Educating Activists: Development and Gender in the Making of Modern Gandhians

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Lexington Books, Oct 26, 2010 - Social Science - 264 pages
What do people make of their own development? In Educating Activists, Rebecca M. Klenk illuminates a reality that is far more complex than either development planners or critics commonly assume. This gracefully written, accessible ethnography shows how rural women accept, refuse, reinterpret, and negotiate development's terms in a quest to improve their own communities. Klenk offers an account of Lakshmi Ashram, a remarkable Gandhian educational initiative for women and girls in Himalayan India. Drawing on extensive fieldwork, Educating Activists blends memories and stories with historical research and richly detailed ethnographic analysis to craft a compelling portrait of how women across two generations have engaged with issues of sustainability, poverty, gender equity, autonomy, and progress.
 

Contents

Introduction
1
Developed Women
27
Sarala Devis Daughters
93
Development Place and Possible Futures
195
Glossary
223
Bibliography
225
Index
243
About the Author
251
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About the author (2010)

Rebecca M. Klenk is a sociocultural anthropologist who teaches at the University of Tennessee and has directed the University of Washington's Environment and Development Study Abroad Program in India.

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