February 4, 2005

Boise State Prof's New Book Examines Practice Of Killing Baby Girls In India

A new book co-authored by sisters Rashmi Dube Bhatnagar, Renu Dube and Reena Dube, examines colonial and postcolonial feminist theory in India. In “Female Infanticide in India: A Feminist Cultural History” (State University of New York Press, 320 pages, $86.50 hardcover, $27.95 paperback), the authors argue that femicide must be seen as part of the continuum of violence on, and devaluation of, women.   A United Nations Population Fund study has shown as few as 800 girls in some regions of India for every 1,000 boys. In other parts of the world, that ratio is about 1,064 girls for every 1,000 boys. Although infanticide dates back to the colonial period, easy access to ultrasound technology has led to a sharp increase in the number of female fetuses being aborted as well. The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) reports as many as 50 million girls and women are missing from India’s population as a result.   The authors examine the popular myth that female infants in India are murdered because they are considered undesirable — because the demand for a dowry when they marry, although illegal, can bring the family to financial ruin — and the corollary that boys are considered an investment in the future. In doing so, the authors examine the progressivist British-Colonial history of infanticide reform and show how the colonial reform efforts exacerbated the problem and facilitated the reemergence of a generalized practice of femicide. In the closing chapters the authors examine various forms of traditional and contemporary resistance to the practice as well as the devaluation of women.    “Female Infanticide in India,” note the co-authors, “breaks new ground in postcolonial feminism theoretically and methodologically, not least because it is a project completely co-authored, from start to finish, by three sisters.”        Bhatnagar has taught in India and the United States; Renu Dube teaches rhetoric and intercultural communication at Boise State University; and Reena Dube teaches film, literature and postcolonial theory at Indian University of Pennsylvania.   -30-   Contact: Renu Dube, Department of Communication, (208) 426-2450, rdube@boisestate.edu                                                                Media Contact: Kathleen Craven, University Relations, (208) 426-3275, kcraven@boisestate.edu