Chandra Talpade Mohanty and Under Western Eyes: Postcolonial Feminism and the Critique of Western Feminism

Introduction

Chandra Talpade Mohanty is one of the most important scholars in postcolonial feminism and transnational feminist theory. Her famous essay “Under Western Eyes: Feminist Scholarship and Colonial Discourses” examines how Western feminist writing has sometimes represented women from Asia, Africa, Latin America, and other parts of the Global South as a single, powerless group.

Mohanty argues that women from different cultures do not have identical experiences.

A woman living in India, Nigeria, Mexico, or Saudi Arabia may experience gender differently because of differences in:

History
Culture
Class
Race
Caste
Religion
Colonialism
Economic conditions
Political systems

Therefore, feminism should not assume that there is one universal experience of being a woman.

Mohanty's work is important because it questions the relationship between feminism, colonialism, power, representation, and knowledge.

Who Is Chandra Talpade Mohanty?

Chandra Talpade Mohanty is a feminist scholar whose work focuses on:

Postcolonial feminism
Transnational feminism
Gender
Colonialism
Race
Class
Globalization
Women's movements
Knowledge and power

Her work challenges the tendency to represent women from the Global South as victims who need to be rescued by Western feminism.

She emphasizes the importance of understanding women within their specific historical and social contexts.

What Is Postcolonial Feminism?

Postcolonial feminism examines the relationship between:

Gender
Colonialism
Race
Culture
Class
Empire
National identity
Global power

Traditional Western feminist theory sometimes treated women's experiences as universal.

Postcolonial feminists questioned this approach.

They asked:

Whose experience is being called universal?

Who has the power to speak for other women?

How has colonial history shaped women's lives?

Are women from the Global South being represented accurately?

These questions are central to Mohanty's work.

“Under Western Eyes”

Mohanty's famous essay “Under Western Eyes: Feminist Scholarship and Colonial Discourses” was originally published in 1984.

The essay later became an important part of postcolonial feminist theory.

The phrase “Under Western Eyes” suggests that women from non-Western societies are sometimes viewed through a Western framework.

Mohanty argues that this framework can create simplified images of women from the Global South.

The Main Argument of the Essay

The central argument of Mohanty's essay is:

Western feminist scholarship should not treat women from the Global South as one homogeneous group.

In some Western feminist texts, women from developing countries are presented as:

Poor
Uneducated
Oppressed
Traditional
Passive
Victimized
Powerless
In need of liberation

Mohanty argues that this representation is too simple.

Women have different histories, social positions, and forms of resistance.

The Problem of the “Universal Woman”

One of Mohanty's most important arguments concerns the idea of the universal woman.

Some feminist discussions use the word “woman” as though all women share the same experience.

Mohanty challenges this assumption.

For example, the experience of:

A middle-class American woman
A poor Indian woman
A Black woman in the United States
A Muslim woman
A Dalit woman
An African woman
A migrant woman

cannot automatically be treated as identical.

Their experiences are shaped by different social and historical conditions.

The “Third World Woman”

Mohanty strongly criticizes the construction of the “Third World woman” as a single category.

In some Western feminist writing, women from the Global South are represented as if they all share the same problems.

For example:

Third World woman = poor + traditional + oppressed + powerless

Mohanty argues that this is a constructed image rather than a complete description of real women's lives.

The term “Third World woman” can hide differences of:

Class
Caste
Religion
Ethnicity
Region
Education
Political position
Sexuality
History

Why Is This Representation Problematic?

When millions of women are represented as one group, their individual experiences disappear.

A wealthy educated woman and a poor rural woman may live in the same country but experience gender very differently.

Similarly, women from different communities may have different relationships with:

Family
Marriage
Religion
Education
Employment
Law
Politics

Therefore, feminist analysis must examine specific contexts.

Colonialism and Knowledge

Mohanty connects feminism with the history of colonialism.

Colonial powers often represented colonized people as:

Primitive
Backward
Irrational
Traditional
Childlike

Mohanty argues that some forms of Western feminist scholarship can unintentionally repeat similar patterns when they describe women from the Global South only as victims.

This is why she examines not only what is said about women, but also who has the authority to produce knowledge about women.

Knowledge and Power

Mohanty's work can be connected with the larger relationship between knowledge and power.

Who produces knowledge?

Who is studied?

Who is described?

Who gets to speak?

Who represents whom?

These questions are extremely important in postcolonial theory.

When Western scholars speak about non-Western women without sufficient attention to their own voices and contexts, representation can become a form of power.

Mohanty and Representation

Representation is central to Mohanty's theory.

A literary critic or scholar should not simply ask:

“Are women oppressed?”

Instead, the critic should ask:

“How are women represented, by whom, and within what historical context?”

This shift is important.

It moves feminist criticism away from simple generalizations and toward a more detailed understanding of women's lives.

Women Are Not Only Victims

Another important point in Mohanty's work is that women should not be represented only as victims.

Women can also be:

Workers
Activists
Writers
Political participants
Mothers
Students
Leaders
Organizers
Survivors
Agents of social change

Therefore, feminist criticism should recognize women's agency.

What Is Agency?

Agency means the ability of individuals to make choices, act, resist, negotiate, and influence their own lives.

For Mohanty, women from the Global South should not be represented simply as passive victims of patriarchy.

They may resist oppression in different ways.

Resistance can include:

Education
Political activism
Community organization
Writing
Protest
Economic independence
Collective action
Everyday negotiation

Context Is Important

Mohanty emphasizes historical and social context.

We cannot understand women's experiences without asking:

Where does she live?
What is her class position?
What is her history?
What political system surrounds her?
What is her relationship with colonialism?
What cultural structures influence her?
What economic conditions affect her?
What other identities shape her experience?

This makes her theory particularly useful for literary studies.

Mohanty and Class

Class is extremely important in Mohanty's feminist analysis.

Women do not belong to one economic category.

A wealthy woman and a poor woman may experience patriarchy differently.

For example, access to:

Education
Healthcare
Employment
Legal support
Property
Technology

may depend partly on economic position.

Therefore, gender must be studied together with class.

Mohanty and Race

Race is also important.

Western feminism cannot assume that the experience of white women represents all women.

Women of color may experience:

Racism
Sexism
Economic inequality

at the same time.

This connects Mohanty's work with Black feminism and intersectionality.

Mohanty and Intersectionality

Mohanty's work has strong connections with intersectional feminist theory.

Kimberlé Crenshaw

Crenshaw examines the intersection of:

Race
Gender
Class and other identities

Mohanty

Mohanty examines the relationship between:

Gender
Colonialism
Race
Class
Global power
Culture

Both challenge the idea that women can be understood through gender alone.

Mohanty and Gayatri Spivak

Mohanty can also be studied alongside Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak.

Both are important postcolonial feminist thinkers.

Spivak

Spivak asks questions about:

The subaltern
Representation
Colonialism
Gender
Voice
Epistemic violence

Mohanty

Mohanty focuses strongly on:

Western feminist representation
Third World women
Colonial discourse
Gender
Class
Global power

Both thinkers warn against speaking for marginalized women without considering their own voices and historical contexts.

Mohanty and Edward Said

Mohanty's ideas can also be connected with Edward Said's Orientalism.

Said examined how Western discourse constructed the “Orient” as:

Exotic
Backward
Irrational
Different
Inferior

Mohanty argues that similar representational problems can appear when Western feminist scholarship constructs a single image of the “Third World woman.”

Therefore:

Said → representation of the Orient

Mohanty → representation of Third World women

Both examine how knowledge and representation are connected with power.

Mohanty's Criticism of Western Feminism

Mohanty does not reject feminism.

Instead, she calls for a more inclusive and historically sensitive feminism.

Her criticism is directed toward forms of feminism that:

Universalize women's experiences
Ignore colonial history
Treat Third World women as one group
Focus only on victimhood
Ignore class differences
Ignore racial differences
Ignore women's agency
Speak for women without listening to them

She wants feminism to become more contextual, inclusive, and politically aware.

Global South

The expression Global South is often used today instead of “Third World” in many academic contexts.

It broadly refers to regions historically affected by colonialism and global economic and political inequalities.

These include many countries in:

Asia
Africa
Latin America
The Caribbean
The Middle East

The term is not simply geographical. It can also refer to histories of economic and political inequality.

Mohanty's Idea of Solidarity

Mohanty does not argue that women from different countries should remain completely separate.

Instead, she supports the possibility of feminist solidarity.

But solidarity should be based on:

Shared political struggles
Recognition of differences
Mutual respect
Historical understanding
Cooperation
Collective action

Women do not have to be identical in order to work together.

Difference Does Not Destroy Solidarity

This is an important point.

Feminist solidarity does not mean saying:

“All women are the same.”

Instead, it can mean:

“Women have different experiences, but they can work together while respecting those differences.”

This is one of the most useful ideas in transnational feminism.

Transnational Feminism

Mohanty's later work is strongly associated with transnational feminism.

Transnational feminism studies women's lives across national borders while paying attention to:

Global capitalism
Migration
Colonial histories
Race
Class
Gender
Labour
Globalization

It does not assume that Western feminism is the universal model for all women.

Mohanty and Literature

Mohanty's ideas are highly useful in literary criticism.

An intersectional and postcolonial reading of literature can examine:

Representation

How are women represented?

Voice

Who speaks?

Silence

Who is silenced?

Agency

Does the female character make choices?

Context

What historical and cultural conditions shape her life?

Power

Who controls the narrative?

Colonialism

How does colonial history affect gender?

Class

How does economic position influence the character?

Applying Mohanty to Indian Literature

Mohanty's theory can be particularly useful for Indian literature.

Indian women cannot be treated as one homogeneous group.

Their experiences can vary according to:

Caste
Class
Religion
Region
Language
Education
Rural or urban background
Family structure
Colonial history

An intersectional postcolonial reading therefore gives a richer understanding of Indian women's writing.

Examples of Indian Women's Writing

Mohanty's approach can be used when studying writers such as:

Mahasweta Devi
Bama
Ismat Chughtai
Kamala Das
Arundhati Roy
Anita Desai
Shashi Deshpande
Nayantara Sahgal
Temsula Ao

Each writer presents different social and historical experiences.

An intersectional approach prevents us from treating these experiences as identical.

Mohanty and Mahasweta Devi

Mahasweta Devi's writings can be examined through:

Gender
Class
Tribal identity
Poverty
Political power
Exploitation

An intersectional reading shows that gender is connected with larger social and economic structures.

Mohanty and Bama

Bama's writing is particularly useful for studying:

Caste
Gender
Poverty
Community
Education
Social discrimination

Her work demonstrates why “Indian woman” cannot be treated as a single universal category.

Caste and gender may interact in specific ways.

Mohanty and Women's Agency

Mohanty's theory encourages readers to look for women's resistance and agency.

Instead of seeing a female character only as:

“a victim of patriarchy,”

we can ask:

What choices does she make?
How does she resist?
What strategies does she use?
How does she negotiate social restrictions?
How does she create her own identity?

This produces a more complex literary interpretation.

Major Concepts in Mohanty's Theory

1. Under Western Eyes

Western representations can construct simplified images of non-Western women.

2. Third World Woman

A problematic universal category that can erase differences among women.

3. Universalism

The assumption that all women share the same experience.

4. Representation

The way women and cultures are described or portrayed.

5. Colonial Discourse

Ways of thinking and writing influenced by colonial power structures.

6. Agency

Women's ability to act, resist, negotiate, and make choices.

7. Context

The historical, cultural, economic and political circumstances surrounding women's lives.

8. Solidarity

Collective feminist action based on recognition of differences.

9. Transnational Feminism

A feminist approach that examines women's experiences across national and cultural boundaries.

Major Arguments of “Under Western Eyes”

Mohanty's essay can be remembered through these points:

Women are not a homogeneous group.
The category “Third World woman” can be problematic.
Western feminist scholarship may sometimes universalize women's experiences.
Colonial history must be considered.
Gender cannot be separated from race and class.
Women should not be represented only as victims.
Women's agency must be recognized.
Representation is connected with power.
Feminist scholarship must be historically and culturally specific.
Feminist solidarity is possible without erasing differences.

Mohanty vs. Traditional Universal Feminism

Traditional Universal Approach	Mohanty's Approach
Women treated as one group	Women have diverse experiences
Gender is the main category	Gender interacts with race, class and history
Third World women seen as victims	Women have agency
Western experience may become the model	Different cultural contexts matter
Focus on oppression alone	Oppression + resistance
Generalization	Historical specificity
Speaking for women	Listening to women's voices

Mohanty and Other Feminist Thinkers

Thinker	Major Idea
Virginia Woolf	Economic independence and women's writing
Simone de Beauvoir	Woman as the Other
Elaine Showalter	Gynocriticism
Kate Millett	Sexual politics and patriarchy
Hélène Cixous	Écriture féminine
Judith Butler	Gender performativity
bell hooks	Race, class and gender
Kimberlé Crenshaw	Intersectionality
Gayatri Spivak	Subalternity and representation
Chandra Mohanty	Postcolonial/transnational feminism

Why Mohanty Is Important in Literary Theory

Mohanty's importance lies in her challenge to universal feminist categories.

She teaches literary critics to ask:

Who is being represented?

Who is doing the representing?

What historical conditions shape the representation?

Are cultural differences being ignored?

Is the woman presented only as a victim?

Does she have agency?

These questions make literary criticism more careful and inclusive.

Strengths of Mohanty's Theory

1. Challenges stereotypes

It questions simplistic images of non-Western women.

2. Recognizes cultural differences

It respects different historical and social contexts.

3. Connects feminism with colonialism

It shows how colonial history influences gender discourse.

4. Recognizes women's agency

Women are not represented merely as passive victims.

5. Includes class and race

It prevents gender from becoming the only category of analysis.

6. Encourages global feminism

It supports feminist solidarity across borders.

7. Useful for literary criticism

It provides a strong framework for studying representation and voice.

Criticisms and Debates

Mohanty's work has also generated debate.

Some readers may argue that the distinction between “Western” and “non-Western” feminism can itself become too broad.

The world contains many different feminist traditions, and Western feminism is not completely uniform.

Similarly, the term “Global South” contains enormous internal differences.

These issues remind us of one of Mohanty's own central lessons:

We should avoid treating large groups as homogeneous.

Important Terms for Exams

Postcolonial feminism
Transnational feminism
Under Western Eyes
Colonial discourse
Third World woman
Global South
Universalism
Representation
Agency
Feminist solidarity
Gender
Race
Class
Colonialism
Intersectionality

Quick Revision Table

Question	Answer
Who is Chandra Talpade Mohanty?	Postcolonial feminist scholar
Famous essay	“Under Western Eyes”
Original publication	1984
Main concern	Western representation of Third World women
Key criticism	Universalizing women's experiences
Important concept	“Third World woman”
Main focus	Gender, race, class, colonialism and representation
Important related concept	Agency
Later theoretical direction	Transnational feminism
Related thinker	Gayatri Spivak
Related theory	Intersectionality
Main goal	Contextual and inclusive feminism

Frequently Asked Questions

What is “Under Western Eyes”?

“Under Western Eyes” is Chandra Talpade Mohanty's influential essay criticizing certain forms of Western feminist scholarship for representing women from the Global South as a single, oppressed group.

When was “Under Western Eyes” published?

The essay was originally published in 1984.

What does Mohanty mean by the “Third World woman”?

She refers critically to the tendency to construct women from diverse non-Western societies as one homogeneous category of poor, oppressed and powerless women.

Is Mohanty against Western feminism?

Mohanty is not against feminism itself. She criticizes forms of feminist scholarship that universalize Western women's experiences and ignore differences in history, culture, race and class.

What is postcolonial feminism?

Postcolonial feminism examines the relationship between gender, colonialism, race, class, culture and global power.

What is transnational feminism?

Transnational feminism examines women's experiences across national borders while recognizing differences in history, culture, economics and political power.

Why is Mohanty important to literary criticism?

She helps critics examine representation, voice, agency, colonial discourse, gender, class and cultural difference.

How is Mohanty connected with Spivak?

Both examine questions of representation, marginalized voices, colonialism and gender, although they approach these issues differently.

How is Mohanty connected with Crenshaw?

Both reject simple categories of identity. Crenshaw focuses on intersecting identities such as race and gender, while Mohanty strongly emphasizes colonial history, global power, culture and transnational relations.

Conclusion

Chandra Talpade Mohanty's “Under Western Eyes” is a foundational text in postcolonial feminist theory.

Her most important contribution is her warning against treating women from the Global South as one universal category.

Women have different experiences because of differences in:

Gender
Race
Class
Caste
Culture
History
Colonialism
Religion
Geography
Political and economic conditions

Mohanty also reminds us that women should not be represented only as victims. They possess agency, participate in resistance, and create their own forms of identity and solidarity.

For literary criticism, her theory is extremely useful because it encourages readers to examine who represents whom, whose voice is heard, whose voice is silenced, and how power shapes representation.

Her work connects naturally with Gayatri Spivak, Kimberlé Crenshaw, bell hooks and Edward Said, making Mohanty an essential thinker for students studying feminist, postcolonial and cultural theory.