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Paper short abstract

In this paper, I take the first name-change practice of brides by their grooms within two communities in India, as an ethnographic method to explore the relation between something as intimate and personal as first names to broader structures of caste, gender, marriage and the political contexts.

Paper long abstract

In the Marathi Brahmins and Sindhi Hindu communities in India, the groom changes the first name of his bride at the day of their wedding. This practice effectively changes the first, middle, and last names of the bride from the day of her wedding till the rest of her life. This practice, informed by the polarities and hierarchies of caste and gendered expectations from women, superimposes a ‘new’ history for the bride on her ‘old’ history through this name-change practice. The question this paper then raises is what histories live within these women through their two names – that although changed never truly leave the women through their lives. Drawing from my twelve-month ethnography (2020-2021) in the western Indian city of Vadodara, I explore how power relations within marriage can be understood through paying close attention to names and naming. In doing so, something as everyday as names become potent means to bring forth broader histories of families, political contexts, kinships, friendships and often unexplored titbits of life within these communities. In this paper I present name-narratives of women who draw links between intimate histories and broader social and political processes of their time. Thus, in this paper I propose to explore first names as an ethnographic method to capture the various histories within the named person.