Indian Women . Edited by Devaki Jain. New Delhi: Government of India, 1975. xxii, 312 pp. Tables. $4.50 (Dist. through Inter-Culture Associates)

JOURNAL OF ASIAN STUDIES and are constantly under pressure by farmers in This collection of twenty-two essays was com- the surplus-producing states who withhold their missioned to update a 1958 government pub- grain to obtain private benefits. Third, the role of lication ( W omen of India, edited by Tara Ali the unofficial agencies was crucial , as Singh will- Baig), and to respond to contemporary women's ingly admits. The most important Indian agency liberation movements in the West and their inter- was the Bihar Relief Committee, begun and held est in the progress of Indian women. Most of the together by the skill of J ayaprakash Narayan. essays are concerned to see if the Indian experi- Without such a legitimating, charismatic figure, ence has anything specific to add to the discussion relief donations may not have flowed so readily, on the role of men and women in societies and on and agreements among warring political groups to the issue of equality. The contributors are per- suspend electioneering antics in favor of coopera- sons who have views and ideas for policy, so the tion may not have been secured. On the other book .. does not claim to be . . . research but a hand, the international relief groups brought into collection of reflections (p. xiv). This is an accu- Bihar more than sixty percent of all the relief rate assessment, and with a few exceptions, this distributed in 1967- 68 (estimated value-about volume does not add significantly to knowledge Rs. 2.2 billion: table 29). The US role, while very and analysis of women in Indian society. It is, great, was also very grudging {see pp. 189- 98). however, interesting for the overall impression of This suggests that the state of India's foreign ambivalence it conveys about the changing status relations is a crucial factor; if we add to this the of women in India. The editor, Devaki J ain, selected the writers relative lack of food surpluses in the seventies, a doubt arises whether India would ever again be and topics. She is unhappy with the Western aided on such a scale. All these factors suggest that imitative march towards equality, which ig- the success of the relief effort in 1967 resulted in nores physiological differences and the attributes large part from a favorable conjunction of events which make women in some respects superior to within and outside Indi a, just as the disaster of the men. Stating that .. it is recognition of the dis- Bengal famine of 1943- when at least i.5 million tinctive features of womanhood, an identification perished-resulted from an unfavorable con- of its advantages, and the exploitation of those by j unction of internal and external events. Th us the women that will give them status, .. she represents major premise, that famine relief can be modern- many of the contributors as believing that the ized to the point of sure effectiveness, seems uncer- tolerance, set f-sacrifice, acceptance of roles by tain. Relief is effective when there are resources, them have sustained a certain harmony and beauty food, and organized cooperation; but even then in Indian life (pp. xv- xvi). Were they stated by the cost of success seems high. For one thing , feminists, such beliefs would reflect cultural or massive relief wrecks the developmental plans radical feminist ideology, which postulates a fe- carefully laid by the planners, while indebting male culture that is caused by physiological factors India further to the suppliers of foreign aid. The and/ or social conditioning and which differs qual- solution desired is a modernization not of relief itatively from male culture. Characterized as cre- but of the Indian economy. ative and nurturing, this female culture should be The reader should be warned that an unneces- preserved and elevated to a leading role in modern sarily large number of typesetting errors appear in society. But these contributors, unlike cultural fem- this volume, which become particularly irritating inim- who often appear to be building a sepa- when one is trying to puzzle out the numerous ratist movement with their emphasis upon services tables that support the author's text. Percentages and institutions by and for women-envision In- often do not total to 100, which produces a small dian women always within the contexts of family, frenzy in this reader. home, and nation. The question implicit in many of these essays is whether or not Indian civilization PAUL R. GREENOUGH has the potential- perhaps even the demonstrated University of Iowa capacity- to grant equality to women without ex- periencing the divisiveness, the conflict of sex Indi an Women. EDITED BY DEVAKI JAIN. New and/ or class that they see in the women· s move- Delhi: Government of India, 1975· xxii, 312 ment in the West. The contributions are uneven in quality and pp. Tables. $4.50 (Dist. through Inter- Culture Associates) rather unsuccessfully organized in two sections of