Includes index

Beyond the Private World explores the status of Indian women, through the ages, in the framework of the private-public dichotomy, as reflected in their lives. Keeping in mind the Habermasian concept of ‘public sphere’ as a reference point, yet mindful of the incongruity between the Eurocentric ideas and the Indian reality this collection of essays appraises the position of Indian women in the pre-modern period with reference to tradition. It also provides glimpses of the various social movements and struggles to overcome patriarchy as well as the nationalist/democratic movements in colonial and post-colonial India that filtered into the ‘private sphere’ and transformed it.