Hindu Women – Side by Side : The Construction of Hindu Women in Swedish and Indian Textbooks

School is a place for identity formation. When gender and religion are studied pupils tend to perceive religion, especially non-Christian religions, as traditional and patriarchal. Female oppression in religion is also used as a way of “othering”. Religious education is rarely presenting the women’s perspective. The purpose of this study is to analyze and compare the construction of Hindu women in Swedish and Indian school textbooks. The study was conducted through discourse analysis, using Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe’ “toolbox” for identifying group identity. As a theoretical framework postcolonial theory and postcolonial feminism were used. A total of eight textbooks were examined. The results showed that the discourse of Hindu women in Swedish textbooks was not hegemonic, instead, it consisted of four different discourse. Some of them were colonial in character. Only one textbook showed Hindu women as religious agents. Women in Indian textbooks were constructed in a different way, often described as agents, working for change in a traditional society. By studying how group identity and agency are constructed in textbooks religious education can become better equipped to enable gender and religious identities in a multicultural society. Hence this thesis claims that the research between gender, religious education and multiculturalism need further inquiry