Uddipana Goswami’s Gendering Peace in Violent Peripheries: Marginality, Masculinity and Feminist Agency (published by Routledge in 2023) is a comprehensive study of the intersections between gender, violence, and peacebuilding. The book presents an in-depth analysis of how gendered violence and inequality manifest in conflict-affected regions, and how feminist agency can play a key role in building sustainable peace. The book is a tour de force, drawing on a wealth of empirical data from the Northeastern region of India to develop a compelling argument about the role of gender in violent conflicts.
Goswami focuses on the interconnections between patriarchal predominance, ethnic fragmentations, and postcolonial confrontations primarily in Assam. Assam is among the eight states in Northeast India, which is one of the most sustained conflict zones in South Asia bordering East and Southeast Asia.
Goswami delves into the multifaceted conflict that has plagued the region, which has resulted in the marginalization of women and a distorted sense of masculinity that threatens the peace and stability of the region. The book is structured around the theme of gendered agency and its impact on peacebuilding efforts in this conflict-prone region. Goswami’s central thesis is that the location of women in the margins of society, whether by virtue of their ethnicity, class, or caste, is intimately tied to the perpetuation of violence. This violence, she argues, is not just physical, but also symbolic, perpetuated through gendered ideologies that privilege masculinity and devalue femininity. This is particularly evident in the Northeastern region of India, which has a history of violent conflict fueled by ethnic tensions and separatist movements.
Drawing on interviews with women who have been affected by these conflicts, Goswami highlights the different ways in which they experience violence, as well as the strategies they use to resist it. She focuses on the role of feminist organizations in promoting peace and challenging gendered norms. By highlighting the voices of women who are often silenced or marginalized in peace-making efforts, Goswami makes an important contribution to the literature on conflict resolution.
The book is divided into two main sections. The first section provides a theoretical overview of the intersections between gender, violence, and peacebuilding. Goswami begins by exploring the concept of gender itself, arguing that it is a socially constructed identity that shapes how individuals experience violence and oppression. She then delves into how gendered violence manifests in conflict-affected regions, emphasizing the role of masculinity in perpetuating this violence.
The second section of the book provides a more detailed exploration of these issues in practice. Goswami uses case studies from Northeast India to illustrate her arguments. One particularly powerful example is the story of an all-women peace committee in the village of Sopur. The committee was formed in response to a violent conflict that had erupted between two clans in the village. The women on the committee were able to use their status as neutral parties to bring the two sides to the negotiating table and to initiate a peace process.
One of the strongest aspects of Gendering Peace in Violent Peripheries is the author’s ability to closely examine the complexity of the Northeast (Assam), which is often overlooked by mainstream national narratives or classed under the broad umbrella of ‘the problem areas’. The strength of the book is its in-depth explication of the feminist agency in creating peacebuilding processes. Goswami sketches out women’s engagement with constitutional and legal processes and the activism of civil societies in transforming the dominant understandings of masculinity in a region that has a history of violent conflict. She recognises the marked gap between official policies and implementation, as well as the implementation of feminist interventions in the region. Despite this, the book gives a rigorous and detailed analysis of the emergence of women-led activism and alternative narratives of masculinity.
An important dimension of the book is its focus on political masculinity and the impact that this has had on peacebuilding efforts. These toxic masculinities are one of the key barriers to peacebuilding in the region. Goswami argues that peacebuilding intervention must include a critical interrogation of this and must explicitly work towards creating alternative concepts of masculinity. The author uses narratives of male actors revolting against existing violent masculinities to strengthen such claims.
The author has made a commendable attempt to include the voices of the affected communities, particularly the women. Various interviews in the book bring out the complicit and problematic nature of governmental practices, which only cater to the voices of male-dominated perspectives. Many accounts demonstrate how the activists try to bring out the multiple perspectives of each situation and integrate them into policy discussions. Gender, in this sense, is not just a category to analyse the marginalization and exclusion of women, but also one that addresses the societal and political constructions, as well as the dilemmas of identity, specifically amongst the marginalized communities in the region.
However, there are certain limitations of the book that need to be acknowledged. One of the significant drawbacks is the under-theorization of concepts that the author uses to categorize different communities in the region. For instance, she uses the term ‘imperial categories’ to include the broader meta-narrative of the colonial and the post-colonial period to highlight exclusive governmental and media representations of the region. But the author does not go into its in-depth critical analysis or if there can be a contradiction within this category.
Similarly, the author uses the term ‘violence’ extensively but doesn’t go into the definition or an in-depth classification of that term, which hinders its effectiveness in analysis. Since violence is the key aspect of the book’s focus, a detailed analysis of the type of violence and its impact on gender would improve its clarity of analysis. Furthermore, despite the recognition and inclusion of different caste perspectives in the book, there is no in-depth exploration of caste and its intersection with gender, depriving the book of a more nuanced critique.
In conclusion, the book is an essential addition to the literature on gender, violence, and peacebuilding. The book not only analyses the impact of the Northeast India conflict but also provides insight into peacebuilding in similar socio-political contexts around the globe. Overall, this book is a much-needed addition to the feminist peacebuilding agenda, and an invitation to begin delving deeper into the issues of gendered violence and agency in conflict scenarios.
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Aruna Bhattacharya is the lead of Academics and Research at the Indian Institute for Human Settlements (IIHS) in Bengaluru, India and is currently engaged with the School of Human Development building up the urban health and public health component.