Sep 14, 2026 · 1 hr 7 min · 12 segments
Women’s citizenship in India is a deeply contested subject. Even in the decades preceding independence, a generation of women leaders in India was closely engaging with the Indian state and society…
Annie DevenishGuestRishiHostHello, everyone.
This book is about agency, the agency of generation of Indian women leaders whose careers straddle the transition from colonial rule to independence.
Annie Devanesh looks closely at how the Indian state and its women citizens, especially the women leaders, engaged and negotiated with one another, and how this generation of women leaders understood the relationship between citizenship, equality, and gender justice.
The meanings of citizenship as well as gender justice kept on broadening, narrowing, being contested, and pursued across different spheres of public life.
Her focus is on a cohort of leading figures within two major organizations, All India Women's Conference and the National Federation of Indian Women, and also she looks at the trajectories of women in India's constituent assembly.
Annie, thank you so much for joining us today.
And I want to start with this particular question.
What drew you as a South African, uh, to study the question of Indian women's citizenship in the decades preceding and, uh, succeeding the independence?
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Hello, everyone.
This book is about agency, the agency of generation of Indian women leaders whose careers straddle the transition from colonial rule to independence.
Annie Devanesh looks closely at how the Indian state and its women citizens, especially the women leaders, engaged and negotiated with one another, and how this generation of women leaders understood the relationship between citizenship, equality, and gender justice.
The meanings of citizenship as well as gender justice kept on broadening, narrowing, being contested, and pursued across different spheres of public life.
Her focus is on a cohort of leading figures within two major organizations, All India Women's Conference and the National Federation of Indian Women, and also she looks at the trajectories of women in India's constituent assembly.
Annie, thank you so much for joining us today.
And I want to start with this particular question.
What drew you as a South African, uh, to study the question of Indian women's citizenship in the decades preceding and, uh, succeeding the independence?
