How is gender ideology reproduced in adivasi societies? How far can gender constructions be instrumental in perpetuating women’s subjugation and exploitation? Focusing upon Chotanagpur, now a part of the newly formed state of Jharkhand, Sinha tries to raise questions that are of paramount concern yet are so peripheral in the existing studies on tribes and gender. Investigating traditions, an area largely ignored by historians and social scientists, Sinha tries to show how these can influence and structure the construction and reproduction of gender identities. Women faced three systems of discrimination: patriarchy, colonialism and capitalism, all reinforcing, and on occasions, working in tandem with each other. Women faced three systems of discrimination: patriarchy, colonialism and capitalism, all reinforcing, and on occasions, working in tandem with each other. This book discusses how women negotiated with these complex systems, sometimes visibly, sometimes invisibly.