Young Muslim Women in India: Bollywood, Identity and Changing Youth Culture

211 Pages·2016·6.116 MB·English

by  Kabita Chakraborty

Young Muslim Women in India
This book, based on extensive, original research, details the changing lives of
youth living in slum communities (bustees) in Kolkata (formerly Calcutta).
Using young people’s own photos, art and narratives, the book explores how
Muslimgirlsandyoungwomenarecontributingto,andimpactedby,changing
youth culturein India.Weareinvited into the risky world of mixed-sexdance
taking place in clandestine spaces in the slums.Wejoinyoung people ontheir
journeys to find premarital romance andwitness their strategic and savvy risk
taking when participating in transgressive aspects of consumer culture. The
book reveals how social changes in India, including greater education and
employment opportunities, as well as the powerful middle-class Muslim
reformist community, are impacting youth at the very local level. More than
just fantasy we see that Bollywood is an important role model which young
people consult. By carefully negotiating risks and performing multiple iden-
titiesinspiredbymodernity,globalisationand,mostofall,Bollywoodculture,
young people actively participate in a changing India and disrupt dominant
discourses about slum youth as poor victims who are excluded from social
change.
Kabita Chakraborty is an Assistant Professor in the Children’s Studies
Program, Department of Humanities, York University, Canada.
ASAA Women in Asia Series
Editor: Louise Edwards (University of New South Wales)and Lenore
Lyons (The University of Sydney)
Editorial Board:
Susan Blackburn (Monash University)
Hyaeweol Choi (The Australian National University)
Michele Ford (The University of Sydney)
Trude Jacobsen (Northern Illinois University)
Vera Mackie (University of Wollongong)
Anne McLaren (The University of Melbourne)
Mina Roces (University of New South Wales)
Dina Siddiqi (The City University of New York)
Andrea Whittaker (The University of Queensland)
Mukkuvar Women Matriliny and Modernity
Gender, hegemony and capitalist Sexual politics and social change in
transformation in a South Indian rural Malaysia
fishing community Maila Stivens 1995
Kalpana Ram 1991
Intimate Knowledge
A World of Difference Women and their health in
North-east Thailand
Islam and gender hierarchy
Andrea Whittaker 2000
in Turkey
Julie Marcus 1992
Women in Asia
Tradition, modernity
Purity and Communal Boundaries
and globalisation
Women and social change in a
Louise Edwards and
Bangladeshi village
Mina Roces (eds) 2000
Santi Rozario 1992
Violence against Women in
Madonnas and Martyrs Asian Societies
Militarism and violence in Gender inequality and technologies
the Philippines of violence
Anne-Marie Hilsdon 1995 Lenore Manderson and
Linda Rae Bennett (eds) 2003
Masters and Managers
A studyof gender relations in Women’s Employment in Japan
urban Java The experience of part-time workers
Norma Sullivan 1995 Kaye Broadbent 2003
Chinese Women Living and Working Young Women in Japan
Anne McLaren (ed.) 2004 Transitions to adulthood
Kaori Okano 2009
Abortion, Sin and the State
in Thailand Women, Islam and Everyday Life
Andrea Whittaker 2004 RenegotiatingpolygamyinIndonesia
Nina Nurmila 2009
SexualViolenceandtheLawinJapan
Catherine Burns 2004 Feminist Movements in
Contemporary Japan
Women, Islam and Modernity Laura Dales 2009
Single women, sexuality and
reproductive health in Gender and Labour in Korea
contemporary Indonesia and Japan
Linda Rae Bennett 2005 Sexing class
Ruth Barraclough and
The Women’s Movement in Elyssa Faison (eds) 2009
Post-Colonial Indonesia
Elizabeth Martyn 2005 Gender Diversity in Indonesia
Sexuality, Islam and queer selves
Women and Work in Indonesia Sharyn Graham Davies 2010
Michele Ford and Lyn Parker
(eds) 2008 New Women in Colonial Korea
A sourcebook
Women and Union Activism in Asia Hyaeweol Choi 2012
Kaye Broadbent and Michele Ford
(eds) 2008 WomenWritersinPostsocialistChina
Kay Schaffer and Xianlin Song 2013
Gender, Islam, and Democracy
in Indonesia Domestic Violence in Asia
Kathryn Robinson 2008 Globalization, gender and Islam in
the Maldives
Sex, Love and Feminism in the Emma Fulu 2014
Asia Pacific
A cross-cultural studyof young Gender and Power in
people’s attitudes Indonesian Islam
Chilla Bulbeck 2008 Leaders, feminists, Sufis and
pesantren selves, edited
Gender, State and Social Power Bianca J. Smith and
Divorce in contemporary Indonesia Mark Woodward 2014
Kate O’Shaughnessy 2008
Practicing Feminism in South Korea
Gender, Household, and State in The women’s movement against
Post-Revolutionary Vietnam sexual violence
Jayne Werner 2008 Kyungja Jung 2014
The Korean Women’s Movement Women and Politics in
and the State Contemporary Japan
Bargaining for change Emma Dalton 2015
Seung-kyung Kim 2014
Trafficking Women in Korea
Gender, Nation and State in Filipina migrant entertainers
Modern Japan Sallie Yea 2015
Andrea Germer, Vera Mackie and
Ulrike Wöhr (eds) 2014 Women and Sharia Law in
Northern Indonesia
Women and Sex Work in Cambodia Dina Afrianty 2015
Blood, sweat and tears
Larissa Sandy 2015 China’s Leftover Women
Late marriage among
Growing up Female in professional women and
Multi-Ethnic Malaysia its consequences
Cynthia Joseph 2015 Sandy To 2015
Women, Sexual Violence and the The Micro-politics of Microcredit
Indonesian Killings of 1965–66 Women, gender and neoliberal
Annie Pohlman 2015 development in Bangladesh
Mohammad Jasim Uddin 2015
Love and Marriage in
Globalising China Young Muslim Women in India
Wang Pan 2015 Kabita Chakraborty 2016
Women and Climate Change
in Bangladesh
Margaret Alston 2015
Young Muslim Women in India
Bollywood, identity and changing
youth culture
Kabita Chakraborty
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Firstpublished2016
byRoutledge
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©2016KabitaChakraborty
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BritishLibraryCataloguinginPublicationData
AcataloguerecordforthisbookisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary
LibraryofCongressCataloginginPublicationData
Chakraborty,Kabita.
YoungmuslimwomeninIndia/KabitaChakraborty.
pagescm.--(AsaawomeninAsiaseries;44)
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
1.Muslimyouth--India--Socialconditions--21stcentury.2.Muslim
women--India--Conductoflife.3.Pooryouth--India--Socialconditions--
21stcentury.4.Socialchange--India.I.Title.
HQ799.8.I4C432016
305.48’6970540905--dc23
2015014488
ISBN:978-0-415-56324-6(hbk)
ISBN:978-1-315-67421-6(ebk)
TypesetinTimesNewRoman
byTaylor&FrancisBooks
Contents
List of figures viii
Acknowledgement ix
1 Introduction 1
2 The good Muslim girl 19
3 Bollywood dancing in the bustees 41
4 Love, desire and disappointment 84
5 Changing youth culture, changing consumption culture 135
Conclusion 173
Glossary 181
Bibliography 186
Index 199
List of figures
2.1 ‘This is one goli’ (Layla, female 20) 22
2.2 ‘The good girl lives in a joint family’ (Fiza, female 19) 27
2.3 ‘A good girl prays five times a day’ (Mumtaz, female 15) 28
2.4 ‘You study hard, and can hit your siblings too, this earns
respect’ (Zafreen, female 17) 29
2.5 ‘The good girl prepares all the meals, and always eats last’
(Photo of her older sister by Layla, female 20) 30
2.6 ‘A good girl covers up her body’ (Photo of Layla’s sister, by
Shazana, female 15) 32
2.7 ‘A “good girl” wearing the burqa’ (Parveena, female 18) 33
2.8 ‘A good girl does not have aboyfriend’ (Aliah, female 16) 34
2.9 ‘A good girl gets an arranged marriage’ (Photo of Aysha’s
friend by Aysha, female 15) 36
3.1 ‘You need to dance that close to be a dancing expert’ (Raya,
female 16. Photo taken by Fiza, female 19) 67
3.2 Pelvic thrusts in action on the night of the show (FZ male, 23) 74
4.1 ‘My best couples list’ (Aysha, female 15) 102
4.2 ‘A photo of my boyfriend Rashad’ 115
5.1 ‘Me in five years’ (Shirzad, female 16) 144
5.2 ‘This is my favourite outfit’ (Photo of Aysha, female 15, taken
by Layla, female 20) 157
5.3 ‘A good girl helps out around the house’ 167
Acknowledgement
I am indebted to the young women of the bustees who have allowed me to
share their lives, and to include the details of their adventures, heartbreaks
and timepass in the context of this book. Without their trust and generous
participation this book would not be possible. I am also grateful to all the
youngmen,parents,communityelders and everyoneatthenon-governmental
organisation for sharing their time and knowledge. As with most academic
books, this has been a long drawn out process, and many institutions, editors
and peers have been involved. Thank you: Centre for Critical and Cultural
Studies and School of Social Work, University of Queensland; the Shastri-
Indo Canadian Institute (Canada and India office); Centre for Asia Pacific
Social Transformation Studies, the University of Wollongong; the Nossal
Institute for Global Health and School of Population Health at the Uni-
versity of Melbourne; the York Centre for Asian Research and Faculty of
Liberal Arts and Professional Studies at York University for generously
financially supporting various portions of my research, writing and editing
processes. Thank you past and present WIA series editors, Lenore Lyons for
your patience and understanding especially during challenging times, and
Louise Edwards for providing me with encouragement.
The text has grown out of doctoral, postdoctoral and contemporary
research,andtherearemanypeopleinvolvedinthatprocess.Abigthankyou
to my PhD supervisors Harriot Beazleyand Graeme Turner for providing me
with the most supportive and critical guidance. Harriot in particular, I am so
happytohavemetyou;thankyouforbeingsuchagreatcolleague,friendand
supervisor. I miss our car rides a lot, much love! I am grateful to the late
Judith Ennew who started the ball rolling back in Bangkok. She was a stellar
mentor and is greatly missed. In Melbourne: thank you Linda Rae Bennett
for supporting my postdoc. Your mentorship, friendship and kindness, and
the generosity of your spirit has been overwhelming and I am proud to call
you my friend, and thanks for the good times my urban family especially
Raphy and Jacques for martial arts and cuddles. In India: thank you to the
Shastri Indo-Canadian Institute (Delhi office). In Kolkata I am particularly
grateful to my friends Shreya and Salma, Shafkat, Feroz, Sana and Saba. In
Canada: to all of my friends, old and new, especially Ruby (B) and Shawn