“Surplus Woman”: Female Sexuality and the Concept of Endogamy

This essay traces the colonial origins of the concept of endogamy and its history as a foundational idea in the modern study of society in South Asia. The history of the concept of endogamy reveals how the control of female sexuality shaped the overlapping fields of Indology and ethnology. The inven...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Journal of Asian studies Vol. 80; no. 1; pp. 3 - 26
Main Author: Mitra, Durba
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: New York, USA Cambridge University Press 01.02.2021
Duke University Press, NC & IL
Subjects:
19th century
20th century
Administrators
Ambedkar, Bhimrao Ramji (1891-1956)
Caste
Colonialism
Deployment
Endogamy
Ethnology
Females
Feminism
Ferguson, John
Kinship
Knowledge
Marriage
Modern society
Patriarchy
Said, Edward
Sexuality
Social life & customs
Social sciences
Social theories
Society
Violence
Women
India
South Asia
colonialism
Indology
gender
sexuality
caste
social theory
ethnology
endogamy
South Asia
violence
ISSN:0021-9118, 1752-0401
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:This essay traces the colonial origins of the concept of endogamy and its history as a foundational idea in the modern study of society in South Asia. The history of the concept of endogamy reveals how the control of female sexuality shaped the overlapping fields of Indology and ethnology. The invention and deployment of endogamy in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries is discussed in the writings of key colonial writers and British administrators, such as J. F. McLennan and H. H. Risley, and Indian intellectuals, including S. V. Ketkar and B. R. Ambedkar. It argues that the modern study of caste naturalized the control of female sexuality through the uncritical use of the concept of endogamy, which Ambedkar diagnosed as the irresolvable problem of the “Surplus Woman” in 1917. The essay reflects on the long life of endogamy and the enduring problem of nonconjugal sexuality in modern social theories of South Asia.
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ISSN:0021-9118
1752-0401
DOI:10.1017/S0021911820003666