• Abhitha S J

Western feminist movement is usually divided into four "waves". The first-wave feminism focused on the promotion of equal contract and property rights for women and the opposition to chattel marriage and ownership of married women (and their children) by their husbands. Second-wave feminism was largely concerned with other issues of equality, such as ending discrimination. Third-wave feminism sought to challenge or avoid what it deemed the second wave's essentialist definitions of femininity, which (according to them) over-emphasized the experiences of upper middle-class white women. A post-structuralist interpretation of gender and sexuality is central to much of the third wave's ideology. Third-wave feminists often focused on "micro-politics" and challenged the second wave's paradigm as to what is, or is not, good for females. The historical circumstances and values in India make women’s issues different from the western feminist rhetoric. Suggesting that, unlike their western counterparts, India’s women have always been liberated, Sarojini Naidu attempted to dismantle the opposition between the ‘traditional’ and the ‘modern’ that structures the imperial project. The idea of women as ‘powerful’ was accommodated into patriarchal culture through religion and this has retained visibility in all sections of society by providing women with traditional ‘cultural spaces’ Indian feminist scholars and activists had to struggle to carve a separate identity for feminism in India.Dimpal Jain suggestes that the term ‘feminism’ is contested because it is foreign. There is, thus, a need for a new term that encompasses the multifarious factors that influence the lives and rights of Indian women.

Womanism, Feminism, Brown Womanism, Indian Feminism

"Brown Womanism: Tracing the Different Layers of Indian Feminism ", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.6, Issue 6, page no.258-261, June 2019, Available :http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR1907Q82.pdf

"Brown Womanism: Tracing the Different Layers of Indian Feminism ", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org | UGC and issn Approved), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.6, Issue 6, page no. pp258-261, June 2019, Available at : http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR1907Q82.pdf