Caste and Gender Backlash: A Study of the #MeToo Movement in Tertiary Education in Kolkata, India

Abstract

In the light of the #MeToo movement, this paper explores how the positionality (in terms of caste and class) of female university students in Kolkata, India is employed as an instrument of backlash to pushback their efforts at making progressive change with regard to sexual harassment. The study includes an analysis of six semi-structured interviews based on an amalgamation of conventional and alternate understandings of backlash. It argues that conventional and alternate understandings are not independent of each other, but are interlinked and exist side by side. Backlash silences women and forestalls their demands and pushes crucial gender issues to the backburner.

Cosmopolitanism, Politics and Regionalism: Calcutta and India’s Struggle for Independence

“…Sanyal argued that Das always pursued politics with an eye to the interests of the group he led; thus, his negligence for Gandhi and his rural reconstruction programme were natural. 15 The Gandhian bloc was not included in this political field due to its nonconformity with Das's corporation-centric politics, and the seeds of this exodus were sown after non-cooperation. C.R.…”