Case Study of Menstrual Practices from Hindu Women, in Varanasi

This paper will present the findings of ongoing doctoral research on menstrual practices within contemporary Hindu traditions. Using ethnographic methods, allowing more inclusion of the women who perform sets of practices around menstruations, the aim is to shed new light on these practices in India which are often thought of reproducing patriarchal Hinduism (Parker, Standing and Subedhi 2024; Hauser 2020, Prasanna 2016, Das 2015; 2008, Winkler and Roaf 2014; Leslie 1994; Thompson 1985 among others). The research also provides an opportunity to revise a conceptualization of contemporary religion and addresses some challenges of studying women, religion, and gender in academia. Fieldwork was carried in north-east India, mostly in Varanasi, where more than 65 participants of low- and middle-class families were interviewed (semi-structured) and about half were met on a regular basis.

Adopting a critical approach, the limitations of the normative arrangements that constitute epistemologies, as well as the methods and theories of the research community are highlighted to generate practical proposals susceptible to be suited to the realities of the field. The case study demonstrates multiple levels of interventions and influences in women's lives beyond religion that deny local productions of periods; MHM (Menstrual Hygiene/Health Plan), advertisement, coloniality, NGO, concurring medical and Ayurvedic knowledges, cast hierarchies, etc. The denial of their religious inclinations, experiences, knowledges, and representations of menstruations and bodies will be problematized, by contrast, demonstrating the vitality of these women co-construction of menstruations, actualization of practices, and shaping of religion.