Ageing Widows in the Devotional Geography of Rural West Bengal

The sacred physical landscape is significant in evoking emotions and experiencing an intense embodied connection specific to a place. In South Asia, widowhood has evolved from long-standing social inequalities; it is a performance and a life stage as well as a focal point of ambivalent intergenerational relations at the cusp of adaptation and disenfranchisement. The collision between gender and caste hinders Hindu widows from retaining assets, leaving them in financial distress. This paper weighs the continuities and discontinuities in dignified living in the backdrop of the ‘sacred geography’ of Nabadwip. Situated in eastern India, Nabadwip is revered as a pilgrim site. This sacred element aside, Nabadwip is also home to ageing widows abandoned by their adult children. They flank the temple gates and wait for alms while dabbing chandan (sandalwood) on their foreheads, immersed in the kirtan (devotional music) on the temple premises. The congregation of older widows, residents, and pilgrims shapes the layered geography of Nabadwip. Sifting through in-depth qualitative interviews and ethnographic findings, this paper frames arguments through the prisms of feminist geography, life course approach, and care poverty. Disruptions across the life course due to rifts with adult children emerge as the paramount reason for widows fleeing to Nabadwip. However, the grid of gender, age, and poverty worsens the widowhood penalty, thus leading to a descent into lifelong suffering. Although women are encultured to be the primary caregivers and kinkeepers, the lack of access to care and dignity for Nabadwip’s widows borders on the abject and calls for social concern.