During the last two decades, India has witnessed the emergence of groups and networks geared to the pursuit of agendas that seek to redefine or recuperate men's received identities and interests. Profeminist men's groups seek to challenge hegemonic masculinity so as to bring about gender justice. Gay men have formed organisations to combat homophobia and compulsory heterosexuality. Men's rights forums are fighting a rearguard battle to shore up certain seemingly threatened patriarchal institutions, practices and norms. My presentation will provide a critical account of the sources, structures and dynamics of these various manifestations of mobilised masculinities by drawing on my own and other scholars' research in the interdisciplinary field of Masculinity Studies.

Professor Mangesh Kulkarni teaches at the Department of Politics and Public Administration, University of Pune. He has also taught at universities in Zomba (Malawi), Goettingen (Germany) and Bilbao (Spain) and is currently serving as the first ICCR Visiting Professor of Indian Studies in the Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Vienna.