Katherine Twamley

Love, Marriage and Intimacy Among Gujarati Indians

One of the first of its kind, this book compares understandings and experiences of love and intimacy of one distinct cultural group – Gujarati Indians – born and brought up in two different countries.

Love and desire amongst middle-class Gujarati Indians in the UK and India

The paper describes findings from an ethnographic study exploring understandings of love and intimacy amongst young heterosexual middle-class Indians of Gujarati origin in the UK and India. A two-site comparative study was used to enable an understanding of how social and economic contexts shape cultural constructions of intimate relationships and sexuality. Focusing on attitudes to ‘love at first sight’, this paper shows that, for Indian participants, love based on physical attraction denotes a lesser kind of love. A relationship based on ‘physical love’ is not expected to last, since it has been formed without regard to family and status concerns. Even couples who meet outside of the arranged marriage system demonstrate the quality of their love by not having sex with one another before marriage. In the UK, however, participants view love as properly spontaneous. Love at first sight is considered desirable and demonstrates how the relationship must be based on love only, without any concern for (for example) material gain. This spontaneous love entails both physical attraction and emotional connection – an early transition to sex, usually before marriage, was seen as both desirable and inevitable.

The (im)possibilities of dialogue across feminism and childhood scholarship and activism

The relations between those positioned as women and as children, and the political and intellectual consequences of how we conceptualise these connections, has received only scant attention. In this article we describe a symposium and on-going project which aim to bring together community-based and academic scholars to debate the intersections and perceived antagonisms between various forms of feminism and the politics of childhood. We trace how these intersections have been debated in the literature and outline the potential benefits and pitfalls of encouraging further connections between these fields. Drawing on our symposium experience, we also outline the challenges involved in bringing together academic and community-based scholars and activists, and consider the implications for similar future endeavours.

Gender relations among Indian couples in the UK and India : ideals of equality and realities of inequality

This paper explores young heterosexual Indian Gujaratis’ ideals and experiences of intimate relationships in the UK and India, focusing particularly on gender relations. Men and women in both contexts had similar aspirations of intimacy, but women were likely to be more in favour of egalitarian values. What this meant was interpreted differently in India and the UK. In neither setting, however, was gender equality fully realised in the lives of the participants due to both structural and normative constraints. Despite this gap between ideals and experiences, participants portrayed their relationships as broadly equal and conjugal. It appears that the heavy emphasis on love and intimacy is making it difficult for women to negotiate a more egalitarian relationship with their partner, since any ‘flaw’ in the relationship potentially brings into question its loving foundations. In this way, women tend to ignore or justify the gendered roles and inequalities apparent in their relationships and paint a picture of blissful marital equality despite evidence to the contrary.

Fathers Taking Leave Alone in the UK – A Gift Exchange Between Mother and Father?

Over the last decade there has been a gradual enhancement of British fathers’ rights in the workplace, even though the UK has one of the longest maternity leaves in OECD countries. From April 2003, for the first time, British fathers were given a legal right to take a 2 week paid paternity leave after the birth of a child, building on a 3 month unpaid parental leave entitlement available since 1999. In April 2011 a new right to allow fathers to take up to 6 months Additional Paternity Leave (APL) during the child’s first year, if the mother returns to work before the end of her maternity leave, was introduced.