Dreams, Questions, Struggles , livre ebook
205
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English
Ebooks
2006
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205
pages
English
Ebooks
2006
Obtenez un accès à la bibliothèque pour le consulter en ligne En savoir plus
From schoolgirls to matriarchs, single mothers to extended families, and businesswomen to factory workers, the experience of Asian women in Britain today is polarised by class and religion.
This book explores the lives and struggles of two generations of British Asian women to present a political account of their experiences: personal and public, individual and collective, their struggles take on power structures within the family, the community and, on occasion, the British state.
Combining their personal testimony within a theoretical framework, Amrit Wilson locates their experiences in the wider context of global and regional politics. She examines what impact the feminist movement has had on their lives, and explores issues such as domestic violence, Asian marriages, representations of Asian women, mental disturbance and suicide.
1. Introduction
2. The new ‘good woman’: reconstructing patriarchal control
3. A thing of beauty and a boy forever – changing masculinities
4. ‘Mercy and Wisdom of a government’? Race, Culture and Immigration Control
5. Making a spectacle of oneself –South Asian weddings in Britain
6. Psychiatry, violence and mental distress
7. Contesting (mis)representations
8. Still fighting for justice –low-paid workers in a global market
9. Dreams, questions and struggles – reflections on a movement
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Voir
This book explores the lives and struggles of two generations of British Asian women to present a political account of their experiences: personal and public, individual and collective, their struggles take on power structures within the family, the community and, on occasion, the British state.
Combining their personal testimony within a theoretical framework, Amrit Wilson locates their experiences in the wider context of global and regional politics. She examines what impact the feminist movement has had on their lives, and explores issues such as domestic violence, Asian marriages, representations of Asian women, mental disturbance and suicide.
1. Introduction
2. The new ‘good woman’: reconstructing patriarchal control
3. A thing of beauty and a boy forever – changing masculinities
4. ‘Mercy and Wisdom of a government’? Race, Culture and Immigration Control
5. Making a spectacle of oneself –South Asian weddings in Britain
6. Psychiatry, violence and mental distress
7. Contesting (mis)representations
8. Still fighting for justice –low-paid workers in a global market
9. Dreams, questions and struggles – reflections on a movement
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Dreams, Questions, Struggles
South Asian Women in Britain
Amrit Wilson
P Pluto Press LONDON • ANN ARBOR, MI
First published 2006 by Pluto Press 345 Archway Road, London N6 5AA and 839 Greene Street, Ann Arbor, MI 48106
www.plutobooks.com
Copyright © Amrit Wilson 2006
The right of Amrit Wilson to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN ISBN
0 7453 1848 7 hardback 0 7453 1847 9 paperback
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data applied for
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9
8
7
6
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Designed and produced for Pluto Press by Chase Publishing Services Ltd, Fortescue, Sidmouth, EX10 9QG, England Typeset from disk by Stanford DTP Services, Northampton, England Printed and bound in the European Union by Antony Rowe Ltd, Chippenham and Eastbourne, England
In memory of my sister Aparna Rao (1950–2005), of the principles she stood for, and all the years we shared.
Acknowledgements
Introduction
Cont
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1 The New ‘Good Woman’: Reconstructing Patriarchal Control Where ‘belonging to …’ comes from Encounters with colonial and global capital Controlling women’s sexuality The hijab – ‘brimming with politics’ Reconstructing femininity Women working for patriarchy Mothers and violence Sexual abuse and patriarchy
2 A Thing of Beauty and a Boy Forever – Changing Masculinities From workers to worshippers – Sikhs and male identity The Warrior Guru Azad Kashmiris and transnationalbiradaris New Islamic groups and approaches Luton’s club scene Gujaratis and the creation of a ‘civilised’ Hindu culture Masculinity, femininity and rightwing Hindu groups in Britain Discourses of Hindutva and the diaspora The Gujarat massacres: responses from Britain
3 ‘Mercy and Wisdom of a Government’? Race, Culture and Immigration Control Multiculturalism – reshaping culture in the interests of control Immigration, gender and ‘credible witnesses’ The TwoYear Rule ‘No recourse to public funds’ The Forced Marriage Initiative – confronting South Asian patriarchy? Colonial counterparts of the Forced Marriage Initiative
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7 8 13 15 22 25 27 32 35
41 42 48 50 54 57 59
66 68 69
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73 76 78 83
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viii Dreams, Questions, Struggles
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Do only ‘British’ women need human rights? Giving women ‘choice’? Honour crimes and multicultural constructions
Making a Spectacle of Oneself – South Asian Weddings in Britain Bollywood and Europe mingle in the market The bride as spectacle orbahuas icon The bride’s ‘Big Day’ The rise and rise of the cost of weddings The escalation of dowries – factors specific to Punjab The escalation of dowries – factors specific to Gujarat Demands from the groom’s family Life after the wedding
Psychiatry, Violence and Mental Distress When psychiatry colludes with patriarchy Rehab, respite, race and gender Selfharm and suicide An ‘up and coming health authority’ What is ‘normal’ for a man?
Contesting (mis)RepresentationsRacism – a thing of the past? East is EastA few messages from Bollywood Charismatic fathers
Still Fighting for Justice – Lowpaid Workers in a Global Market Global workers Care homes – legitimising exploitation Sweatshops and Asian women’s struggles: continuities and changes The restructuring of British industry: Smethwick as a microcosm Strikes in the service sector A comparison of two strikes Key strategies of the two strikes Attitudes of the trade union leadership The new ‘era of partnership’
89 91 93
96 98 99 101 103 104 105 106 108
111 112 118 119 121 125
128 129 131 134 137
139 139 145
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Contents ix
Dreams, Questions and Struggles – Reflections on a Movement Some early experiences of organising as Asian women Asian women’s refuges, funding and the state ‘Supporting People’ policies Racism and the fragmentation of services Feminism is needed more than ever
NotesReferencesIndex
159 161 163 165 167 170
172 177 184
Acknowledgements
Many of the women whose experiences, ideas and insights I have recorded in the pages which follow cannot be named, but without their courageous testimonies and their generous giving of precious time, this book would never have been written. I must also acknowledge the support of the many women who have helped me with specific aspects of this book. They include Anita Bharadwaj, Anjona Roy, Dipali Chandra, Kiran Patel, Leena Dhingra, Mohini Howard, Ravinder Barn, Sarbjit Johal, Savita Bhanot, Talat Jabin, Urmi Rahman, Valerie Bryson, Zubaida Motala, and my friends and colleagues in some of the organisations I have been involved with – Imkaan, Asian Women Unite, Londec and particularly South Asia Solidarity Group. I would like to thank Kumkum Sangari whose encouragement was crucial when I first started work on this book, Avtar Johal for always being willing to share his knowledge of the history of South Asian workers in Britain and Aisha Gill for her helpful interventions and her willingness to engage in discussions of gender and race. I acknowledge a Small Grant from the Barrow Cadbury Trust at the outset of the research for this book. Thanks are also due to my editor at Pluto Press, the everpatient Anne Beech, and her colleague Debjani Roy, for their painstaking reading of the manuscript. Most of all I would like to acknowledge the unstinting support of my daughter Kalpana who gave me her critical comments at every stage and helped me develop many of the ideas in this book. Finally I would like to thank Brishti whose stories and jokes kept me on an even keel – almost – over the last few years.
x
Introduction
I wanted them to have a sense of who I was. That there were certain values and principles which were central to me … I told them that core values are not necessarily shared through faith but through life experience and through political experience, through growing up as a British Asian and what impact that has on who you are. I wanted them to know me – know about the things I would struggle for, and the things other people of my generation see as 1 struggle. I wanted them to know how I feel. ‘Manpreet’
This book is about the lives and hopes of South Asian women in Britain and about their complex and overlapping identities. Through the prism of their experiences, I have tried to examine how gender relations have been reshaped over the last 30 years. I have located these processes of change in the context of local and global discourses, and I have examined the role of the British state, the relentless pressures of the market and the politics of South Asia in reconguring patriarchal power. In these three decades, patriarchal relations have been reshaped in Britain, and inevitably they have been reshaped in different ways in different communities and classes. At the same time racism has been recongured, and the policies of the British state have served to deepen the religious and ethnic divisions between communities. If these changes have continually fragmented the South Asian experience in Britain, womens struggles against gender oppression, individual and collective, have reversed this process and shown the striking similarities across religions, class and caste in the structures which oppress women. These experiences display myriad complexities and differences, but also validate the notion of a common struggle which has inspired me throughout the long project of writing this book. When I have doubted these notions of commonality, South Asian womens opinions and experiences have continually revived them, demonstrating that differences within a framework of unity can only be strengthening. For example, in December 2004 I go to facilitate a small group discussion about women and the media, in an Asian womens refuge in London. We talk about the way Asian women are represented on TV. InCoronation Street, a British soap that all the
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participants watch regularly, two Asian women have been ghting violently over an Asian man. No one likes it. One woman, Seema, says she cannot bear to see this scale of violence between our women. That is for white people, says Kulwant, maybe that is how they like to see us, either that or they show us as victims just suffering. They question why the media never shows anything about women like them, about their lives. When I came here to this refuge, says Asma, I was caught between life and death, frozen like a seed. I was nurtured and warmed and now I can see the green leaves of hope our lives could never be shown on television. Suddenly, unstoppably, she pours out her story, with passion and a sort of amazement at herself. It is the rst time she has told it. It is a story of false promises, psychological abuse, depression but more than anything it is a story of survival. There is a silence, then Seema says: When you tell your story I can hear mine in it. Sarlaben has been silent so far. She is in her fties, older than the others, but now, cautiously, almost fearfully, she asks Seema and Asma and Kalwant in turn, Did he used to hit you? When they reply she is quiet again. And you? I ask. That used to happen to me too she says. It is the rst time she has spoken openly about the abuse she has suffered. The talk about the media is forgotten, suddenly we have come closer, no need now for formal discussion. Speaking eagerly, in a common language Hindi shading into Urdu and back again, with Punjabi words thrown in we exchange ideas and contexts. Yes, issues ofizzat(honour) andbadnami(bad reputation) stretch across the South Asian countries and communities we come from. They are common in Lahore, Jullunder, Sylhet and Ahmedabad, and also in the communities in Britain which link to these places. Dowries are common across regional boundaries. And yes, racism is ever present in Britain, colouring the way we and our culture are seen, not only by white people but on occasion by other South Asians. From different countries, different religions, of different ages and class backgrounds, the ve of us are bound in a common identity of being Asian women something, Seema tells me later, she was always aware of, but never experienced in this way before. We discuss our lives and attitudes further, differences are identied and argued over the conflicts between Hindus and Muslims in our countries of origin, and in our own attitudes to each other; the tensions in this country between British Asians and those directly from the subcontinent: the racism of British society and of the
Introduction 3
agents of the state, which we have experienced in different ways to differing extents. Because of what has gone before, prejudices can be confronted, differences can be examined and serve to highlight the contradictions, but also the richness, of Asian womens lives and struggles in Britain. The media, as Kulwant said, has portrayed Asian women as victims. But the answer is not to deny the existence of negative experiences or posit the existence of choices where few exist. Rather the experience of this small group of Asian women and many others suggests that this mask of victimhood can only be torn away by revealing the structures of oppression that women are resisting. In terms of perspective, what I present here is an unapologetically feminist approach. But of course feminism even while it is under attack in this supposedly postfeminist era means different things to different people. As Alison Jaggar puts it: For some, it is a pejorative term, for others it is honoric. Consequently, some people deny the title feminist to those who would claim it, and seek to bestow it on others who reject it (1988: 5). I use feminist here in Jaggars inclusive denition to mean those who regard women as systematically subordinated and who seek no matter on what grounds, to end womens subordination. While I do not see patriarchy as an autonomous system, I regard patriarchal relations relations between men and women that subordinate women as a core attribute of the vast majority of historical and existing social formations. As for the experiences of gender of South Asian women in Britain, as Brah (1996) and Anthias and Yuval Davis (1992) among others have noted, these are inextricably bound up with race, class, region of origin, religion and other differentiations, shaping and reshaping each other producing, for example, gendered experiences of racism and racialised experiences of gender. In societies in many parts of South Asia, where capitalism has incorporated rather than swept away precapitalist forms of power, patriarchal relations are very different from those in advanced capitalist societies such as Britain. In Chapter 1 of this book, I explore how, in periods of social transformation, earlier patriarchal relations are often retained and incorporated alongside and in interaction with new structures for subordination. A theme that I discuss in different contexts in various chapters is the British states pragmatic interactions with South Asian patriarchal power. For example, on the one hand, it consolidates gendered
