Prem Chowdhry is an Indian social scientist, historian,^[2] and Senior Academic Fellow at the Indian Council of Historical Research, New Delhi.^[3] She is a feminist^[4] and critic of violence against couples refusing arranged marriages.^[5]

She is a well-known scholar of gender studies, authority on the political economy and social history of Haryana state in India.^[6][7]

Career

Chowdhry is a Life Member of the Center for Women Studies.^[8][9] She has also worked at the Indian Council of Social Science Research supported Centre for Contemporary Studies, New Delhi; an advanced studies unit of Nehru Memorial Museum & Library.^[10]

Chowdhry is an alumna of Jawaharlal Nehru University,^[11] and professorial fellow of the University Grants Commission.

She has provided expert commentary to news media, including to The Guardian about the impact of prejudice against having a daughter in India;^[12] to The Guardian,^[13] Associated Press,^[14] TIME,^[15] and Reuters^[16] about "honour killings"; to The Statesman about the Haryana social structure;^[17] to NPR about the Haryana social structure and how it relates to the rape of Dalit women;^[18] to The Indian Express about the political history of Indian cinema;^[19] and to Reuters about inheritance rights for women in India.^[20] Her 2004 Modern Asian Studies article "Private Lives, State Intervention: Cases of Runaway Marriage in Rural North India" was cited by the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada in 2006.^[21]

She has also written commentary in The Tribune, including about violence related to inter-caste marriages,^[22] and advocacy for an investment in the education of girls to reduce poverty.^[23]

Art career

Chowdhry is a self-taught artist^[24][25] whose painting are held by the National Gallery, India^{[citation needed]} and the Lalit Kala Akademi, India's National Academy of Fine Arts. She started exhibiting in 1970 and her paintings often reflect on the status of women in India.^[26][27]

Works

Books

• Chowdhry, Prem (1984). Punjab politics: the role of Sir Chhotu Ram. Vikas/University of Michigan. p. 364. ISBN 978-0706924732.
• Chowdhry, Prem (1994). The Veiled Women: Shifting Gender Equations In Rural Haryana. Oxford University Press India. ISBN 978-0195670387.
• Chowdhry, Prem (2000). Colonial India and the Making of Empire Cinema: Image, Ideology and Identity. Manchester University Press. p. 294. ISBN 978-0719057922.
• Chowdhry, Prem (July 2009). Contentious Marriages, Eloping Couples: Gender, Caste, and Patriarchy in Northern India. Oxford University Press. p. 360. ISBN 978-0198063612.
• Chowdhry, Prem (2010). Gender Discrimination in Land Ownership. Sage Publications. p. 314. ISBN 978-8178299426.
• Chowdhry, Prem (2011). Political Economy of Production and Reproduction. Oxford University Press. p. 464. ISBN 9780198067702.
• Chowdhry, Prem (2011). Understanding Politics And Society – Hardwari Lal. Manak publications. p. 423. ISBN 978-8178312279.

Papers

• Chowdhry, Prem (28 November 1987). "Socio-economic dimensions of certain customs and attitudes: women of Haryana in the colonial period". Economic and Political Weekly. 22 (48): 2060–2066. JSTOR 4377793.
• Chowdhry, Prem (1990). "Alternative to the Sati model: perceptions of a social reality in folklore". Asian Folklore Studies. 49 (2): 259–274. doi:10.2307/1178036. JSTOR 1178036.
• Chowdhry, Prem (25 December 1993). "High participation, low evaluation: women and work in rural Haryana". Economic and Political Weekly. 28 (52): A–135–A–137 and A–140–A–148. JSTOR 4400591.
• Chowdhry, Prem (1996). "Conjugality, law and state: inheritance rights as pivot of control in Northern India". Indo-British Review. 21 (1): 59–72. OCLC 193906854.
• Chowdhry, Prem (April–June 1996). "Contours of communalism: religion, caste and identity in South-East Punjab". Social Scientist. 24 (4/6): 130–163. doi:10.2307/3517794. JSTOR 3517794.
• Chowdhry, Prem (24 August 1996). "Marriage, sexuality and the female 'ascetic': understanding a Hindu sect". Economic and Political Weekly. 31 (34): 2307–2321. JSTOR 4404549.
• Chowdhry, Prem (10 May 1997). "Enforcing cultural codes: gender and violence in Northern India". Economic and Political Weekly. 32 (19): 1019–1028. JSTOR 4405393.
• Chowdhry, Prem (February 2000). "Propaganda and protest: the myth of the Muslim menace in an empire film (The Drum, 1938)". Studies in History. 16 (1): 109–130. doi:10.1177/025764300001600105. S2CID 159486594.
• Chowdhry, Prem (January–July 2001). "Lustful women, elusive lovers identifying males as objects of female desire". Indian Journal of Gender Studies. 8 (1): 23–50. doi:10.1177/097152150100800102. S2CID 143881077.
• Chowdhry, Prem (3 December 2005). "Crisis of masculinity in Haryana: the unmarried, the unemployed and the aged". Economic and Political Weekly. 40 (49): 5189–5198. JSTOR 4417491.
• Chowdhry, Prem (31 July 2010). "Women in the army". Economic and Political Weekly. 45 (31).

Personal life

She is the daughter of Hardwari Lal,^[28] the educationist and Indian National Congress member of parliament for Haryana.^[29]