Separate worlds: studies of Purdah in South Asia

Purdah is a unique traditional social system prevalent among both Hindus and Muslims in South Asia. It is so familiar a feature in this part of the world, and so much taken for granted, that few social scientists of this region have paid any serious attention to it. Even scholars from outside, though curiously intrigued by the purdah system, have rarely treated it as a subject of sociological significance.
From this standpoint, this volume of eleven original research papers by ten American scholars, nine of them women, is of pioneering importance. It makes a major contribution to the study of purdah as a social process, that is, as a system of ideas and actions responsive to changing economic, political and cultural forces in the society.

While, from a larger perspective, the papers may appear as attempts to come to terms with observed inequalities among men and women, the theme of inequalities is always seen in its close social context. The study of purdah shows that one cannot view gender separately from class differences in the analysis of inequalities in a society.
At a time when many researchers and social activists are concerned with the place of women in public life, this book presents extremely revealing analysis of, and rare insights into, the problem.