Article ID: CBB610278467

India, the United Nations Human Rights Commission, and the 1979 Virginity Testing Scandal (2024)

unapi

This article looks at India’s complaint at the United Nations Human Rights Commission in 1979 about the ‘virginity test’ performed on a migrant Indian woman at Heathrow. It examines the use of arguments about race and racial discrimination by India to compel Britain to discuss immigration on a bilateral basis. The article argues that the pivot to a race-based argument was deliberately patriarchal and India’s main concern in these negotiations was the impending British Nationality Act of 1981, which would prevent men from moving to Britain in search of an overseas wife. Using the virginity testing scandal, the article re-examines the changing role of discourses about race in postcolonial institutions of global governance.

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Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB610278467/

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Authors & Contributors
Aguilar, Filomeno V., Jr.
Andersen, Stephen O.
Beattie, James
Bivins, Roberta E.
Carter, Jimmy
Foege, William H.
Journals
Cold War History
Gender and History
Health and History
História, Ciências, Saúde---Manguinhos
History and Technology
Journal of Asian Studies
Publishers
Johns Hopkins University Press
Manchester University Press
Oxford University Press
Earthscan
Harvard University Press
Ohio State University Press
Concepts
Race
Emigration; immigration
Public health
Science and race
International relations
Modernization
People
McNamara, Robert Strange
Foege, William H.
Salk, Jonas Edward
Silow, Ronald Alfred
Time Periods
20th century, late
19th century
20th century
21st century
20th century, early
Places
United Kingdom
United States
Africa
India
Europe
Great Britain
Institutions
United Nations
World Bank
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)
Rockefeller Foundation
Centers for Disease Control (U.S.)
UNESCO
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