Gendered Embodiment of the Ethnographer during Fieldwork in a Conflict Region of India

ABSTRACT

Militarization and various forms of state repression are continuous factors shaping daily life and practices in Manipur. Within this context my paper grapples with the impossibility of preparing for ethnographic fieldwork in a conflict region. What does it mean to work as a lone woman researcher and to negotiate various subjectivities like gender, class, and caste during fieldwork in a conflict region? I unpack the experience of preparing for ‘fieldwork’ and what it entails by focusing on the gendered experience of power differentials and negotiations of various subjectivities. I explain how I negotiated my identity as a researcher in the field, what it entailed, and how my gender and marital status affected my interactions. I entered the field as an autonomous doctoral researcher but was reduced to dependency as a presumed unmarried woman. When I faced challenges working with a women’s collective on the issue of religion, it reoriented my study. Finally, I look at some ways in which I practiced self-care through seeking support from informal networks of friendships, support from my partner, journaling and giving time to myself to process the conflicting emotions I felt during fieldwork.

KEYWORDS:

• Embodiment
• fieldwork
• ethnography
• India
• Armed forces special powers act

Acknowledgments

I am thankful to my dissertation advisor Nancy Hiemstra and committee member Benjamin Tausig who gave feedback on my fieldwork updates, from which this paper emerged. My interlocutors, especially from Naga Women’s Union, Human Rights Alert and Extra Judicial Execution Victim’s Families Association Manipur, were very generous to share their stories with me because of which I could write this paper. I am indebted to them all. My partner Apoorv Sharma kept me emotionally motivated to write despite the long distance. My friend, Shweta Krishnan, formed the sounding board to discuss ideas for this paper over several telephone conversations while doing fieldwork. My mother Shubhra Mukherjee and sister Tushita Mukherjee helped me process difficult emotions while I was in Manipur. Finally, I am very grateful to the editors Nena Mocnik and Ahmad Ghouri for their thoughtful feedback and for being patient with me while I edited the manuscript during fieldwork. The travel from New York to New Delhi for this fieldwork was funded by the Graduate Student Employee Union at Stony Brook University.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Funding

Travel from New York to New Delhi for the research was supported by Graduate Student Employee Union, Stony Brook University.

Notes on contributors

Shruti Mukherjee

Shruti Mukherjee is a Ph.D. Candidate in the Department of Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, Stony Brook University, New York. She is currently writing her doctoral dissertation based on her ethnographic fieldwork in Manipur, India. She studies militarism in South Asia, widowhood, grassroots women's movements, women's activism, NGOs, and feminist research methods. She was awarded the Faculty Staff dissertation award for her ongoing research at Stony Brook University.