Body Evidence: Intimate Violence against South Asian Women in America

Introduction

bbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbb Introduction SHAMITA DAS DASGUPTA 1 Abuse of women in the South Asian communities in North America is no longer a matter of conjecture, even though it might still be a matter of relative silence. In the past two decades, South Asian women’s activism against domestic violence has indelibly changed the landscape of the community and the larger nation. The skepticism that many of us early activists faced when bringing up the issue of domestic violence in community forums is slowly fading, as is the palpable hostility toward agents who dared to air dirty laundry in public. Along with this intracommunity cynicism, the mainstream disbelief of problems of a model minority is also in the wane. Since the s, nearly twenty-five South Asian community-based organizations (CBOs) devoted to anti–domestic violence work have been established ;1 several books, articles, and special issues of journals on domestic violence have been published; many conferences have included sessions on South Asian American domestic violence; and some service and research grants have seeped into the community. Although none of this is adequate to meet community needs comprehensively, collectively they certainly testify to a burgeoning South Asian anti–domestic violence movement. Besides validating women’s experiences of violence in their homes in America, the existence of the South Asian anti–domestic violence movement underscores the distinctiveness of South Asians as a community characterized by culture, ethnicity , and special needs, as well as the uniqueness of ideas, issues, and intervention strategies that are effective in the community. The South Asian CBOs have successfully challenged the notion of universality of battered women’s experiences and highlighted that successful intervention has to be culturally, emotionally, legally, and linguistically appropriate (e.g., Abraham b; Agnew b). In a society where race and citizenship are organizing principles, although South Asians have some commonalities with other immigrants and communities of color, they remain distinct. Thus, understanding domestic violence in the community requires specialized knowledge and a singular perspective, one that 1 Introduction.qxd 11/3/06 5:20 PM Page 1 Margaret Abraham terms “ethno-gender approach” (:). Abraham defines this framework as “one that examines the multiple intersection of ethnicity, gender , class, and legal status as significant categories in the analysis of domestic violence with a special emphasis on the relationship between ethnicity and gender” (b:). The approach certainly shifts from the traditional binaries of black and white, victim and perpetrator, citizen and alien. Working from this intersectionality , the South Asian anti–domestic violence movement has been able to foreground social structures and ethnic cultures as these play out in the lives of individuals. Naming the Violence In the last three decades, the South Asian community has become an economic and political force in North America (see Kantrowitz and Scelfo ). Immigrants from South Asia arrived on North American shores at the tail end of s. However , this early group experienced such severe attrition that by the dawning of the twentieth century, it was difficult to identify a cohesive community. It is only after the relaxation of the Immigration and Nationality Act of  that the second wave of migration from South Asia began (Chandrasekhar ). At the center of today’s anti–domestic violence movement is this South Asian community, which has congregated in the United States primarily after . In the first decade or so, the South Asian immigrant community was engrossed in settling down in its newly adopted homeland. Its focus was to achieve economic stability and socialize the next generation to retain the teachings of the natal culture . To help maintain the cultural identity that the immigrants brought over the continents, the community established numerous cultural organizations and religious centers all across North America. During these heady years of success, the immigrant community spent immense efforts in maintaining an impeccable image to the outside world by vociferously denying the existence of social problems such as domestic violence, sexual assault, disease, homelessness, poverty, mental illness, unemployment, delinquency, racism, and intergenerational conflict (Abraham b; Bhattacharjee ; Dasgupta a; Dasgupta and Warrier ). Although it ignored many social problems, perhaps the community was most oblivious to women’s plight within the home. Consequently, little systematic information exists on violence against women in the South Asian contexts in North America. To date, no large-scale studies of incidence rate has been conducted to assess the extent of violence against women in South Asian American homes. According to Census , nearly . million South Asians live in the United States—a figure that does not take into...