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Deep care: The COVID‐19 pandemic and the work of marginal feminist organizing in India

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  • Pallavi Banerjee
  • Chetna Khandelwal
  • Megha Sanyal

Abstract

In this paper, we adopt a Southern feminist epistemology to critically appraise the ways in which media discourse on gendered organizing during the Indian COVID‐19‐induced migrant crisis resists or reinforces hegemonic caste hierarchies. To contextualize this work, we briefly historicize scholarship on feminist organizing around land rights, hunger, and violence, while noting the politics of contagion and pollution narratives plaguing the pandemic discourse in India. After conducting a qualitative content analysis (QCA) followed by a critical discourse analysis (CDA) of media discourses across three tiers (international, national, and local), we found that international and national tiers of discourse largely deployed a savarna gaze that worked to 1) Reinforce brahminical and technocratic pandemic narratives and 2) Delegitimize Dalit marginal organizing feminist work and Dalit sensibilities through seven overlapping metrics of erasure. On the other hand, local tier of discourse confronted the savarna gaze, amplified voices of Dalit and Muslim women by centering their narratives of resistance, and tackled the exacerbation of casteist oppression under the pandemic in the service of emancipation. Local discourses also highlight how marginal organizing during the first pandemic lockdown involved provision of essential resources and services (food, medical care, security) for mostly Dalit and Muslim migrant workers, and women intersectionally facing domestic violence and savarna violence. Despite the brahmininal structural oppression, Dalit feminist praxis' emblematic resistance of oppressive structures, during and beyond times of crisis, constitutes what we call the work of deep care.

Suggested Citation

  • Pallavi Banerjee & Chetna Khandelwal & Megha Sanyal, 2024. "Deep care: The COVID‐19 pandemic and the work of marginal feminist organizing in India," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(4), pages 1479-1504, July.
  • Handle: RePEc:bla:gender:v:31:y:2024:i:4:p:1479-1504
    DOI: 10.1111/gwao.12857
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Sanjana Pegu, 2019. "MeToo in India: building revolutions from solidarities," DECISION: Official Journal of the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta, Springer;Indian Institute of Management Calcutta, vol. 46(2), pages 151-168, June.
    2. Hari Bapuji & Snehanjali Chrispal, 2020. "Understanding Economic Inequality Through the Lens of Caste," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 162(3), pages 533-551, March.
    3. Naomi LIGHTMAN, 2017. "Discounted labour? Disaggregating care work in comparative perspective," International Labour Review, International Labour Organization, vol. 156(2), pages 243-267, June.
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