Making men and masculinities visible: a macro level enquiry into conceptualizations of gender and violence in Indian policies

Abstract

This paper explores how ‘gender’ is being conceptualized in Indian policies on men's violence towards women. It demonstrates that the politics of masculinities, operating within a deeply political process of policy formation, allows men and masculinities to remain invisible in ‘gender’ policies. The paper argues that a dominating economic logic, a hierarchy of knowledge, a reductionist ‘rationality’ and an apolitical understanding of gender in the Indian policy process, allow for a narrow and compartmentalized idea of ‘gender’ in such policies. This inevitably leads to a narrow understanding of ‘gendered violence’ too by not bringing men and masculinities into question. Violence towards women gets conceptualized at the macro level as violence against a woman's ‘modesty’ and her femininity which relationally places men and masculinities as ‘protectors’ whilst keeping the ‘threats’ to this ‘modesty’ obscured. The central tenet of this paper is that making the role of men and masculinities visible in policies and debates around gendered violence is a crucial step in better understanding and designing policies that check male violence against women.

Keywords:

• gender
• violence
• masculinities
• India
• policy
• development

Acknowledgements

This paper forms part of my ongoing Ph.D. on masculinities in India at the University of Oxford and I would like to acknowledge the generous support of my supervisors Prof. Nandini Gooptu and Prof. Marcus Banks. I would also like to thank Prof. Barbara Harris-White, Dr George Kunnath, Dr Colette Harris and Dr Ben P. Cartlidge for their advice and kindness. A final thanks is due to the two anonymous reviewers and the editors of this special issue for their suggestions and help.

Notes on contributor

Shannon Philip is doing his Ph.D on Indian masculinities at the University of Oxford. His research focuses on ethnographically unpacking the everyday practices of men in an urban developmental context.