Mining, Displacement, and Matriliny in Meghalaya: Gendered Transitions(Transition in Northeastern India)

This book studies how Development-Induced Displacement (DID) radically restructures gender relations in indigenous tribal societies. Through an indepth case study of the Indian state of Meghalaya, one of the few matrilineal societies of the world, it analyses how people cope with conflicts in their perception of self, family, and society brought on by the transition from traditional modes of living to increased urbanisation, and how these experiences are different for men and women. It looks at the ways in which this gendered change is experienced inter-generationally in different contexts of people’s lives, including work and leisure activities. The book also investigates people’s attitudes towards matrilineal structures and their perception of change on matriliny where mining has played a role in building their view of their matrilineal tradition. Drawing on extensive interviews with individuals directly affected by this phenomenon, the book, part of the Transition in Northeastern India series, makes a significant contribution to the study of DID. It will be useful for scholars and researchers of urbanisation, gender studies, Northeast India studies, development studies, minority studies, public policy, political studies, and sociology.

Table of Contents:
Acknowledgements List of abbreviations Introduction 1 A gender analysis of development-induced displacement 2 Reinventing narratives of displacement: Methodological considerations 3 The context of Meghalaya 4 Gender, mining, and matriliny in the Jaintia Hills 5 “Growing up in a mining area”: Gendering labour, leisure, and mobility 6 Intimacies and violence in the mines 7 Gendering love, marriage, and reproductive health: The question of continuity and change Conclusion Bibliography Photographs Index

About the Author :
Bitopi Dutta is an Assistant Professor at the School for Liberal Studies at the University of Petroleum and Energy Studies(UPES), Dehradun, India. She has a PhD from the School of Law and Government, Dublin City University, Ireland (2020), her Master of Arts in Social Work from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai and her BA Hons. in Sociology from Lady Shri Ram College for Women, University of Delhi. She has been an Irish Research Council Awardee Scholar by the Government of Ireland and has four books on displacement studies including one on one traditonal method of conflict resolution to her authorship. Prior to joining UPES, she has taught in TISS and continues to be associated with film-making with her production house called Vortex Films, whose first feature film production has won the National Films Award in 2021. She is one of the pioneers of the Queer Movement in Northeast India and was the co-organiser of the first Queer Pride walk in Assam which took place in 2014. Her research interests include Gender and sexuality, Indigenous people, displacement studies, qualitative research.