Set against the feminist discourse, these images raise different questions about "seeing" the Indian woman. Traced over the century, they suggest an extraordinary transformation in imaging the Indian woman as manifested in painting, photography, popular posters and classical cinema and as examined here in works by both men and women.

In five seminal essays this book examines central issues regarding the woman, whether she is viewed as a woman or a goddess; whether her body is treated as an object or subject of pleasure; if she has the freedom to move from the home to the world outside; if she is expected to play multiple roles or is perceived in her integral self; and if she has learned now how to re-assert her own power.