Complicating Indian feminism: Ambedkar and a birth control story

A re-examination of dominant upper-caste voices that engage with liberal values and yet disengage from those very ideas that grow from justice, equality and self-determination.

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THIS essay is an intellectual history of the language that surrounded birth control in India— with a focus on key thinkers of the time, most notably, Dr B.R. Ambedkar.

It does not examine contraception as a physical mechanism to prevent pregnancy, nor does it discuss the production and sale of condoms, diaphragms and oral pills (that entered the Indian markets from the 1930s onwards).

Instead, it treats the issue of birth control not as static, but as one that exists within a changing social and political context. This perspective is useful in understanding contraception not simply as a function to regulate childbearing, but as a moral and intellectual lens to understand how we approach women's reproductive health.

It nourishes skepticism about the permanence of concepts and openness to different moral and philosophical perspectives simultaneously.

Feminist concerns in India

It may be fair to argue that the feminist movement in India has faced enduring internal challenges. Brahminical feminism has shown a narrow vision in the representation, division of labour, access to resources and prioritisation of issues.

For instance, the second wave of feminism in India saw liberals bring to the table matters of gender and class. It neglected the missing Dalit representation, double discrimination of caste and gender injustice, and the subsuming of the feminist agenda by upper-caste goals.

Academic language has, in recent years, seen remarkable scholarships, such as the work of Shailaja Paik, Sharmila Rege and Gopal Guru calling out these inadequacies and asserting that sexual politics cannot be revised without contesting differential access to and control over labour, sexuality and reproduction by caste and class.