Hinduism for Women: Present and Future Prospects for Socio-spiritual Emancipation

This chapter explores the nuanced ways actual women, past and present, low-caste and high, in different regions and religious communities, creatively inhabit Hindu worlds, negotiating and resisting dharmic gender normativity and Brahminical religious authorities to varying degrees. The focus herein is on Hindu norms, narratives, rituals, and exemplars that serve as resources for alternately reinforcing and negotiating gendered identities and lives and potentially for transforming gendered personal relations and the broader social ethos within Hindu communities. Creative engagement with myth, legend, and hagiography are examined, with particular focus on Sita and the innovative potential inherent in oral narrative and song traditions. The religious lives of householder women (including domestic rituals, bhakti devotion, and both informal and priestly forms of leadership) are discussed as well as the contributions of contemporary women saints, sadhus and gurus, some drawing precedent from figures like Mirabai and others identified as incarnations of the Divine Mother.