Gender, Class and Reflexive Modernity in India by Jyothsna Latha Belliappa

Author:Jyothsna Latha Belliappa
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

At the last PTA meeting that I went – it wasn’t very great. I saw the previous conversation between the mother and teacher; they are going gaga over that kid and she was spending more [time] – probably half an hour. I was waiting for my turn, when I went we hardly had five minutes talk in a way. It was okay for me, I wanted to come back to office but I was wondering why. (Jaya, 33, manager, mother)

Jaya is concerned that her eight-year-old son is far too quiet and reticent in school. His teacher’s failure to praise him made her question if she was doing enough to support his schooling. Educational decisions are probably the most difficult for young mothers, given the plethora of choices and the conflicting messages of experts regarding scholastic achievement, competition, how much academic pressure is optimal and the diverse educational philosophies that various schools follow in India. While some of the concern may be shared by fathers, mothers still report being consumed by anxiety about their decisions. Their experiences may be aptly captured by Beck and Beck-Gernsheim’s (1995) argument that children have become an all-consuming project in late modernity.

However, in the Indian context traditional discourses around selfless motherhood are further strengthened by the positioning of the child as a delicate project. Women may not directly draw on mythical stereotypes in describing their mothering (although these stereotypes such as that of the selfless mother of Krishna, Yashoda, continue to exist in films, television and other forms of popular culture). However, the high standards of mothering set by their own mothers, by child-rearing experts or by neighbours and relatives who are stay-at-home mothers cause them to put their children’s needs far above their own well-being. In spite of grandparents’ close involvement in childcare amongst the contemporary middle classes, women feel pressured by both traditional and contemporary discourses in this arena. In their attempt to balance the demands of employment with the intensive requirements of mothering, many women experience high stress and chronic sleep deprivation, a situation that is further explored in Chapter 6.

Conclusion

Women’s accounts indicate that contrary to both academic and popular opinion, families continue to be strong in the face of modernity and globalization. Whilst families may be smaller in size, emotional, economic, ritual and practical ties between family members continue to exist. The research suggests that women play an important role in servicing and maintaining these ties. However, the continuance of the family does not imply that traditional discourses regarding women’s positions in their families remain frozen. Day-to-day lived experience can undermine as well as strengthen traditional discourses. Women choose to adopt or discard elements of the discourses in their daily lives, strategically behaving according to traditional norms or ignoring them. In accepting traditional norms they might be motivated by love, by an impetus to obtain other forms of support or by concern for family honour and prestige. They might at times conform due to social pressures and the fear of stigma. However, they also exercise agency in choosing which norms they follow.

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