Abstract

This paper examines the life and times of a remarkable twentieth-century figure, Begum Qudsia Aizaz Rasul (1908–2001), the first and only Muslim woman in independent India’s Constituent Assembly which drafted the country’s Constitution. In doing so, it critically engages with the genre of autobiographical writing—the limits it imposed and the particular vantage points it offered. By drawing upon Begum Rasul’s private papers, her autobiography and her speeches in the Constituent Assembly debates from 1946 to 1950, this paper unpacks the ways in which she sought to negotiate her multiple and intersecting identities of class, gender and religious background. Her acts of self-fashioning provide critical insights into how Muslim women negotiated their identities in post-colonial India often in resistance to, and conformity with, the national status quo.

摘要

本文考察了 20 世纪杰出人物 Begum Qudsia Aizaz Rasul（1908-2001 年）的生平和时代，她是独立的印度制宪议会中第一位也是唯一一位穆斯林女性，她起草了该国宪法。在这样做时，它批判性地参与了自传体写作的类型——它施加的限制和它提供的特定有利位置。通过借鉴 Begum Rasul 的私人文件、她的自传和她在 1946 年至 1950 年制宪议会辩论中的演讲，本文揭示了她试图协商自己的多重和交叉的阶级、性别和宗教背景身份的方式。她的自我塑造行为为穆斯林女性如何在后殖民时代的印度谈判自己的身份提供了批判性的见解，这些身份通常是为了抵抗和遵守国家现状。