From Astitva (Existence) toward Vyaktitva (Identity): The challenges of a local feminism

How do new movement activists from small towns and away from movement centers articulate and practice the visions of diffuse social movements like the women's movements? In what ways do local movement practices inform the larger movement and movement theory? These are some of the questions addressed in this examination of the practices of Astitva, a women's organization in a provincial town in Gujarat, India. The author shows that Astitva activists represent new political actors, located at a geographic and political 'borderland.' Like 'banditas' they raid their voluntary service experiences, the practices of different strands of the women's movements in India, and their own and local women's common sense to fashion a quilted feminism that is their own. This local feminism-put into practice through collective counseling and public consciousness-raising programs-is providing an alternative discourse in the community, challenging local community norms, and empowering individual women. It is also a limited feminism that fails to deal with issues of caste, class, and religion in a meaningful way.