Research Report Series

Research Report No. 5

Regulated Independence
Female Students Living in Hostels
in Central Gujarat, India
Fieke Jgers
January 2013

National Institute of Advanced Studies

Bangalore, India

Amsterdam Institute for Social Science Research

University of Amsterdam

REGULATED INDEPENDENCE
FEMALE STUDENTS LIVING IN HOSTELS
IN CENTRAL GUJARAT, INDIA

ProGlo Research Report No. 5

Fieke Jgers

January 2013

This research report is a slightly revised version of the authors Bachelor thesis in Cultural
Anthropology and Development Sociology, submitted to the College of Social Sciences, University
of Amsterdam, in October 2012.

Copyright: NIAS and AISSR

No part of the paper can be published, reprinted or reproduced in any form without permission.

Published by:
National Institute of Advanced Studies (NIAS), Bangalore, and
Amsterdam Institute for Social Science Research (AISSR)

Bibliographic information:
Jgers, Fieke. 2013. Regulated Independence: Female Students Living in Hostels in Central Gujarat,
India. Provincial Globalisation Research Report No. 5. Bangalore: National Institute of Advanced
Studies and Amsterdam Institute for Social Science Research.

ABSTRACT
Young female students in Vidyanagar, India, are subjected to new living conditions. They moved away
from their family homes for study purposes and are now living independently. The level of social control
decreases in the absence of close family members, which offers these youngsters the possibility to act
independently. Their hometown-based parents still manage, however, to impose restraining regulations
on their daughters. They do so through various channels, which include their social network in
Vidyanagar and the use of modern communication technology. At the same time, these young women are
subjected to the social control of their new community: the Vidyanagar community. Deviant behaviour
can have severe, long-term consequences for the reputation of both students and their families. However,
in this temporary phase of independence, the young women secretively act upon their personal interest, in
the realisation that they will have to conform to the dictates of yet another set of family members after
graduation, their future in-laws.

PREFACE
This bachelor thesis is based on research conducted in Vidyanagar, India. In January and February 2012, I
resided in Vidyanagar with two bachelor-level co-students and one master-level student.
This research is linked to a larger research programme - Provincial Globalisation: The Impact of Reverse
Transnational Flows in Indias Regional Towns, which is coordinated by Professor Carol Upadhya of the
National Institute of Advanced Studies in Bangalore and Professor Mario Rutten of the Amsterdam
Institute for Social Science Research, University of Amsterdam.
I want to express my sincere gratitude to my supervisor, Prof. Dr. Mario Rutten, who has guided,
supported and encouraged me during the process of my research. I would not have had this opportunity
that has enriched my education, without him.
Furthermore, I want to thank the Provincial Globalisation Research Team and the people from the Sardar
Patel University for giving me the opportunity to conduct this research. Particular gratitude goes out to
the Vice-Chancellor Prof. Dr. Harish Padh of the Sardar Patel University, Mr. Tushar Majmudar, and
Prof. Amrapali Merchant for her guidance during my fieldwork period. This experience has taught me
many useful lessons from which I will highly benefit in my future studies and thereafter.

Fieke Jgers,
Amsterdam, October 2012

INTRODUCTION
Here we are free as birds, we can be lively and outgoing and spend our time with
friends. At home we have a different role. There we have the responsibility to take
care of others and obey our parents, there we always need to adjust (Vamil 1, 22 years).

The young woman in the quote stated above, Vamil, reflects on her living conditions in the university
town Vidyanagar, Gujarat. I had met Vamil a few days earlier when she agreed to do an interview with
me. She invited me to come to her room in the girls-hostel after curfew. The sun had just set, the doors
of the hostel were locked and the atmosphere inside was very lively. The young women walked in and out
of each others rooms and yelled across the courtyard to get the attention of their friends on different
floors.
Vamil is one of the youngsters who have moved away from their hometown to study at the Sardar Patel
University in Vidyanagar. For some of the young women discussed in this thesis, Vidyanagar is
geographically located over a thousand kilometres away from their hometown. It is their first experience
of living independently, apart from their family. This thesis explores the opportunities, consequences and
complexities of this new living environment, as experienced by these female students.
Existing literature on the movement of individuals tends to focus on the international migration of people
from developing countries to developed countries. In this debate, scholars examine the motivations of
people to move abroad in search for better economic opportunities, modern lifestyles or in order to
escape the restrictive social environment in their home region. After their movement, migrants stay
connected with their home communities and are therefore seen as the nodes through which remittances
and ideas flow across nation-borders (Levitt, Glick Schiller 2004: 1009). As migrants become part of both
societies at the same time, scholars argue that migration can have a transformative influence on both
regions.
In these studies many facets of international migration are discussed. However, with the existing emphasis
on migratory flows between different nation-states, the movement within nation-states is sometimes
overlooked. The debate seems to indicate that economic progress and social improvement is only
possible if people physically cross the border of their home country. This view, however, entails the risk
of portraying these migrants home country as a homogeneous unity with little opportunities for progress.
This thesis explores the possibilities of young Indian women to increase their independence from
restrictive social control by moving within India. In the following literature review I will further outline the
1

To ensure the anonymity of the respondents, the names of my informants have been changed in this thesis.

dominant debate on the influence of international migration on the country of origin, which I will
illustrate by introducing a few studies of both youngsters who migrated abroad and those who stayed in
their home country. To understand the implications that moving out of the family home has on the lives
of young Indian women, I will also closely look at the position of women within Indian society and family
structures. Following the literature review, more information is presented about the informants, the
young female students, and the research setting Vallabh Vidyanagar. Then, the research methodology is
described, discussing the methods and strategies I used and the methodological problems I encountered
during my fieldwork period. In the three following sections an analysis is given of the empirical data I
obtained during the research in Vidyanagar.

LITERATURE REVIEW
To understand the complexities of international migration, scholars in recent years have focused on
the ongoing and continuing ways in which current-day immigrants construct and reconstruct their
simultaneous embeddedness in more than one society (Glick Schiller et al. 1995: 48). They argue that
migrants are situated in a transnational social field in which they link the home society with the receiving
country. In this point of view, migrants have become the nodes through which information, resources,
and identities flow across nation-borders, by the intensive connectedness they uphold with their
hometown community (Levitt, Glick Schiller 2004: 1009). Money, goods and ideas are exchanged
between the country of origin and the receiving country, which can lead to a rearrangement of local
hierarchy, gender relations and consumer habits in the home society (Vertovec 2004: 985). 2
Transformative influence of migration on the social structure of the homeland society is a topic discussed
thoroughly by William Kandel and Douglas S. Massey (2002). They argue that if migratory behaviour
extends throughout a community, it increasingly enters the calculus of conscious choice and eventually
becomes normative, resulting in a culture of migration (Kandel and Massey 2002: 982). The terminology
culture of migration was used by Jeffrey Cohen (2004) to encompass the embeddedness of migration
influences in the local social environment. In his research in southern Mexico, Cohen saw that the
extensive migration of local individuals turned migration into an everyday experience of the rural
Oaxacans that stayed behind in the home region (2004: 147).
Multiple aspects of this phenomenon are represented in Samuli Schielkes (2008) research on male
youngsters in rural Egypt. Schielke argues that the large emigration flow of relatives and family members
continuously influences the members in the home community. New expectations about what life should
be like arise in the minds of Egyptian youngsters as they are confronted with the success stories of
wealthier migrants living a more modern lifestyle abroad. In comparison to the lives of the migrants, these
youngsters start to perceive their own lives in rural Egypt as boring and lacking in opportunities to
progress (Schielke 2008: 254-258). These frustrations about their own position make the youngsters
passive in the pursuit of goals and the investment in their lives in Egypt. The youngsters feel that the rural
surroundings can no longer offer the means to fulfil their expectations and desires. Schielke encountered
that, in the absence of possibilities to progress in the home region, almost everybody had aspirations to
migrate.
The research of Schielke and the larger migration debate in general, merely focuses on economic reasons
for men to migrate. Less attention has been paid to the role of women in migration flows and their social
motives behind international movement. One of the studies offering insights into the motives of women
2 For further readings on this subject also see: Bose 2008; Glick Schiller et al. 1995; Glick Schiller et al. 1992; Kearney
1995; Lessinger 1992; Velayutham and Wise 2005.

to move abroad is that of Rutten and Verstappen (2012) examining the contradictory migration
experiences of Indian youngsters who recently moved to Britain on a student or temporary work visa
(Rutten and Verstappen 2012: 1). On the one hand, these scholars argue that the youngsters moved
abroad so they could improve their position in India by earning money [in London] and gaining work
(and study) experience... (Rutten and Verstappen 2012: 12). On the other hand it became apparent from
their research that youngsters, and especially young women, moved abroad to escape from constraining
family ties. In their hometown, social restrictions and obligations to family members weigh heavily on
these youngsters. The independent lifestyle in London offers them opportunities to express themselves
more freely. The cases introduced by these scholars illustrate how the absence of relatives offer the
youngsters more freedom, for instance in ways of being affectionate with each other by holding hands
and by sitting on each others lap, and so on. These expressions of intimacy would not have been
considered appropriate behaviour in their hometown. In another case, a young woman, Indira, moves to
London in order to be together with her boyfriend Dipesh. If she had stayed in India her parents would
have arranged her marriage with someone else. Indira and Dipesh belong to different castes and therefore
could not be involved in a love relationship in India, let alone get married. When the two youngsters were
situated in London, however, close family members mediated, trying to get the parents from both sides to
meet each other and finally to agree to the marriage. Rutten and Verstappen state that this case illustrates
how migration is used as a strategy of avoidance [and] shows how migration can prove fortuitous for
those involved (2012: 13- 14).
Another scholar addressing the social motivations of female migration is Toshie Habu (2000) in her study
on female Japanese students studying in Britain. Habu argues that the young women living in Japan are
influenced by globalisation, as it has dispersed liberal values across the borders of nation states. This
process has created an imbalance between young womens liberal aspirations and their restricted social
and economic autonomy in Japan (Habu 2000: 45). These women chose to study abroad in Britain, as
they are unable to fulfil their aspirations in the restrictive social environment of Japan. In her study, Habu
explores the wide range of motives of these young women to migrate, including the pursuit of greater
freedom and self-development, dissatisfaction with domestic education options, escaping from social
pressures, and achieving cosmopolitan status (Habu 2000: 52). Habu states that economic motivations to
study in Britain barely arose during the interviews. Foremost, the young women expressed their
academic and career ambitions to be the incentives for migration (Habu 2000: 55). However, the
women also discussed their more private and underlying motives for their migration, concerning the
repressive regulations in Japan that have constrained them in their personal aspirations.
The debates and studies above seem to indicate that improvement of the financial and social position of
individuals can only be achieved through international migration. Following William Kandel, Douglas S.
Massey and Jeffrey H. Cohen, these empirical studies indicate that migratory behaviour can become
normative for those living in the home country as a result of the emigration of others. A major argument
5

of these scholars is that individuals in the home region have come to see migration as the only
opportunity to change their current economic and social position. The vast majority of people, however,
do not leave their home country. In the case on India, only 0.9% of the total Indian population had
emigrated in 2010 (The World Bank 2011: 138). Within the academic debate on migration a sharp division
has often been made between those who move abroad and are enabled to progress economically and
socially in a modern environment, and those who stay behind in a more traditional environment where
progress is less possible (Habu 2000; Schielke 2008).
The debate on the position of Indian women and the possibilities to change their social position is often
discussed within the framework of international migration. The vast amount of academic literature that is
written on Indian women living within India mainly focuses on their inferior status and subordinate
position within the patriarchal Indian society and family structure. According to Thapan (2001) and
Bharat (2003) the dependency of Indian women within Indian society is formed by the traditional and
patriarchal character of Indian society. Relationships within the Indian joint family 3 are set along the lines
of traditional patriarchal values and practices, which determine the specific codes of behaviour for the
roles that the different members take part in. Differences in age and gender are dominant factors in
defining the position of a member within the family. Age seniority will bring authority and respect from
younger members (Bharat 2003: 159). Senior women, for example, have authority over the younger
women in the household: they can regulate and monitor their behaviour and activities, and it is expected
of junior women to be submissive towards these senior women (Menon 2002: 298).
On the topic of gender differences within Indian society, Bharat argues that Indian women are
subjected to a relationship of dependency throughout their lives, as the Indian society is structured
following the norms of patriarchy whereby women are placed in an inferior position to men (2003:
159). The roles of women are conditioned by strict codes of conduct that are internalised through
socialisation from childhood. According to Mary Ann Maslak and Gayatri Singhal, young Indian girls
learn to accept their subservient role, to learn modesty and self-denial, and to develop proficiency in
household tasks and childcare through intensive participation in the natal home where they are
considered guests until they marry and leave (2008: 485). Following traditional norms women are
expected to confine themselves to the realm of the household. Spending a lot of time in public life
without a member of the family is considered to be immodest behaviour in the more traditional
communities. Social contact, especially with individuals of the other sex, and the possibility to move in
public is curtailed by social control and constraining regulations of parents and parents in-law.
Scholars focusing on the position of women within Indian society also discuss the importance attached to
the character of Indian women. It is expected that they internalise the lessons learned at a younger age
and behave in a modest, proper and chaste manner throughout the course of their lives (Maslak and
The ideal family formation in India is that of the joint family. This formation consists of multiple generations,
often grandparents, parents and children, living under the same roof. The men in the joint family are blood relatives.

Singhal 2008; Menon 2002). It is the responsibility of an Indian woman to retain a good character, also
when not under the watchful eye of family members (Menon 2002: 297). A woman with improper
character traits can bring shame to the whole family.
The international migration debate and the motives of women to migrate abroad are in line with the
picture given of the Indian patriarchal society. International migration offers a possibility for women to
escape the restrictive family ties. As restrictive social control is mostly imposed on women by family
members within the household, it is interesting to see whether moving out of the household but within
the Indian nation state could also bring change to the social position of young women. What are the
conditions for young Indian women living independently from close relatives within India? This thesis
discusses the possibilities for young Indian women to gain independence and escape a restrictive
environment by moving within their own country. I will focus on a particular group of young female
students living independently in hostels in the university city Vallabh Vidyanagar in India. The research
question that will be answered in the following chapters is:

How does the living arrangement of female students in Vallabh Vidyanagar, Gujarat (India) give them more
independence from family ties?

Before outlining my empirical arguments, I will provide more information about my research group, the
research field and the methodology used.

YOUNG FEMALE STUDENTS IN VALLABH VIDYANAGAR

I conducted my research in the small university town called Vallabh Vidyanagar, 4 in Central Gujarat,
India. The Gujarat state is situated in the North-West of India and is one of the prosperous states in
India (Rutten and Patel 2007: 168). The area around Vidyanagar is characterised by its agricultural
environment. Vidyanagar is located between the larger cities Ahmedabad and Vadodara. Vidyanagar is a
middle-sized town (the population of the Anand metropolitan area, to which Vidyanagar belongs, had
286.921 people in 2011). 5 It does not have the high-rising skyscrapers and the modernity of Indias
metropolises. The town is, however, bustling with little shops. And around the larger intersections you
can find modern eateries like Subway, fancy coffee bars and multi-storeyed supermarkets.
The campus of the Sardar Patel University (SPU) is situated at the centre of Vidyanagar. The university
was established in 1955 by Shree Bhailalbhai Patel, better known as Bhaikaka, and was named after the
independence leader Sardar Vallabhbhai Jhaverbhai Patel. 6 Next to the university buildings are twelve
girls and eight boys hostels 7, situated both on and around the campus. A middle aged woman who keeps
an eye on the girls living in the hostel, is often present as a warden in the girl-hostels. The warden has
contact with the parents and keeps them informed on the actions of their daughter. Students whose
hometown is located far from Vidyanagar can take residence in one of these hostels, or in one of the
many home-stays. 8 There are differences in price and quality between the hostels. In the more luxurious
ones students own private rooms, while in the less luxurious accommodations they share their rooms,
with up to four fellow students staying in one. During the day, the youngsters spend their free time in the
many chai-stalls, lunchrooms, panipuri-stands and at crowded centres such as Nanabazaar, Motabazaar
and the University circle.
The group discussed in this thesis consists of seventeen young women between the age of seventeen and
twenty-eight. At the time of my research, they all resided in Vidyanagar. Fifteen of them moved away
from their hometown to study at SPU. They resided in one of the many girls-hostels where they shared
rooms with their fellow female students. Of this group, three of the youngest women moved to
Vidyanagar at the beginning of the academic year. Five girls have lived in the educational township for
about two years and seven others moved to Vidyanagar three to six years ago. Two girls lived in their
family home in Vidyanagar.

I shall use the abbreviated name when referring to the city of Vallabh Vidyanagar: Vidyanagar.
Source: http://www.census2011.co.in/census/city/335-anand.html 06/06/2012.
6 Source: http://www.spuvvn.edu/about/ 06/07/2012.
7 Source: http://www.vvnlive.com/acmod.php 06/07/2012.
8 Families host students in their home in exchange for rent.
4
5

The families of the fifteen young women who moved to Vidyanagar live dispersed across India: in Kerala
in the far south, in Northern Rajasthan or near the east coast in Orissa. 9 Only four of the young women
come from a town in the Gujarat state. Only one of the girls, Shridevi, has moved to Vidyanagar from a
metropolis, Delhi. The others come from smaller cities and towns. All fifteen young women have
(distant) relatives or family friends living in or around Vidyanagar. Sixteen of the girls study at the SPU.
Three of them are enrolled in a bachelor programme and thirteen are studying for their master degree.
The remaining one informant, who does not study at the SPU, attends the twelfth standard of a high
school.
Fifteen of the womens families are Hindu, while the other two girls are Muslim and Christian. All of the
Hindu families, except for one, belong to high castes: Brahmins, Rajputs or Patels. The girls families are
considered to be part of the middle class in their hometowns. They have the financial resources to pay for
the university tuition of their daughters, the rent of the hostel (between Rs. 7000 and Rs. 15000 a year)
and a monthly allowance of around Rs. 2000. Due to this financial support, none of the women have to
work alongside their studies to cover daily expenses. 10

More detailed information about my informants is provided in table 1 in the appendix.

There are, however, differences in wealth within the strata of the middle class. For instance, Nevas family, from
Kerala, is part of the lower middle class. They do not have a lot of money, as Neva stated, and therefore sometimes
have to struggle to pay all their monthly expenses.
9

10

METHODOLOGY
During my fieldwork period in January and February 2012, I shared an apartment with my co-students
near the SPU campus. The location of our apartment was convenient for the research as many SPU
students spend their time during the day on and around the campus, which made it easy to come into
contact with new informants. The first contact with my informants was made in small coffee bars, girlhostels, in the park in front of the main university buildings where students ate their lunch, or through
other informants.
In order to understand my informants interpretation of their social environment and their position in it, I
wanted to get involved in the different facets of their daily lives. After coming into contact with the
informants, I collected my first data through semi-structured interviews. Following that, I asked the
young women to show me around town. During the seven weeks in which I conducted my fieldwork, I
carried out several semi-structured interviews with fourteen young women. Ten of these young women, I
met on more than five occasions, while taking part in their daily activities. The time I spent with them
ranged from a few hours per meeting to a full day.
The structure of my interviews was focused on several broader themes that I wanted to cover in my
interviews. Its semi-structural character gave it a structural base as well as some room for flexibility. I
introduced the topics I considered important in respect to my research question while also giving my
informants the flexibility to convey their point of view, how they frame and understand these themes and
so on by discussing the topics that are relevant to them.
The observations during my participations gave me a contextual understanding of my informants
behaviour and statements. Lofland and Lofland (1995) state on the subject of qualitative research that
face-to-face interaction is the fullest condition of participation in the mind of another human being,
and you must participate in the mind of another human being (in sociological terms, take in the role
of the other) to acquire social knowledge (Lofland and Lofland in Bryman 2008: 385). My main research
settings were the girls-hostel that I visited on an almost daily-basis and a variety of coffee-bars, ice-creamshops and lunch-rooms. The regularity of visiting these areas benefited my research as I could build up
my rapport with these women by conversing and hanging out with them for several hours. Furthermore,
it offered me access to the activities that my informants undertook during the day. These trips, as a visit
to the cinema or going to a temple in a different town, have proved to be essential for my research as it
gave me an understanding of womens position in public life. It also gave me an insight into their hidden
and secretive behaviour, which the women were reluctant to discuss during our interviews.
During my fieldwork I continuously reflected on my research data. I presented my results to a few of the
young women as I wanted to ensure the valid correspondence between my findings and the perspectives
10

and experiences of [the] respondents (Bryman 2008: 377). I provided the most assertive and articulate
informants with sections of my data, as I thought they would be up-front and critical with me about my
findings.
The decision to follow a qualitative research design also brought some difficulties. First, during my
participation in the daily activities of my informants I often found it difficult to insert my research topics
into informal conversations, especially in group-formations. When the atmosphere was joyful and carefree
it felt inappropriate to steer the conversation towards one of my research topics. I decided not to try to
obtain a lot of information in a short time span, as it could damage my rapport with the girls. This
decision turned out to have a positive influence on my research, as the girls opened up to me as my
research continued. This enabled me to address sensitive topics more easily and be more upfront with
them.
Second, when spending more time with the young women, I noticed how their stories and action often
conflicted with their statements in previous interviews. These contradictory statements puzzled me: I did
not understand why they had portrayed themselves falsely. By accompanying the girls in their daily lives,
I came to understand how these seemingly opposite stories show the duality of their social position as a
young woman in a middle town in India. I did not dismiss their stories because they were inconsistent,
but rather tried to find out how I could understand these contradictions, while looking at it from my
informants point of view.
Third, I had to be aware of my own biased interpretation of the main concepts that my informants
brought up. For example, the statements of my informants about their parents open-mindedness in
giving them a lot of freedom seemed, in my eyes, to conflict with the strict regulation their parents put
on them. I came to realise that I perceived their statements and actions as inconsistent with each other
because I defined the concepts my informants used according to my understanding of these concepts. As
a western woman the freedom my parents give me entails the possibility to make my own independent
choices in life without being monitored by my parents and to live according to the rules I set for myself
instead of the rules and regulation of my parents. The young women I interviewed during my research
compared the freedom they get from their parents with the independence their mothers and
grandmothers received in previous generations. Even though strict rules and regulations continue to be
present, the young women argued that their parents are more open-minded in comparison with past
generations. Therefore, the meaning of concepts like freedom and open-mindedness and their
significance to my informants is completely dependent on the social context in which these women are
positioned. Their understanding of these concepts were not in accordance with my own definition.

11

LIVING INDEPENDENTLY
Student life is good. I dont want to go back home. Here I can meet with friends every
day. We tell each other everything, we talk about boys. We just dont want our lives to
change (Binal, 22 years).
When Binal made this comment, we were sitting in a crowded little coffee bar that she and her best friend
Himani visit every day after class. Four years ago, Binal moved out of her family home in Surat, a city in
the south of the Gujarat state, to study at the Sardar Patel University. She has lived in one of the many
girls-hostels ever since. Binal made the above statement during a conversation on Vidyanagar student life,
and the life after graduation. Binal reflected on the changes that her move to Vidyanagar have brought on
her personal life.
Binals quote about her situation in Vidyanagar illustrates the lives of the other young female students
who moved out of their family home and are now living in a hostel in Vidyanagar. It became clear from
the interviews that these young women felt free to move between public and private spheres. The
observations showed that they didnt hesitate to spend their free time in public: viewing the new
blockbuster Hollywood or Bollywood movies at the cinema, inviting me to go to little restaurants for
lunch, visiting a temple town an hour-drive away from Vidyanagar, or just drinking some chai in a local
chai-stall. These activities in public were rarely done alone. The young women were accompanied by their
female peers and moved around Vidyanagar in groups. Even though my informants also spent a lot of
time inside their hostels, most of the young women felt self-assured to leave the hostel whenever they
wanted to during the day.
In Vidyanagar, the absence of superiors enables women to take control over their own movement. My
informants stated that their parents had power over their mobility and fully regulated their movement in
public life when they were living in their family homes. While, in their hometowns, they were expected to
follow the dictates of parents, grandparents and other close family members and to confine themselves to
the realm of the family home; their new living conditions in Vidyanagar offered them independence from
this physical social control.
The young womens power over their social mobility in the absence of close family members also enables
them to interact more freely with male peers. For most of my informants it was unimaginable to meet
male friends in public when they were living at home: their parents would have never allowed it. In
Vidyanagar, the segregation between the two sexes is less rigid. In the study-environment of their
university, friendships are formed between boys and girls. Regularly they enjoy each others company,
hanging out in their free time. During the time I spent with the girls outside of the hostel I observed
how close these friendships are. When visiting a singing contest held in the Town Hall to support my
12

informant Sundari, I met eight of her male friends who were there to cheer her on. And Binal and Himani
were almost daily accompanied by two male friends in the small coffee bar. Binal loved teasing them and
even playfully flirted with the guy she had a minor crush on. She openheartedly talked about their
friendship and the strong bond she felt with him, explaining how they confide in each other, even about
the most personal aspects of their lives (like the death of his mother).
This close interaction and friendships between young women and men sometimes led to loverelationships. 11 Even though young womens engagement in love-relationships is considered to be
improper by the community members valuing more traditional Indian norms, eight of my informants had
a boyfriend at the time of my research. It became apparent that these men took an important position in
the lives of these young women. The women were in touch with their boyfriends on a daily basis, through
telephone calls and text messages or, for those whose boyfriends lived in Vidyanagar, by spending their
free time together. As my relationship with the women got more familiar, their love-relationships also
became an important topic in our conversations.
The fact that it had become possible for young Indian women to engage in love-relationships strongly
reflects the increased autonomy these women have obtained after moving to Vidyanagar. Living in their
natal homes, restricting regulations and social control prevent young women from interacting with their
male peers. For instance, when Sundari visited my apartment in Vidyanagar, she talked about her life in
her family home in Abu, Rajasthan. She said she had to follow the strict regulations her parents imposed
on her, which limited her mobility severely. She could not independently undertake outdoor activities.
Her days existed of attending classes during the day, doing homework afterwards, followed by watching
television, cooking with her mother, eating and going to bed at ten oclock. On the rare occasions that she
was permitted to meet her friends in public, a family member would accompany her. Now, in Vidyanagar,
Sundari spends a lot of time in public; she goes to the cinema, visits little chai-stalls and restaurants with
her friends and sees her boyfriend on a daily basis. She does not inform her parents of these activities in
Vidyanagar, as they would condemn her love-relationship and public lifestyle. Her father has warned her
not to fool around, emphasising that the reason for moving her to Vidyanagar was solely to study.
Sundari said that, if her father finds out about her behaviour, he would move her back home. Like
Sundari, the other young women stated that their parents would highly disapprove of their friendships
with boys, let alone their engagement in a love-relationship. All young women, therefore, kept their
relationships hidden from their family. Moreover, they state that by keeping it secretive, their loverelationship will be harmless to anyone. Continuing their love-relationships after graduation will be
impossible, as the young women will accept the marriage their parents arrange for them. Because of the
temporariness of the love-relationships, the youngsters see no reasons to inform their parents.

Within the love-relationships the youngsters spend time together and are affectionate physically by holding hands,
cuddling and kissing. Sexual intercourse is exceptional among this group of young women.

11

13

In the family home, total compliance and subordination to superiors is expected, which gives little room
for self-choice. The living conditions in Vidyanagar make it possible to behave more independently from
parents strict regulations. However, the gained independence is not perceived by all young women as
merely positive, as some of them expressed that they missed their home environment. The contrast
between the conditions back home and those experienced in Vidyanagar were met with mixed feelings on
my informants side, as illustrated in the following quotes:
I miss my mother. At home we would do everything together. I would share everything
with her. Now I have to take care of myself. Here I have all the freedom to go outside,
but I do not use it, because I lived all my life in a restricted environment (Madihah, 21
years).
Life in Vidyanagar is more free. Whatever I want to do, I do (Haima, 22 years).
When we first got here we wanted to go home every month. Now we dont want to
leave. We just want to stay here (Himani, 21 years).
The quotes above reflect the mixed feelings the young women have about their move to Vidyanagar.
Madihah is one of the girls who moved to Vidyanagar a few months ago. She still feels uncomfortable
with her newly acquired independence, as showed in her statements and behaviour. Madihah prefers to
spend her free time within the hostel compound, chatting with the other girls, doing homework, surfing
the Internet etc. Suggestions from my side to meet each other at other places for coffee, lunch or icecream were often discarded. Other youngsters, who moved to Vidyanagar in the last year, are less
reluctant to move around in public. It has, however, become apparent from their statements that they too
had to get used to the new independent living conditions. For instance, Sundari spends a lot of time
outside of the hostel, but also stated that she misses the close contact with her parents, especially with her
mother. In the family home, the young women were not just subjected to social control and strict rules,
they could also rely on the full guidance and support of their parents. Haima and Himani, who moved to
Vidyanagar five and six years ago, also needed some time to adapt to their new living arrangements. They
explained, however, that they learned, as time passed, to become more independent. They now highly
value the autonomy they have obtained by not having to conform to the dictates of others.
Adapting to the new living arrangements takes time. At home the young women were not taught to be
independent. Parents expected their daughters to behave according to rules prescribed to women by
traditional Indian norms and values. At home, the girls had to speak softly, behave in a modest manner,
follow the rules and had to be subservient. Parents would limit their physical mobility and try to control
the girls demeanour. Their movement to Vidyanagar relieved these young women from the watchful eyes
of their close family members. In the absence of this constant social control they have become less
14

constrained in their actions and behaviour. At the same time family members still try to monitor the
young womens behaviour from the hometown. I will focus on the different ways in which parents try to
exercise such social control over their daughters in the following section.

15

PERVASIVE SOCIAL CONTROL

The young women explained how their parents still regard it as their parental role to supervise and guide
them, even when they were living thousands of miles apart. Without their physical presence, parents need
to make use of other channels to monitor their daughters behaviour. Modern technology, relatives and
family friends partially bridge the distance between Vidyanagar and the home town, making it possible for
parents to stay informed on their daughters activities. The living arrangements of female students in
Vidyanagar, however, also enable the parents to carry out forms of social control.
Hostels for girls in Vidyanagar are designed according to the socially dominant norm that young
unmarried Indian women need supervision. The hostels have regulations to monitor the young women
living in their residence. To ensure that the residents follow the hostel rules, every hostel has a warden in
service. This mother figure watches over the girls and keeps the parents informed about their daughters
behaviour. The hostels have strict curfews between 7 pm and 9 pm, when the sun sets. Every evening an
attendance list is checked off by the warden in order to confirm that the girls are inside. Parents are
notified immediately when their daughter is not within the perimeters of the hostel after curfew.
Besides arranging living accommodations where the girls are subjected to certain regulations, parents use
multiple other channels to exercise control over their daughters. The following case will illustrate how
parents monitor the behaviour of their daughters from thousands of kilometres away.
Before moving to Vidyanagar, Neva (23 years) lived in Kerala, a state in the far south of
India. Neva has a very serene and composed character, is a strict Christian, and dedicates
herself to proper behaviour, in accordance with her faith. She enjoys her student life, the
walks through town, the contact she maintains with other young women and her study at
the SPU. Although her parents live almost 2000 kilometres away from Vidyanagar in her
hometown Thiruvalla, they consider it vital to monitor their daughter as strict as
possible. Neva talked about the ways in which they try to regulate her physical mobility.
Her father expects her to ask permission to leave the hostel. He wants to be informed of
her activities, her company and the time it will take her to return to the hostel. When she
gets back to her room, Neva is expected to call or text her father. If she neglects to do
so, her father gets very angry (Fieldnotes 18/01/2012).
This case illustrates how parents try to maintain connected with their daughters, pursuing a continuation
of their parental influence without being physically present. During the research, the interviews and
observations gave me a better understanding of the ways in which family members monitor and exercise
control over the young womens behaviour in Vidyanagar.
16

New modern media and communication technology facilitate a strong connection between the young
women in Vidyanagar and their families at home. Telephone contact is one of the channels used as a tool
to exercise social control over the women (Ghosh 2011: 162). All the informants of the research have a
mobile phone and most parents call their daughter daily. During the evening hours, when all the
youngsters were inside, many of them were on the telephone with their parents. Also during the day, I
observed that parents contacted their daughters regularly to be informed about their activity and
company. Social control through telephone contact offers the young women an opportunity to lie or
withhold the truth from their parents, which they sometimes do. But my informants are also aware that
parents contact the hostel warden and their social network in Vidyanagar to check on their daughters
behaviour.
It should be kept in mind that the motives of parents to call their daughters are not solely to impose rules
on them. It is also a way to show affection and an interest in their lives. On one hand, the young women
highly value the closeness with their parents. They even pitied me, being unable to talk to my parents
every day from India. On the other hand, they also perceived their parents calls as an attempt to limit
their autonomy. Neva expressed her conflicting feelings when reflecting on her parents repressive
regulations, which dictate that Neva should maintain frequent telephone contact, so that her parents can
regulate her behaviour and physical mobility: My parents are strict in these ways because they love me
very much But they should love me less so I would get some more freedom.
The familys social network functions as another channel through which parents can monitor the
behaviour of their daughter. Many of the youngsters have relatives or family friends living in the Anand
district. Some of the women had lived in Anand when they were younger and had now returned to study
in their former hometown. The social linkage with the Anand region played an important role in parents
decision to let their daughter move to Vidyanagar, as it assured them that someone would keep an eye on
their child. As Neva said: My father would never let me go to a place where no relatives live. Through
their social network in Vidyanagar, parents can check the behaviour of their daughter regularly. However,
information obtained through an intermediary has the risk of being altered, biased or false. Rumours may
trigger inferences that are not in line with actual events, which may cause negative judgements. As a
result, social control through a social network can have far reaching consequences, as in the case of
Madihah.
When Madihah, a Muslima, had just moved to Vidyanagar, an acquaintance of her family
warned her parents that she was spending time with a Hindu boy. Even though it was a
false allegation, Madihahs father reacted with extreme anger. He confronted her with the
allegations and stated: If this is true, I will kill you first, and then I will kill myself.
Frightened by her fathers threat, Madihah was too scared to go out of the hostel for
sixteen days. She sought the support of her mother, who took on the role of mediator in
17

the conflict. The tensions decreased after Madihah had collected evidence to refute the
allegations (Fieldnotes 13/02/2012).
Even though the second-hand information that parents obtain through their social network can be
distorted and not in line with the truth, the consequences can be very serious for the young women living
far away from their close family members, like in the case of Madihah. Therefore, the young women bear
in mind that rumours are formed and spread quickly, and actions can be interpreted wrongly. They adapt
their behaviour so that people do not come to wrong or undesirable conclusions. Meeting boyfriends in
public is always arranged in a setting with a larger group of friends, as spending time alone with a boy can
spark unwanted insinuations within the local community.
The youngsters and their parents are aware that Vidyanagar is not a metropolis where one can live in full
anonymity. There are only a few small centres in town where most of the restaurants and chai/coffee
stalls are situated and where the youngsters often come together with friends. Besides the familys social
network, the Vidyanagar community as a whole also exercises social control over the young women. The
informants stated that especially the elder generations want to make sure that traditional Indian norms
and values are preserved. Public behaviour that is considered to be out of line with these traditional
standards is condemned and can have serious consequences. The above case of Madihah shows how
quickly rumours can make its way from the Vidyanagar community to the hometown. Parents are aware
that their children are being observed in Vidyanagar. Binal stated that the relationships between families
sometimes have a competitive character, which spurs the gossip within the society:
A girl has to be perfect in the eyes of everyone she and her family know. Other people
love to say: my girl is better than yours. Your girl has a bad mentality (Binal, 22 years).
On one hand it is convenient to the parents, being regularly informed about their childrens behaviour
thousands of miles away. On the other hand, the behaviour and demeanour of their children is also
judged, and the reputation of the youngsters reflects back on their parents reputation.
Shridevi (28 years and my oldest respondent, who has lived in Delhi before moving to Vidyanagar) takes a
critical position on the Indian society and the position of women. She gave me an insight into the
representative position daughters take in within the family structure. Shridevi stated that daughters are the
bearers of the norms, values and status of the whole family. If daughters reject the dominant codes of
behaviour, it is blamed on poor parenting and, as a result, the family will be looked down upon by their
whole social network. The requirements of being a proper daughter are rigid: young girls can easily
damage their image. The girls reputation, status and that of their families are formed by the judgment of
the social community in Vidyanagar and their home communities.

18

It is understandable that parents strictly try to regulate the behaviour of their daughters, as the community
perceives these young women to embody the familys norms and values. If their reputation is damaged
by, for instance, involvement in premarital love-relationships, wearing inappropriate clothes, hanging out
in public after dark etc., it can have serious consequences for their family as well. Keeping the reputation
of the family high is important within the search of potential marriage partners. After graduation, the
families of my informants will arrange a marriage for their daughters. Doing so, parents of both parties
will examine the family background of eligible partners thoroughly, and seek a partner for their child
meeting the most important requirements. If the reputation of a family is damaged by misbehaviour of
their daughter, it will bring difficulties when trying to find their children suitable marriage partners.
Therefore, the social control of parents on their daughters is not merely to keep their own reputation high
within the community, but also to protect their daughters. Parents aim to control all actions of their
daughters in order to prevent misbehaviour that will damage their childrens future prospects.

19

REWORKING THE CONSTRAINTS

It became clear, during my interviews, that the young women are aware of the position they take in within
the family structure and the representative role they have within society. Their statements convey the
dominant view that they were raised to follow the rules and advice of their parents. A view based upon
the idea that their parents will know what is good for them, that they will keep them from harming their
own and the familys reputation. The informants have said that characteristics highly valued in young
Indian women are the ability to adapt and to be submissive. A good daughter has to be respectful towards
her parents (and future in-laws) and therefore does not go against their wishes.
My informants have made statements in order to emphasise that they do follow the rules, norms and
values of their parents while living their lives in Vidyanagar. It has become clear during this research,
however, that these young women also wish to act upon their personal desires. Desires that sometimes
prove to be complete opposites of the wishes of their parents. Despite the parents continuous attempts
of social control, their physical absence creates the space for the young women to make individual
choices. In the first section of this thesis, I discussed the daily activities of the informants in Vidyanagar
and their obtained independence. The second section has made clear how these young women have to
deal with the persisting social control carried out by their close family members and the Vidyanagar
community as a whole. I will now discuss how these women use certain tactics and knowledge to pursue
their personal interests, while avoiding any serious consequences of their actions within the Vidyanagar
community where they are monitored.
The local Vidyanagar community condemns certain forms of womens public behaviour. While men can
move around and act rather freely, women have to consider the dominant social norms and be aware with
whom they associate and how they behave (Menon 2002: 297). However, the regulations associated with
these gender roles do not merely suppress the actions of young women. By subordinating themselves to
the social rules of public behaviour, some space to manoeuvre is created by reworking the constraints.
Due to the condemnation of pre-marital love relationships it becomes inappropriate for young women to
hang out in public alone with a male friend. If the girls would ignore this social norm, their actions
would spur rumours that could lead to serious consequences, going as far as their return to the family
home. During the time I spend with my informants, I noticed how the young females surrounded
themselves with a group of female friends when spending time with male friends. When the meeting takes
place in a group context within the study environment of Vidyanagar, meetings between young men and
women are accepted by the community. As these meetings are considered to be appropriate behaviour,
falling within the social norms, they create a possibility for my informants to get involved with and
continue their love-relationships.

20

Kshema, Sundari and I met up with their boyfriends at the University circle. This
intersection is one of the centres of Vidyanagar and is located on the campus site of the
SPU. The area was bustling with students. The girls maintained an appropriate distance
from the two boys and greeted them with a simple Hi. In the way they acted people
could not tell from a distance that they were having a relationship. But from up-close I
noticed how Sundari gazed lovingly into the eyes of her boyfriend that day, sometimes
giving him a wink or secretly an air-kiss (Fieldnotes 24/01/2012).
Young women are not supposed to show affection towards men in public. The four informants from the
example given above have stated that people, even fellow students, are watching each other and can
criticise each others behaviour. Therefore, delicate matters like love-relationships are only discussed
within a selective group of friends. When the subject arose in a public setting during the conversations I
had with Binal and Himani, they lowered their voices. On another occasion, while spending the afternoon
in the room of Vibhuti, she entrusted me with her secret: she had been involved in a love-relationship for
a few months. The sensitivity of the issue became clear when she urged me not to discuss it with others,
because it was a private matter she had not yet shared with the girls surrounding her. 12
The young women use certain tactics to keep their love-relationship away from the scrutiny of the public
and to avoid false allegations about their friendship with boys.
Couples are not showing their affection outside on the streets. They even do not go out
together but always in a group. It otherwise will bring problems to the family. Even if
boys and girls are just good friends, people will talk badly about them if they will be in
public with just the two of them. Therefore, if girls take a ride on the back of a boys
bike, she will wear a scarf around her face so people will not recognise her (Hasumati, 24
years).
During my visits to restaurants or modern coffee-bars, I often observed the situation as given above. A
young couple would come in and the woman would have her head wrapped in scarves. Most of the times
the young woman would be reluctant to take the scarves off until she was in a secluded area, out of sight
from the road.

12 That the young women felt safe to elaborately talk about their boyfriends in private conversations with me, makes
sense when taking the temporality of my stay in India into account, together with my outsider position in Indian
society and the rapport I had built with my informants. The youngsters knew I would leave India after two months
of research and take their stories with me back home. Furthermore, I assured them I would use pseudonyms in my
scripts to ensure their anonymity and not share information with other informants. As an outsider from a different
country, I was not part of Indian society and did not have as many social contacts. There was little chance that I
would get in touch with an acquaintance or relative from the girls families and there would be no reason for me to
inform them of the womens activities in Vidyanagar.

21

The students in Vidyanagar share certain specific knowledge that enables them to engage in loverelationships without being sanctioned for transgressing the dominant norms. In order to do so, they
have to circumvent the social control of the familys social network and local community. Couples cannot
be affectionate in public, for the reasons outlined above, and neither within the private sphere of the
hostel, as hostels in Vidyanagar are gender specific and not accessible to people from the opposite gender.
Therefore, the knowledge of young people about secluded public spaces in Vidyanagar proves to be
essential. When meeting each other at these secluded public spaces, the youngsters are at little risk to run
into someone familiar. One of these spaces is a cinema located a few miles out of Vidyanagar in an
agricultural area. Sundari stated that the cinema offers couples some degree of privacy It is very dark, so
it is more private, no one can see us.
In the afternoon I went to the cinema with Kshema, Sundari and their boyfriends.
Although we met each other at the University circle, we took separate transport to go to
the cinema located outside of Vidyanagar. In front of the large cinema was an outside
sitting area, secluded from the road. On the small benches and on the grass around, ten
couples sat closely to each other, cuddling and a few of them kissing. Within the movie
theatre, the couples sat down scattered throughout the cinema. During the movie the
couples were very affectionate, cuddling and kissing each other.
After the movie we went to a little chai stall back in Vidyanagar. The stall was situated in
a dark little alley as it had no lighting and the sun was setting. The girls sat down at the
rearmost table in the alley. The girls and their boyfriends felt more free here than in
other public spaces and sat closely together. Kshema lit a cigarette after 15 minutes of
fiddling with it. She wanted her boyfriend to light it but he didnt. Then finally she dared
to do it, but she obviously felt not very comfortable, holding it out of sight and passing it
to her boyfriend a few times (Fieldnotes 24/01/2012).
Besides this cinema and chai stall, my informants have knowledge of other secluded public spaces where
they have little chance running into fellow classmates, family acquaintances or people from the
community who will condemn their behaviour.
For the young women, new modern media, like Facebook, and modern technology, like the Internet and
mobile phones, provide other ways in which they can communicate with peers, away from the watchful
eye of the public and social control. Mobile phones and the Internet give my informants the opportunity
to connect on a personal and more private level with others. For instance, three young women stated that
they could talk to their boyfriends in private during nightly phone calls from inside the hostel.
Throughout the day, the young women send text messages to their friends and boyfriends.
Communicating through these lines offers the youngsters the possibility to contact each other in private.
22

Based on the cases above it becomes clear that young women have to carefully manage their loverelationships and other actions that are considered to be deviant to the social norms, in order to keep
themselves away from the judgement of the public and the interventions of their parents. It struck me
how the physical absence of close relatives makes the young women feel less repressed by their familys
strict rules. This feeling of independence, however, varies within the group of informants according to the
length of their stay in Vidyanagar. In Vidyanagar there are no fathers, mothers or brothers to make
decisions for them. The younger informants who just moved to Vidyanagar felt uncomfortable having
such independence, as she has been raised not to make individual decisions. But the informants who have
been living in Vidyanagar for a few years stated that the longer they lived independently from their family,
the more they enjoyed their autonomy and making their own choices in daily life. Even though they knew
that their parents would not approve of them spending a lot of time in public in the company of male
peers, the women pursued their personal interests.
It has become apparent, when considering the statements and actions of my informants, that their
independent way of living in Vidyanagar strongly opposes their parents rules of conduct. How can we
make sense of the contradictory position in which these young women find themselves? After discussing
their own transgressions of the dominant social norms, and by keeping their future post-graduation
perspectives in mind, I was able to gain a better understanding of this inconsistency. Their position as
students, their independent living arrangements and the space they have created for their own self
determination all take place within a temporary phase in their lives. Most of my informants stated that
their parents expect them to accept a marriage proposal upon graduation. After the marriage ceremonies,
the young women will move into the homes of their in-laws and they will be given the responsibility of
the new household. They are expected to integrate into the in-laws family structure, habits, norms and
values. Moreover, as daughters-in-law, the girls will be subjected to the rules and regulations of their
husband and his parents. After years of living a more autonomous lifestyle in Vidyanagar, the youngsters
need to adapt to the dependent role of daughter in-law after marriage, as these statements of the young
women will illustrate:
Here we can do what we want to do. But after marriage we need to impress our in-laws.
Adjustment is very important, it is the soul of life, but it is very difficult (Vamil 22,
years).
My parents want me to be a good daughter in-law. They dont want to hear any
complaints from me, I need to adjust, speak softly and show no anger with my in-laws...
because your in-laws can throw you out if they want to (Hasumati, 24 years).
When Binal, 22 years, and I get back to her hostel after our trip to the temple, we sit on
the large balcony and talk for a while. It is already dark outside and we are the only ones
23

on the terrace. We talk about her future wedding plans. Binal explains to me how she
will meet with the eligible boy and his parents when her mother has found a suitable
marriage partner for her. The boy and his family will come to her parents house. She
will meet them for around 1.5 hours before she will have to make the decision if she
wants to marry him. It is horrible to make the decision so fast. You can say no, but it
becomes harder to find a good partner when you get older. Girls get married when they
are between 21 and 23 years old. Her ever-present cheeky smile has disappeared from
her face. Its hard. I dont want to get married, because I love my life as it is right now. I
will try to do another master degree so I can live this life for a year longer (Fieldnotes
04/02/2012).
Like the young women above, other informants have expressed their concerns about the changes that
marriage will have on their lives. After marriage, they will have to put aside their personal goals, for
instance their desire to pursue a career, and they will have to conform to the wishes of their in-laws. My
informants fear that it will be difficult to adjust to this role of subservient daughter in-law, after having
spent years living independently from constraining family ties. They also firmly state, however, that they
will not go against their parents plans of arranging a marriage, thereby putting their concerns about the
future aside.
These young women legitimise their own deviant behaviour by arguing that they will follow the most
significant decisions that their parents take for them. Moreover, they try to uphold a proper image of
themselves, and their family, by following the dominant social norms in public. They consider the
transgressions they make of the social norms, and thereby of their parents rules, to be harmless to anyone
if they would remain secretive. The young women do not see their behaviour as rebellious acts against the
existing regulations, but as a temporary expression of self-interests. The temporariness of their position in
Vidyanagar plays a large role in the justification of the behaviour. The youngsters express that they were
subjected to a relationship of dependency in the past, while living with their family, and that they will have
to do so again in the future, when living under the roof of their in-laws. Therefore, they want to enjoy the
minor autonomy which they have obtained by moving to Vidyanagar, for the few years that they are
studying.

24

CONCLUSION
The social environment, to which Indian women move or migrate, is of great influence on their potential
opportunities in gaining (more) autonomy. I have criticised the view of scholars who argue that Indian
women living within India are always subjected to relationships of dependence throughout their lives
(Maslak and Singhal 2008; Menon 2002). This argument is made within an international migration debate,
in which scholars focus on the different motives to migrate and the influence that international migration
can have on the lives of migrants. The new local social context brings migrants into touch with different
dominant norms and values and different ideas about gender roles. According to these scholars, women
migrate abroad in search of more autonomy and in order to obtain more opportunities for selfdevelopment (Habu 2000; Gardner and Osella 2003). However, by stating that migration to western
countries gives migrants autonomy and remaining in the home country will lead to lifelong relationships
of dependence for women, we are at risk to lose sight of the more complex local context of both
societies. Scholars, like Gardner and Osella (2003: xviii), have argued that women also face social and
physical restrictions in the receiving country after migration. And in this thesis I have argued against the
notion that women living within their home country, where they experience restrictions and regulations,
are necessarily powerless to obtain some forms of autonomy.
I have examined how the living arrangements in Vidyanagar have given the young women in my research
more independence from family ties. The more independent living arrangements away from the watchful
eye of close relatives, enables my informants to undertake activities outside of the hostel, engage
themselves in love-relationships, manage the love-relationship within the Vidyanagar community and
maintain close contact with peers. However, close family members, the family network and the
community as a whole continue to exert social control over these young women, by making use of a
variety of channels. Even though they are no longer living under the roof of their parents, the standards
to which good daughters are expected to comply (by the community as a whole) remain intact. The
serious consequences that follow, when transgressing the social norms, can be seen as the driving force
behind the strict social control.
By moving to Vidyanagar, however, the power relations between these young women and their close
relatives changed. The internalised subordination of women, embedded in the young womens mind and
behaviour from early years on, is influenced by this newly obtained independence within the local
environment of Vidyanagar, far away from their close relatives. This influence becomes apparent through
the actions and statements of my informants, who refute the naturalness of the subordinated status of
women. These women started to enjoy, during their time in Vidyanagar, their new confidence and
independence, gained by taking care of themselves and by making individual choices. In the past, while
living in their family homes, the relationship with their superior family members was characterised by
25

dependency. These youngsters will have to subordinate themselves again, to the control of their future inlaws. During the time of their stay in Vidyanagar, however, these young women have become able, by
living independently, to acquire the power to manage some elements of their own lives by reworking the
social control of their superiors. By doing so, their actions can go against the will of close family members
who try to preserve the existing power relations.

26

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APPENDIX
Table 1.

29

Declaration: I have read and understood the University of Amsterdam plagiarism policy [published on
http://www.student.uva.nl/fraude-plagiaat/voorkomen.cfm]. I declare that this assignment is entirely my
own work, all sources have been properly acknowledged, and that I have not previously submitted this
work, or any version of it, for assessment in any other paper.

30

ABOUT THE PROVINCIAL GLOBALISATION

PROGRAMME

The Provincial Globalisation research programme (ProGlo) explores transnational

connections between Overseas Indians and their home regions, especially the effects of
reverse flows of resources, including remittances, philanthropy, investments, and
knowledge.
The programme consists of five independent but interlinked research projects (three
PhD and two postdoctoral) located in three states of India Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka,
and Gujarat. The research documents a broad range of resource transfers by migrants,
including economic resources (such as household remittances, investments in land),
social remittances (including flows of ideas, support for NGOs), and cultural flows
(such as religious donations), and their influence at the regional level.
The PhD projects are intensive studies of three selected regions Anand District in
Gujarat, Guntur District in Andhra Pradesh, and Dakshina Kannada District in Karnataka
focusing on the effects of resource transfers by migrants in the key provincial towns
and their rural hinterlands. The two post-doctoral projects provide macro- and mesolevel mappings of transnational linkages and flows at the regional, state, and national
levels. By tracing these transnational networks and the modalities and destinations of
resource transfers comparatively across three regions, the research programme provides
insights into the economic, social, political, and cultural consequences of Overseas
Indians engagements with India.

ProGlo is a five-year collaborative research programme of the Amsterdam Institute for Social
Science Research (AISSR), University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands, and the National
Institute of Advanced Studies (NIAS), Bangalore, India, funded by the WOTRO Science for
Global Development programme of the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO),
the Netherlands, initiated in 2010.
www.provglo.org

Programme directors:
Prof. Mario Rutten (AISSR)
Prof. Carol Upadhya (NIAS)