Women and the construction of the nation

Abstract

The idea of the nation is a constructed one to bring the people who reside in it with a feeling of oneness and to bring reverence to the idea of a common nation. This is done through various ways, considering events of the past as well as the present times. In this imagination of the nation, the idea of gender, especially women play a very crucial role. This paper looks at the role of women in the construction of the nation. Though in popular narrative and functioning of the nation, women appear to occupy and are often pushed to a marginalized position, yet when we look in detail how the idea of nation is shaped, we find that the importance of the role of women that cannot be left undiscussed. In everyday life, the invocation of the nation seems incomplete without women. The recent events of internal conflicts in the nation and the representation of women in it and how, helps to understand the situation.