‘Marry me to a serviceman or a city dweller’: aspirations of young Bhumihar women in rural Bihar

Rai, Vandana (2025) ‘Marry me to a serviceman or a city dweller’: aspirations of young Bhumihar women in rural Bihar. Contemporary South Asia, 33 (2). pp. 301-314. ISSN 0958-4935

Text - Published Version Restricted to Repository staff only Download (615kB) | Request a copy

Abstract

This paper aims to understand the new marital aspirations of young rural women of a landed community in the backdrop of the devaluation of rural and peasantry. The paper explores this through the narratives of Bhumihar women, collected through a yearlong ethnographic work in a village of Jehanabad district, Bihar. Arranged marriages are still the governing norm, yet their aspirations and articulation have given rise to a new normative system of the marriage arrangement, such as ‘dekha- dekhi’ and pre-marriage telephonic conversation, which has given the conjugal relationship new meaning. This paper will enable us to understand how the shift in the agential power of young women has reconfigured many of the caste and gender norms in the village.

Item Type:	Article
Authors:	Rai, Vandana
Document Language:	Language English
Subjects:	Social sciences > Sociology & anthropology > Social interaction > Social interaction within groups > Social interaction in primary groups
Divisions:	Azim Premji University - Ranchi > School of Development
Full Text Status:	Restricted
URI:	http://publications.azimpremjiuniversity.edu.in/id/eprint/7768
Publisher URL:	https://doi.org/10.1080/09584935.2025.2494607

Actions (login required)

View Item