Gender, Sexuality, and Body Politic in Modern Asia

A criticism that is often made of gender theory in the India is that its basic tenets and conclusions only apply to gender in developed industrialized countries. Drawing upon this major statement, the paper examines ongoing dialogues articulated between India and Third world Gender thought or more broadly stated between Asian Gender. The paper devotes particular attention to feminist theorization about the role of women in development process and the advancement of women's status as discussed by major frameworks in the field. Main Gender approaches to development, as usually found in the literature constitute multifaceted road maps in the field, more than totally coherent and mutually exclusive narratives. As helpful as they may be, these frameworkS were mostly developed under the influence of subsequent versions of Gender theory, exporting to the rest of the world a set of vision and strategies that were context specific for men/women's movements. The paper scrutinizes the principal limitations that Third world gender scholars have encountered in Indian and Asian gender studies to explain and interpret the advancement of man/woman's right in the developing world. Eliciting relevant criticism from scholars working within different theoretical traditions and drawing upon critiques from structural/historical analysis to actor oriented perspective, the analysis brings to the fore the potentiality that these contributions entail for the understanding of women's status in less developed countries.