Writing Caste/Writing Gender: Narrating Dalit Women’s Testimonios (Zubaan Classics)

This powerful counter-narrative to the mainstream assumptions about the development of feminism in India in the 20th century is now available in a brand new paperback edition as part of the Zubaan Classics series to celebrate Zubaan’s 10th anniversary.

The last decade saw the emergence and assertion of separate Dalitbahujan women’s organizations both at the national and regional levels. Excluded from political and cultural spheres, Dalit women’s movements have sought to transform both Dalit and feminist politics in India. They have fought against the reproduction of caste within modern spaces like universities, bureaucracies and within the women’s movement as well as women’s studies. The assumptions about caste identities being private and personal have been questioned and serious challenges posed for understanding caste and gender in contemporary India.

Located within this context, this book brings together extracts from the work of Kumud Pawade, Urmila Pawar, Shantabai Kamble, Mukta Sarvagod, Shantabai Dani, Vimal More and Janabai Girhe.

“So riveting is the narration that it is difficult to put down the book until their stories are finished. For a non-fiction academic work this is no small feat.” — Anupama Katakam, The Hindu

SHARMILA REGE is a Professor at the Department of Sociology, University of Pune. She has worked for several years with the Krantijyoti Savitribai Phule Women?s Studies Centre, University of Pune. She has written and published on sociology of gender, Dalit feminism and Dalitbahajun public culture in Maharashtra. Her present work concerns the documentation of music and print cultures of the Ambedkarite counterpublics in contemporary Maharashtra.