded and
supportive guides in their very different ways. With just the right mixture of
scepticism and encouragement they ensured that I was not carried away by my bias
towards women and too openly partial to all things Bengali while I was writing my
thesis. As they rightly predicted, I eventually wrote on kinship in a changing world,
although I found the idea difficult to accept at the time. Very special thanks are due
to Chris Fuller, who initiated two Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)
projects on globalization without which the bulk of this research would not have
been undertaken and who was always prepared to provide constructive criticism
when it was needed.
Those who have endured drafts of chapters of the manuscript and provided critical
suggestions for rewriting them included Mukulika Banerjee, Radhika Chopra, Geert
De Neve, Chris Fuller, Nandini Goopta, Barbara Harriss-White, Deborah James,
Patricia Jeffery, Martha Mundy, Filippo Osella, Jonathan Spencer, Charles Stafford,
Sylvia Vatuk and Sue Wadley, and I am grateful for all their comments. I would also
like to thank the editors of the Urban Anthropology Series at Ashgate, Italo Pardo
1 Calcutta was renamed Kolkata in 2001 after a short Bengali-language campaign
which was much criticized for its distinctively chauvinist flavour. Much of my fieldwork was
conducted before the city was renamed, and the historical sources use the English terminology
as do a significant number of Bengali intellectuals writing in English in an attempt to highlight
its multicultural character (see Chatterjee 2004) and I will follow their lead.