Countering the Cold War: interactions between Australia and India, 1945 - 1975, through the lens of the women's movements

Funding: 2013: $40,000
2014: $40,000
2015: $50,000

Project Member(s): Goodall, H., Ghosh, D.

Funding or Partner Organisation: Australian Research Council (ARC Discovery Projects)

Start year: 2013

Summary: From 1945 to 1975, Cold War hostilities reduced diplomatic communication between Australia and India, despite both remaining in the Commonwealth. Yet relationships between activists in the women's movements of each country actually increased. We investigate how Australian and Indian women activists sustained and expanded their interactions during the Cold War. Their multiple affiliations - as feminists, unionists and peace activists - allows a broader and more nuanced account of how left wing individuals and organisations responded to the Cold War. Understanding these earlier contacts in difficult times offers insights into how best to nurture today's interactions between students, businesses and the cultural industries of both countries.

Publications:

Goodall, H, Randerson, H & Ghosh, D 2019, Teacher for Justice: Lucy Woodcock's Transnational Life, ANU Press.
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Goodall, H & Ghosh, D 2015, 'Beyond the ‘poison of prejudice’ Indian and Australian women talk about the White Australia policy', History Australia, vol. 12, no. 1, pp. 116-140.
View/Download from: Publisher's site

Keywords: history,women,international

FOR Codes: Asian History, Understanding Asia's Past, Australian History (excl. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander History), Understanding Australia's Past, Historical Studies not elsewhere classified, Cultural Understanding not elsewhere classified, Australian history , Historical studies, Understanding past societies, Other culture and society, Pacific Peoples heritage and culture

Acknowledgement of Country

UTS acknowledges the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation, the Boorooberongal people of the Dharug Nation, the Bidiagal people and the Gamaygal people, upon whose ancestral lands our university stands. We would also like to pay respect to the Elders both past and present, acknowledging them as the traditional custodians of knowledge for these lands.