IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/indeco/v47y2010i3p343-376.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The male state

Author

Listed:
  • Jonathan Saha

    (School of Oriental and African Studies)

Abstract

At the turn of the twentieth century British colonial officials imagined women in Burma to be distinctly more liberated than their sisters in other quarters of British India, but this posed a set of specific problems. The perceived influence women held over their husbands in official positions led to fears that they caused corruption. Women represented private interests infiltrating public duties. Thus the desired, normative subordinate colonial official was assertively masculine and in a position of authority over their female spouse. In this colonial desire there was a curious parallel with the everyday acts of misconduct committed by subordinate officials that was most apparent in rape investigations. Indigenous women faced great difficulties, even dangers, when seeking redress for crimes of gendered violence due to the machinations of subordinate state employees. High-ranking British officials demonstrated at best indifference, at worst suspicion, concerning women’s accusations. These everyday acts of subordinate officials were more important in gendering the colonial state than has been previously recognised.

Suggested Citation

  • Jonathan Saha, 2010. "The male state," The Indian Economic & Social History Review, , vol. 47(3), pages 343-376, July.
  • Handle: RePEc:sae:indeco:v:47:y:2010:i:3:p:343-376
    DOI: 10.1177/001946461004700303
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/001946461004700303
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/001946461004700303?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Mitchell, Timothy, 1991. "The Limits of the State: Beyond Statist Approaches and their Critics," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 85(1), pages 77-96, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Anupama Roy, 2022. "Institutional ‘Presence’ and the Indian State: The Long Narrative," Studies in Indian Politics, , vol. 10(2), pages 185-200, December.
    2. repec:gig:joupla:v:1:y:2009:i:2:p:3-29 is not listed on IDEAS
    3. Stephanie L. Mudge & Antoine Vauchez, 2022. "Dependence on Independence. Central bank lawyers and the (un)making of the European economy," Post-Print hal-03913667, HAL.
    4. Fabian Muniesa & Dominique Linhardt, 2009. "At stake with implementation: trials of explicitness in the description of the state," Working Papers halshs-00362285, HAL.
    5. Enrico Gualini & Carola Fricke, 2019. "‘Who governs’ Berlin’s metropolitan region? The strategic-relational construction of metropolitan scale in Berlin–Brandenburg’s economic development policies," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 37(1), pages 59-80, February.
    6. Leela Fernandes, 2004. "The Politics of Forgetting: Class Politics, State Power and the Restructuring of Urban Space in India," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 41(12), pages 2415-2430, November.
    7. Bart Klem, 2012. "In the Eye of the Storm: Sri Lanka's Front-Line Civil Servants in Transition," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 43(3), pages 695-717, May.
    8. Bodhisattva Kar, 2016. "Nomadic capital and speculative tribes: A culture of contracts in the Northeastern Frontier of British India," The Indian Economic & Social History Review, , vol. 53(1), pages 41-67, January.
    9. Ijlal Naqvi, 2018. "Contesting access to power in urban Pakistan," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 55(6), pages 1242-1256, May.
    10. Hanna Hilbrandt, 2019. "Everyday urbanism and the everyday state: Negotiating habitat in allotment gardens in Berlin," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 56(2), pages 352-367, February.
    11. R.C. Sudheesh, 2023. "State Life: Land, Welfare and Management of the Landless in Kerala, India," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 54(4), pages 870-891, July.
    12. Deen Sharp, 2022. "Haphazard urbanisation: Urban informality, politics and power in Egypt," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 59(4), pages 734-749, March.
    13. Cui, Lin & He, Xiaoming, 2017. "Expanding near the home base or venture far? The influence of home country state on the economic distance of foreign direct investments," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 95-107.
    14. Åshild Kolås & Lacin ldil Oztig, 2022. "From towers to walls: Trump’s border wall as entrepreneurial performance," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 40(1), pages 124-142, February.
    15. Ondrej Ditrych, 2019. "Georgia’s frosts: ethnopolitical conflict as assemblage," Asia Europe Journal, Springer, vol. 17(1), pages 47-67, March.
    16. Peñaranda Currie, Isabel & Otero-Bahamon, Silvia & Uribe, Simón, 2021. "What is the state made of? Coca, roads, and the materiality of state formation in the frontier," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 141(C).
    17. Susana Neves Alves, 2021. "Everyday states and water infrastructure: Insights from a small secondary city in Africa, Bafatá in Guinea-Bissau," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 39(2), pages 247-264, March.
    18. Poteete, Amy R. & Ribot, Jesse C., 2011. "Repertoires of Domination: Decentralization as Process in Botswana and Senegal," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 39(3), pages 439-449, March.
    19. McDoom, Omar Shahabudin, 2012. "Predicting violence within genocides: meso-level evidence from Rwanda," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 48112, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    20. Claudia Gastrow, 2020. "Urban States: The Presidency and Planning in Luanda, Angola," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 44(2), pages 366-383, March.
    21. Mason, Michael, 2022. "Infrastructure under pressure: water management and state-making in Southern Iraq," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 114909, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:indeco:v:47:y:2010:i:3:p:343-376. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.