Mahakali Temple · Interactive library search · Complete HTML directory

Mobilizing Shakti: Hindu Goddesses and Campaigns Against Gender-Based Violence

Open this record in the interactive library

Catalogue identifier
klm000035
Alternate titles and import identifiers
KLM000035
Author or attribution
Ali Smears
Record type
Article
Language
English
Date / edition
13 June 2019
Source / repository
MDPI, Religions; accessible licensed mirror at Wisdom Library
Access
Open access
Subjects
KLM Research Sources — 5 November 2026; Academic Research and Peer-Reviewed Articles; Art, Iconography, and Epigraphic Studies; Contemporary Worship and Living Traditions

Description and curator notes

Smears examines two Indian campaigns against gender-based violence, Abused Goddesses and Priya’s Shakti, asking whose experiences are represented when goddess imagery becomes a language of empowerment. Her analysis considers caste, class, religious identity, skin colour and the relationship between divine female power and women’s social agency. The Kali-specific discussion concerns the comic’s episode in which Parvati becomes Kali and confronts Shiva, and the contrast between Kali’s dark, angry form and other visual ideals of femininity. This makes the article useful for a modern-reception collection rather than for reconstructing early Kali worship. The study also cautions against treating the woman–goddess identification as automatically emancipatory: representations can challenge violence while preserving exclusions. Its evidence consists of campaign texts, images, public responses and scholarly interpretation, not a historical edition of scripture or a clinical assessment of survivors.

Research source KLM000035. Source export dated 5 November 2026.
The evidence, access and licence assessments below are supplied by the curator document, not a new independent verification by this library.

Mobilizing Shakti: Hindu Goddesses and Campaigns Against Gender-Based Violence
Author / attribution: Ali Smears
Publication: MDPI, Religions; accessible licensed mirror at Wisdom Library. Religions 10(6), article 381; 22 pages
Date: 13 June 2019
Type / language: Peer-reviewed journal article; English
Complete text: https://www.wisdomlib.org/uploads/journals/mdpi-relig/2019-volume-10-issue-6--2077-1444-10-6-381-.pdf
Source record: https://doi.org/10.3390/rel10060381
Identifier: doi:10.3390/rel10060381
Smears examines two Indian campaigns against gender-based violence, Abused Goddesses and Priya’s Shakti, asking whose experiences are represented when goddess imagery becomes a language of empowerment. Her analysis considers caste, class, religious identity, skin colour and the relationship between divine female power and women’s social agency. The Kali-specific discussion concerns the comic’s episode in which Parvati becomes Kali and confronts Shiva, and the contrast between Kali’s dark, angry form and other visual ideals of femininity. This makes the article useful for a modern-reception collection rather than for reconstructing early Kali worship. The study also cautions against treating the woman–goddess identification as automatically emancipatory: representations can challenge violence while preserving exclusions. Its evidence consists of campaign texts, images, public responses and scholarly interpretation, not a historical edition of scripture or a clinical assessment of survivors.
Subjects: Academic Research and Peer-Reviewed Articles; Art, Iconography, and Epigraphic Studies; Contemporary Worship and Living Traditions
Historical context: Contemporary Indian digital activism; campaigns discussed from the early 2010s through 2019.
Composition / witness: Contemporary scholarly analysis published 2019 Not applicable: modern authored article
Rights: Final page explicitly identifies ©2019 author, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0. The mirror retains this attribution and licence, supporting legitimate redistribution. Individual credited campaign images may carry separate rights; link to the article rather than extracting images.
Evidence / reading limits: Selective close inspection for identity, completeness and Kali relevance, not a full critical reading. PDF text extraction contains duplicated figure text and old draft header artifacts; no claim of page-image visual QA. Publisher HTML inaccessible in this pass.
Access verified: 5 November 2026. Complete text checked in the research catalog; full-text access rechecked for this export. Absent from the 401-record site comparison at 02:48–02:49 UTC.

Source access

Read or locate the original source at MDPI, Religions; accessible licensed mirror at Wisdom Library

Rights and reading conditions

Final page explicitly identifies ©2019 author, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0. The mirror retains this attribution and licence, supporting legitimate redistribution. Individual credited campaign images may carry separate rights; link to the article rather than extracting images.

Citation

Ali Smears. Mobilizing Shakti: Hindu Goddesses and Campaigns Against Gender-Based Violence. MDPI, Religions; accessible licensed mirror at Wisdom Library. Religions 10(6), article 381; 22 pages 13 June 2019. doi:10.3390/rel10060381.

This page supplies catalogue metadata and links. It does not reproduce the underlying source text. Historical, religious, healing and interpretive claims belong to the cited sources, not to an independent verification by this catalogue.