Abstract
This chapter retraces the history of psychology in India with a view to how the feminist movement developed, shaped, and interrogated the social sciences, particularly the discipline of psychology. It also delves into the political clashes between the radical Marxist/feminist and the socialist formations associated with the women’s movement to present different worldviews and ideologies on class, caste, secularism, marriage, development, women’s rights, and liberation that persist between these two cartels and how these influence the discipline. The patriarchal structure of academic psychology, where there exist many more “natural sciences” inspired male scientists/teachers but students/followers who continue to be largely young women, is discussed. The question of whether the feminist enterprise has failed to penetrate the academic psychology arena or, in its continued disengaged stance, conveys a voice of dissent of its own kind is posed. Finally, this chapter picks up postcolonial feminist writer Mahashweta Devi’s works to explore the portrayal of women’s complex identities, struggles, and choices and to debate whether and how psychology in India can be an inclusive enterprise and open itself responsibly to the public sphere.
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Kumar, M. (2011). (Re)Locating the Feminist Standpoint in the Practice of Psychology Today: A Case of India. In: Rutherford, A., Capdevila, R., Undurti, V., Palmary, I. (eds) Handbook of International Feminisms. International and Cultural Psychology. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-9869-9_9
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