EAST/WEST ENCOUNTERS "Indian" identity and transnational feminism in Manushi

This article analyzes the politics of feminist publishing as reflected in the women's journal Manushi, and aims to highlight some of the complexities of writing about gender and culture in transnational feminist discourse. Since its founding in 1979 as a Marxist-oriented, collectively edited publication, Manushi has remained one of the longest-running women's periodicals in modern South Asia. Over the years, the editorial collective disappeared, leaving Manushi in the hands of its founding editor, Madhu Kishwar. With the rise of Hindutva and Hindu nationalism in the 1980s and 1990s, there was a shift in Manushi's politics. Numerous articles in the pages of the journal over the past 25 years produce or reproduce hierarchies of "East" versus "West," Indian womanhood versus western feminism, and Hindu versus Muslim identity.