The social construction of 'self'' and Womanhood in a Hindu village of Bangladesh

In order to understand the empowerment situation of the women exhibiting a rigid social setting cushioned by religious impositions, it is important to envisage how women as subjects construct and reconstruct their own realities negotiating the prevailing social conditions that map their individual as well as collective lives. The present paper intends to portray the crude reality of the inner lives of the Hindu women of a Bangladeshi village who are vulnerable for being 'women' on the one hand and the 'minority' population on the other. It hence shows how these women construct their self image in relation to their womanhood and how they significantly differ according to their distinctive social bases. Finally, the paper highlights the recent changes that are continuously shaping and reshaping the Hindu women's notion of self identity coping with the newly emerging social needs.