CWDS Library - Recent Additions

Author      : Kishwar Naheed

Publisher  : Oxford University Press

Year         : 2009

Pages      :  196

Contents   :           To My Readers.  1. First Stage.  2. First Step.  3. First Prostration.  4. First Idol.  5. First Appearance.  6. First Slip.  7. Mahlaqa's Tale.  8. At Meera Bai's Feet.  9. The Birth of Yashodhara.  10. Uncrowned Zarrin.  11. Discreet Laila.  12. The Woman with the Whip.  13. Sana on the Gallows.  14. Eve and the Son of Adam.  Glossary
 

This book is Kishwar Naheed's response to those who are quick to label a woman as bad. It is a searing indictment of a society that uses custom, religion and even brute force to keep women down. She hits out hard and fearlessly at social and political injustices and at the materialism and sham religiosity she sees around her. It's what you would expect of one of Pakistan's leading feminist poets, known for her defiance and outspokenness.

Born to a conservative family in pre-partition India, at a time when women were in such purdah that they could not show their hand to a hakim without dipping it in flour, Naheed saw these same women turn into political activists in the run-up to Partition. She too learned to do battle early on--to go to college like her brothers, to express herself and, at the age of 19, to marry the man of her choice. The marriage turned sour and it is an indication of her refreshing candour that she doesn't gloss over her hurt and disappointment. Rich in literary, historical and cultural allusions, A Bad Woman's Story is written in a punchy, witty style that keeps the reader engaged and entertained from beginning to end. [from the back cover] 

Author      : Deepti  Priya  Mehrotra

Publisher  : Peguin

Year         : 2009

Pages       : 219

Contents:         Acknowledgements.   Preface.   Murder of  Innocents.  The Making of an Activist.  Growing Years.  Inheritance: Ancient Glory.  Grandma’s Tales and Women’s Wars.  Flaming Torches.Insurgency.  AFSPA,  the Unlawful Law.  ‘Habitual Offender’.   Redefining Development. Women’s Solidarity: Movement Against Rape.  Body Politics: Two Unique Protests.  Soul-Force and Non-Violence.  Civil Disobedience and Democratic Dissent.  Widening Circles:  Flight to Delhi.  Solitary Confinement.  A Pure Activist for Human Rights. Solidarity: The Power of the Powerless.  The Road to Peace.  Miles to Go. Epilogue: Inside the Labyrinth.  Notes.  References

Irom Sharmila has been on a fast unto death for eight years, demanding a repeal of the draconian Armed Forces Special Powers Act in Manipur. Ten innocent people were mowed down by security forces in Malom, a village near Imphal, in November 2000. The perpetrators were not punished, protected under the Armed Forces Special Powers Act which empowers military and para-military personnel to arrest, shoot, even kill, anyone on the grounds of mere suspicion. In response to this tragedy—one among many such atrocities—Irom Sharmila, a young Manipuri, began an indefinite hunger strike. The government arrested her and force-fed her through nasal tubes. She has been released and re-arrested innumerable times since then, but has stood by her demand, steadfastly refusing to eat until the Act is repealed.

Burning Bright is a hard-hitting account of a people caught between the crossfire of militants and security forces; of a once- sovereign kingdom whose culture has been brutally violated; of the many voices of dissent— from underground groups to the Meira Paibis, a women’s movement opposed to all forms of violence whether by the state or insurgents and a moving portrait of ‘the Iron Lady of Manipur’. [from the back cover]

Title         : Fireflies in the Mist: A Novel

Author      : Qurratulain Hyder

Publisher  : Women Unlimited

Year         : 2008

Pages       : 378

Contents:          The Little Bird: Remembering Qurratulain Hyder.   Part I:  1. Caledonia.  2. The Golden Album.  3. Lotus River.  4. Song of the Padma Boatman.  5. Typhoon Uma.   6. Woodland. 7. The Rev. Paul Mathew Bannerjee.  8. A Sari for Virgin Mary.  9. The New Testament.  10. Cloudland.  11. The Ayah.  12. Lily Cottage.  13. Wandering Minstrel. 14. Miss Rosie Bannerjee and Solidarity. 15. The Cloud Messenger. 16. The Sundarbans.  Part II:  17. Arjumand Manzil.  18. The Nightmare.  19. Monsoon Melody.  20. Song of the Seasons.  21. Quit India and People's War.  22. The Rebel.  23. Ganga and Brahmaputra.  24. Charles Barlow, Bengal Civilian.  25. Comrade Rehan Ahmed.  26. The Muezzin's Call.  27. Jehan Ara Begum. 28. Cow-Dust Hour.  29. Shrimati Radhika Sanyal.  30. Luna's Grove.  31. The Bridal Palanquin. 32. Kamal and Akmal.  Part  III:  33. Birds of Paradise.  34. Esther Giribala Bannerjee.  35. Yasmin Belmont, Dark Dancer.  36. Pilot Officer Akmal Murshidzada.  37. The Pacifist. 38. Good Luck Diary.  39. Scheherezade Christina Belmont.  40. Swami Atmananda Shanker Premi.  41. The Playhouse.  42. Victorious Morning Star.  43. Richard Barlow. 44. The Weavers.  45. The Kite-Flier.  46. Old Ganga..   

"The plaintive song of the boatman on the Padma, a green haze of rice fields turning to gold in the light of the setting sun, the romance of Bengal caught and held in the silvery net of a fisherman's haul.... Ambitious, subtle and intricately structured, Fireflies in the Mist spans nearly four decades of East Bengal's history, from the dawn of nationalism to the restless aftermath of the bloody struggle for an independent Bangladesh. At the centre of this many-centred novel is Deepali Sarkar, a young Hindu attracted to the extreme left wing of the nationalist movement, and Rehan Ahmed, a Muslim radical of Marxist inclinations who introduces her to the life of the rural deprived. Their common engagement draws them into a quietly doomed love affair.

Through their relationshi Hyder explores the growth of tension between Bengal's Hindus and Muslims who had once shared a culture and a history.

"History", Says Hyder, "Is another name for humanity's inability to learn its lesson". Lit by the flare of Hyder's prose, history is captured in the glow of the firefly's wing, unfolding in the lives of her characters as they try to come to terms with their own and Bengal's shifting fortunes."[from the back cover]

Title         : Her Story, Our Story and on the Swing:
                       Short Stories and a Novella

Author      : Vibhavari Shirurkar

Publisher  : Stree

Year         : 2008

Pages      : 230

Contents:         Foreword.   Introduction.  Part  I. Short Stories: Her Story, Our Story:  1. Come, Hear Their Whispers.  2. Sacrifice.  3. The Light Within.  4. Avinash.  5. Love: Nectar or Poison?  6. My Mother, My Enemy?  7. Married Bliss?  8. Empty Vessels. 9. My Father's Family or Mine? 10. Divine Love or Animal Passion? 11. With Eyes Wide Open.  Part II.  Novella: On the Swing: 12. A Critic's note. 13. Translator's Note.

"In the short stories, Vibhavari Shirurkar (the pseudonym of Malatibai Bedekar), had bravely written on the complex yearnings of young girls, touching upon their sexuality and their tentative steps to an inchoate self-hood, and in the novella, of an abandoned wife's courage in forming a new relationship. This outraged middle class respectability. When the yet undiscovered author's effigy was burnt on the streets of Pune, the pseudonym used protected her.

In the 1976 edition of Kalyanche Nishwas (Popular Prakashan), the author added a note on the public reaction to this work when first published, which has also been included in this volume. She declared that her portrayal of young working women being financially exploited by their fathers, of their being drawn towards devious men despite themselves, or their severe stress as widows or abandoned wives, was a diluted version; the reality was much worse.

These fictional works, translated into English from the original Marathi for the first time, and accompanied by a critical note, written in 1933, by the sociologist and Marathi Encyclopaedist S.V. Ketkar, are like a slice of social history. Together, Her Story, Our Story and On the Swing speak about women who loved and lost, despaired, doubted the choices they made, yet made them nevertheless." [from the back cover]

Title           : The Road LessTravelled:
                          The Life and Writings of Vinodinee Neelkanth

Author       : Aparna Basu and Shailaja Kalelkar Parikh

Publisher   : Stree

Year          : 2009

Contents  :            Foreword.   Contributors and Translators.   Part  I.  Biographical Sketch.  Family Tree.   1. Introduction.  2. Social Milieu and Family Background.  3. Education and Development. 4. Travel and Marriage.  5. As  a Writer.  6. Family Life.  7.  Afterword.   8.  Reminiscences.  A Chronology.   Sources.   Photographs  Between.   Part II.  Translated  Works.   Journalistic Writings.   9. Who is Akhanda Saubhagyavati?.  10. At the Beside of the Sick.  11. An Educated Daughter.  12. Teaching an Old Dog New Tricks?.  13.  Geetabai.  14. Who is Poor?. 15. Rites and Rituals: At What Cost?. 16. Mutual Charge Sheets. 17. As Good as a Son. 18. Lalita.  19. The Daughter: A Millstone?.  20. She Deserted Her Baby.  21. The Daughter-in-Law Is Always the Culprit.  22. The Curse of the Dowry System.  23. From  Beggar to Business Woman.  24. Mudra Puts the Train Back on Track.  25. Social Service.  26. Rejoicing in Death?.  27. Wild Flowers.  28. Long-faced Wife: Why Am I So?.  29. Jamnabai Finds a Vocation.  30. Mother-in-Law Becomes Self-Reliant.  31. A Unique Courthouse.  32. Sumitraben: A Unique Mother-in-Law. 33. Snap Judgments.  34. Crying Over Spilt Milk.  35. “The Gandhian Couple”. 36. A Daughter Has Her Revenge.  37. Selfless Love.  38. Two Sides of the Same Coin.   Essays.  39. The First Glimpse.  40. Kashmir.  41. Dalhousie.  42. The Splendour of Spring.  43. Sabarmati in Spate.  44. The First Day of April.  45. Nostalgia.  46. Yearnings.  47. “The Day”.  48. The Ultimate.  A Chapter  From  the  Novel  Kadaleevan.  49.  Hasmukhbhabhi.   Short  Stories.  50. The Noble Heart.  51. Bakari Id.  52. Wild Winds.  53. The Witch. 54. The Chameli Flowers. 55. Som and Mangal.  56. “Luckily”.  57. Vibhavari.  58. A Bird of Two Nests.  Complete List of Published Works.   Index

Vinodinee Neelkanth, whose life spanned most of the twentieth century (1907-1987), was in today’s language an empowered woman who lived her life according to her own beliefs and convictions. Born into one of the leading reformist families of Gujarat, she made bold and unconventional choices in her life and she began writing in 1928. Whereas her essays are milestones in Gujarati Literature, her short stories and novel focused mainly on women. Most of her journalistic writings aimed at encouraging women to speak up for themselves. Insofar as she strove to give women a sense of identity, she may be regarded as a precursor of feminist literature of Gujarat.

The first part of the volume is a brief biography of Vinodinee Neelkanth, placing her life and writing in a historical perspective. Part two consists of translations of selected pieces of her writings from all genres, giving an insight into the social change Vinodinee was attempting to bring about. The volume will be of interest not only to students and scholars of gender and feminist studies and sociology, but also the general reader.[from the back cover]

Title           : The Weave of My Life:
                          A Dalit Woman’s Memoirs

Author       :  Urmila Pawar

Publisher   : Stree

Year          : 2008

Pages        : 348

 

Contents   :           Acknowledgements.  Preface.  Introduction.  A Note of Kinship.  Illustrations Follow.  The Weave of My Life.  Glossary.  Afterword.  Reader’s Reactions to Aaydan.

Urmila Pawar is one of the foremost literary figure in Marathi. Her short stories, though comparatively few in number, have caught the imagination of present-day readers. ‘Aaydan’ Urmila Pawar’s thought provoking memoirs, spare no one including herself. The author links her mother’s act of weaving baskets, aaydans, to her own ‘act of writing’.  Translated for the first time into English as ‘The Weave of my life’, Urmila’s memoirs describe the long journey from the Konkan to Mumbai, bringing to a fruition the struggle of three generations for a dalit modernity, about which readers have hitherto heard so little.

Urmila writes frankly of the ‘private’ and ‘public’ aspects of her life: of falling in love with Harishchandra as a young teenager, and marrying him in the teeth of family opposition, of the young couple and their children moving to Mumbai, of her many sustaining friendships with women and her work. Her talking openly about familial and marital conflicts, of the grievous shocks that life dealt her, outraged even some of her admirers. A long-term member of the dalit and women’s movements, Urmila offers a cogent critique of feminist and politics.

Her accounts of how she began to write, to participate in dalit literary conferences and founded a women’s literary conferences are engaging. Like her on dalit women in the Ambedkarite movement, now archived, her memoirs too are high documentary value.

Sharmila Rege provides an incisive foreword, placing the book within its tumultuous social context.   [from the back cover]

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