Founding mothers of the Indian Republic : gender politics of the framing of the constitution

Based on author's thesis (doctoral -- Visva-Bharati, Department of English, 2017) issued under title: The missing mothers of the Indian Constitution and the gender politics of its framing.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Introduction : towards a feminist reading of the making of the Constitution -- In the shadow of the founding fathers -- In search of the missing mothers -- Women's moral imaginary and constitutional politics : 1927-1946 -- Patterns of participation : women members in the Constituent Assembly -- Writing the rights : inscribing constitutional morality -- Reformulating the 'woman question' : challenging customs and traditions after the framing -- Conclusion : remembering the founding mothers.

"Founding Mothers of the Indian Republic begins with the momentous task of demolishing the prejudices attached with the phrase 'founding fathers' that has held an immense sway over constitutional interpretation. It shows that women members of the Indian Constituent Assembly had painstakingly co-authored a Constitution that embodied a moral imagination developed by years of feminist politics. This book traces the genealogies of several constitutional provisions to argue that, without the interventions of these women framers, the Constitution would have been much lesser than the celebrated document of rights and statecraft that it is. Situating these interventions in the larger trajectory of Indian feminism in which they are rooted, in the nationalist discourse with which they perpetually negotiated, and in the larger human rights discourse of the 1940s, it shows that the women members of the Indian Constituent Assembly were much more than the 'founding mothers' of a republic"--