What the devadasi women perceive as freedom is class-jumping within patriarchy.

Evidence

But we, decolonizing our imagination, must admit that even if this first barrier is crossed, and justifiably, in the imagination of these hapless infirm devadasis, education is an instrument of upward class-mobility. These women are correct in perceiving that it is class-jumping that gives the woman “freedom” in patriarchy (and access to feminism as a matter of choice). — Donna Landry and Gerald MacLean, The Spivak Reader, 2025

Categorization

• QUESTION: This is a devadasi-subaltern strategic-essentialist moment: their own perception (‘education as class-jumping’) is a local, instrumental claim. Worth comparing to Spivak’s collective-vs-individual conditions for holding strategic essentialism.
• XREF: connects to: Women’s oppression is distinct because their complicity is solicited — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 714; Woman’s complicity with male sovereignty arises from her own transcendence — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 156

Broader Connections

• Women’s oppression is distinct because their complicity is solicited #expands (0.80) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 714
• Woman’s complicity with male sovereignty arises from her own transcendence #expands (0.78) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 156