Rural Midwives in South India: The Politics of Bodily Knowledge

Abstract

This chapter examines rural midwifery as a form of knowledge that is undervalued by both Indian and Western elite traditions. Even in asking, ``What is the culture of birth like in non-Western societies?'', we assume a complete separation of Western and Indian knowledge systems. It is not simply today's modern India which has brought about a blurring of such boundaries. Such bifurcations were muddied in the colonial period, with the founding of biomedical establishments such as maternity hospitals and baby clinics from the end of the 19th century onwards. In the course of the twentieth century, contemporary forms of Western knowledge such as biomedicine, family planning, demography and social science, have all played their parts in shaping the Indian state and intellectuals in India. These intellectuals in turn shape the interactions between rural women and institutions such as hospitals, family planning clinics, and schools. We therefore have to reckon with the presence of social sciences, not only among Western scholars working on India, but within the country itself. Part of this chapter will examine the legacies of my education both in India and in Australia, and the obstacles it has placed in my attempt to approach, let alone represent, the knowledge of midwives.