Book Review: Men at Home by Gyanendra Pandey

Namrata reviews Men at Home by Gyanendra Pandey (Orient Blackswan, 2025) calling it a landmark work in gender studies, Indian history, and cultural anthropology.

Men at Home by Gyanendra Pandey is a powerful, richly layered intervention in the study of masculinity, intimacy, and domesticity within the context of modern Indian society. With an acute sensitivity to historical and social complexity, Pandey interrogates the seemingly private sphere of the home to uncover its deep entanglement with public, political, and structural forces. In doing so, he reframes the home not as a feminine preserve, but as a space where male identities are negotiated, contested, and constantly reshaped.

The cover of Men at Home features a striking black and blue palette overlaid with a sepia-toned family photograph, evoking the atmosphere of mid-20th century India. The multi-generational image—men, women, and children—visually echoes the book’s exploration of lineage, memory, and the layered intimacies of domestic life.