"Behl, through autoethnographic writing, truly fills an immense gap between empirical and theoretical work on citizenship and brings to the forefront an important topic in political science. ... Further, Behl challenges the field of political science by arguing that if its members are not open to new sources of knowledge, they would continue to replicate gender-blind policies and restrict the capacity of Indians to move toward gender equality." -- Affilia: Journal of Women and Social Work
"Gendered Citizenship is an essential addition to the literature. ... It is a vital resource for those looking to explore silent unwritten rules and norms as new forms of knowledge to understand complex social relations making different ethnic, racial, and gender communities vulnerable in a democratic society." -- Natasha Singh Raghuvanshi, The Journal of Race, Ethnicity, and Politics
"Gendered Citizenship is an original, important, and timely contribution to the study of democracy and citizenship [Behl] offers an alternative framework, situated citizenship, that serves to deepen not only theoretical understandings of citizenship but also provides methodological guidance for how to better study it empirically. Her rich and thoughtful ethnographic study of Sikh women and their experiences with citizenship in India offers critical insights that speak to political theorists and comparativists alike...Gendered Citizenship is well written and well worth the read for its deeply insightful theoretical discussion, thoughtful, and reflective methodology, and rich and compelling empirical work." -- Celeste Montoya, New Political Science
"Behl has written a thoughtful book on women's citizenship...this study provides future scholars with insightful and important observations as a point of departure for further scholarly work on citizenship." -- Sikata Banerjee, University of Victoria, Perspectives on Politics
"This book is definitely an important addition in the field of gender and citizenship and offers a possibility of interesting theorizations of time tested political concepts, especially in the present context, where constitutional and legal enunciations of citizenship are open for renegotiation and realignments." -- Garima Dhabhai, South Asian History and Culture
"Behl's work is important not only for centering gender, but for challenging political scientists' reliance on Western-centric formal legal mechanisms and quantitative indicators when measuring and assessing democratic citizenship. As a thoughtful piece of qualitative-interpretive scholarship, Behl's Gendered Citizenship is recommended reading for scholars of citizenship, religion, feminism, and Indian politics... Behl's research will help us understand how and why formal promises of equality are not often realized, while also offering a framework and method for better understanding why this may be the case." -- Samantha Majic, Journal of Women, Politics & Policy
"Natasha Behl's Gendered Citizenship is a fresh and rich contribution to the emerging literature of gender studies." -- Noreen Naseer, Review of Human Rights
"[E]xemplifies immense clarity in thought and prose... Taking seriously the call to examine embodied forms of knowledge production and an exploration of power relations in everyday life, this book comes as a welcome addition to intersectional feminist literature in the social sciences." -- Gender & Society
"In an argument grounded in the lived experience of Sikh women in India, Natasha Behl revisits the meaning of citizenship, understanding citizenship as contextual. Her contextual approach bridges empirical and normative theory to take on one of the deepest threats to democracy's paradoxical exclusions, by recognizing the inclusive potential in seemingly undemocratic groups like religious communities. Behl shows what our secular mechanisms for inclusion exclude. The implications of her argument can be far reaching. Is political science ready for political theory to trouble the boundaries and measurement of its most essential concepts? This book raises that important question." -- Brooke Ackerly, Author of Just Responsibility: A Human Rights Theory of Global Justice
"In this insightful work, Natasha Behl explores the coexistence of formal equality in India with systemic inequalities grounded in gender, caste, class, and religion. By documenting how physical and sexual violence and sexist norms undermine diverse women's participation in public life, Gendered Citizenship demonstrates why meaningful democratization requires far more than legal reform, and identifies initiatives that can promote more inclusive and egalitarian modes of public life. Moreover, Behl argues persuasively that political science needs a richer conceptualization of power if it is to acknowledge that all citizens matter." -- Mary Hawkesworth, Author of Embodied Power: Demystifying Disembodied Politics
"Building on her empirical work among Sikh women active in religious spaces and engaged in religious practices, Behl has produced a nuanced, thoughtful, and exciting account of gendered and situated citizenship. This book will be of interest to all those interested in the gendered issues of democratic participation and its challenges, especially in the context of everyday violence and social disciplining." -- Shirin Rai, University of Warwick
"In this compelling political ethnography of how Sikh women experience citizenship in India, Behl asks a pressing question relevant to all liberal democracies: why do the punitive effects of gender persist in spite of constitutional guarantees to the contrary? Pushing against the limitations of mainstream research, Behl develops the concept of situated citizenship to unpack how the pervasiveness of sexual and gender-based violence, as well as informal gender norms, gut the promise of political equality for all. Filled with the voices of ordinary Sikh women, Behl's book challenges conventional assumptions with an analytically rich account of how and why citizenship remains profoundly gendered." -- Denise M. Walsh, University of Virginia
