Modern Asian Studies 44, 1 (2010) pp. 121–144. C  Cambridge University Press 2009 doi:10.1017/S0026749X09990096 First published online 10 November 2009 A post-colonial patriarchy? Representing family in the Indian nation-state ELEANOR NEWBIGIN Trinity College, Cambridge CB21TQ, UK Email: ern20@cam.ac.uk Abstract That the transition to self-governance under a nation-state has not been accompanied by the greater focus on Indian citizens’ welfare which many expected, has been the source of much confusion and disappointment. Looking at late-colonial debates about property rights under Hindu personal law, this paper seeks to explain why people assumed that independence could change the relationship between the state and Indian society, and also why this has not come about. It argues that, from the latter half of the nineteenth century, economic, social, and political changes placed pressure on the very hierarchical structures of joint-family patriarchy that colonial rule had hitherto depended on. Calls for family reform seemed, at certain moments, to critique patriarchal control and social order more generally, creating the intellectual space to rethink the place of women within the family, and the state more widely. Yet, while couched in the language of women’s rights, underpinning these reform debates was an interest to change men’s property rights and enhance their individual control over the family. Thus, the interwar years witnessed not just a breaking down of an old colonial patriarchal order, but also the establishment of a new, post-colonial patriarchy based around the authority of the propertied husband. Introduction Framed in response to colonial rule and the processes that brought it to an end, ‘creation myths’ about the birth of the nation and the origins of citizenship have been crucial for the construction of post-colonial Indian identity. Accounts of an ancient and glorious Indian nation, superior to its colonial successor, were well developed long before the emergence of the mass nationalist movement in the interwar period. However, as preparations began for the planned and ‘peaceful’ transfer of power from British to Indian hands, these myths were redefined in relation to the political structures emerging at this 121