Ghar and Bahir: Spatial and Gender Relations in India and the US during the Pandemic in View of Feminist Utopias

Abstract

This paper examines the transformation of gendered spatial relations within households in India and the United States during the COVID-19 pandemic through the conceptual lens of ghar (home) and bahir (outside world). Traditionally, these spaces have been culturally and sociologically gendered, with ghar associated with women, domesticity, care work, and spirituality, and bahir aligned with men, materiality, and public life. The pandemic disrupted this long-standing spatial segregation by confining all genders to the domestic sphere, compelling men to enter spaces historically assigned to women and thereby unsettling entrenched gender hierarchies.

Drawing on feminist utopian literature—specifically Begum Rokeya’s Sultana’s Dream and Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s Herland—the paper evaluates whether the pandemic-induced collapse of spatial boundaries led to more egalitarian household dynamics or reinforced patriarchal control. Through comparative socio-cultural analysis, the study demonstrates that while some households experienced increased male participation in domestic labour and care work, many others witnessed an intensification of women’s unpaid labour, emotional responsibility, and exposure to domestic violence. The pandemic thus functioned as both a potential site of feminist reconfiguration and a dystopian reinforcement of gender inequality.

The paper further contextualizes these changes within broader historical frameworks, including nationalist constructions of ghar and bahir in India and post-war domestic ideologies in the United States. It argues that spatial unification alone cannot guarantee gender justice; rather, meaningful transformation requires dismantling the value systems that privilege public labour over domestic work. Ultimately, the study concludes that the pandemic exposed the fragility of progress toward gender equality and reaffirmed the need for structural, cultural, and ideological shifts to realize a truly feminist social order beyond utopian imagination.