topics: |  sociology | gender | women | india

Review: Margoti. Duley, Eastern Michigan University

Gender and Society, Vol. 11, No. 3, (Jun., 1997), pp. 380-381

There is much to recommend about this book. Lucid, elegantly written
ethnography, compassion toward the women in their studies, and jargon-free
discussions of the theoretical issues raised by their feminist scholarship
have been hallmarks of the previous works of Patricia and Roger
Jeffrey. Their latest book, Don't Marry Me to a Plowman! Women's Everyday
Lives in Rural India, continues this tradition. This biographical volume is
also innovative in its format.

Sixteen chapters follow a lengthy introduction. The chapters work in
tandem. Odd- numbered ones form "thematically organized interludes" (p. 3)
that explore issues such as childbearing, dowry, marriage negotiations,
domestic violence, divorce, mothers-in-law, and widowhood. These alternate
with chapters that offer a sustained focus on a particular woman whose life
illustrates a theme. The eight chapter-long biographies are well balanced by
caste, class, and religion. In this book, the Jeffreys rely in part on data
originally gathered for another purpose.

Beginning in 1982 to 1983, and continuing with extended field trips in
1985 and 1990 to 1991, the Jeffreys conducted fieldwork in two adjacent
villages, Dharmnagri (a Hindu village) and Jhakri (a Muslim village) in the
district of Bijnor in Uttar Pradesh. Much of their focus has been on women's
maternity histories (Jeffrey, Jeffrey, and Lyon 1989). Don't Marry Me to a
Plowman!  draws on a selection of their precoded interviews on maternity
history, augmented with field notes; folk songs; conversations with the
subjects, their families, and their neighbors; and day-to-day interactions in
which the researchers were sometimes as much participants as observers.

The more sustained narratives are often gripping. Who can forget the
bravery and desperation of ill and exhausted Najma, who defied the forces of
family and religion to be sterilized after bearing nine children, or the
assertive, sharp-tongued Dilruba, divorced by her abusive husband but still
not broken in spirit as she seeks contact with her children? These dramatic
tales are interspersed with depictions of more ordinary but nonetheless
illustrative lives.

Comprehensive oral histories were not collected. The Jeffreys relied
instead on varied and disparate sources of information, including valuable
insights from their village female research assistants and their own years of
local observations and friendships. In their introduction, the authors are
aware of the current sociological and historical debates about the
authenticity of biography and of the limitations of their sources. They
discuss the ambiguous role of the researcher in framing a reality-and even
altering it-and the fluidity of memory. They carry off their book with
considerable success.

Interspersed with thematic discussions composed of dialogues, episodes,
and songs, the life histories deal with topics of vital concern for women in
rural north India: the birth of children, worries about dowry, arranging
weddings, sexual politics in marriage, relationships with in-laws,
relationships with natal kin, and widowhood.