‘We Were Making History…’ (Zubaan Classics)

In the early 1980s, members of Stree Shakti Sanghatana, a Hyderabad women’s collective, set out to talk to women who had been part of the legendary Telangana People’s Struggle (1946-51), a rebellion which began in the erstwhile Hyderabad state and was put down by the newly inaugurated republic. The group interviewed more than 50 women, from well-known figures like Mallu Swarajyam, Chityala Ailamma and Jamalunnisa Baji to women across caste and class whose lives had been transformed by the struggle, like Kamalamma, Pramilatai, and Dudala Salamma. Sixteen of these interviews were published in Telugu as Manaku Teliyani Mana Charitra (1986) and translated into English as ‘We Were Making History…’: Life Stories of Women in the Telangana People’s Struggle (1989). This reprint presents that classic for a new generation of readers.

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Stree Shakti Sanghatana was a Hyderabad women’s collective, active in the post-Emergency years up to the mid-eighties. It played a leading role in campaigns and research on a range of issues raised by the women’s movement, especially in the fields of law, education, historical studies, and health.