The International Studies Public Forum and Program in Women Studies presents

“The Masculinities of Postcolonial Governance: Bureaucratic Memoirs of Indian ICS”
with Inderpal Grewal, Professor, Women, Gender, Sexuality Studies, Anthropology, and American Studies and Anthropology; Chair WGSS, Yale University

Thursday, March 6, 2014
5:00-6:50 p.m.
Social Science Plaza A, Room 1100

This talk examines the memoirs of I.C.S. officers (Indian Civil Service) as they continue in what becomes the I.A.S. (Indian Administrative Service) after Independence. Rather than being understood solely as historical archives, these texts constitute a genre that can be called the "bureaucratic memoir. This genre is characterized by changing modernities and intimacies that engender normative masculinities that are heterogenous but also hegemonic. The genre of the memoir, and the publication of these memoirs decades after Indian Independence are attempts to continue the elite power of the bureaucracy into subsequent decades against accusations of elitism and corruption. The talk suggests the important of home, family and gendered power in any analysis of state and corruption.

For further information, please contact Gloria Simpson, simpsong@uci.edu or 949-824-8687.