Vive la

The feminist press Kali for Women, started by Ritu Menon and Urvashi Butalia in the 1980's was a landmark in Indian publishing. Over the years KfW has morphed into the new publishing houses, Women Unlimited and Zubaan. 

The history of the women's movement in India is now documented through a set of biographies and essays by the protagonists in a new book edited by Menon, Making a Difference: Memoirs from the Women's movement in India.

The autonomous women’s movement in India is remarkable for its energy and staying power, and for the impact it has had on progressive social change in the country.

What constitutes a feminist memoir? What makes it different from any other memorable recounting? Twenty women who have made a critical contribution to the women’s, and women’s studies, movements recall the last quarter century of activism, taking as its starting point the impossibility of separating the personal from the political, or the private from the public. Each memoir vividly covers the most momentous and memorable developments and campaigns of this period, recounting its triumphs and disappointments, speaking about alliances forged, reflecting on relationships lost -- and found.

Memoirists include: Indira Jaising •Vandana Shiva •Kamla Bhasin •Bina Agarwal •Uma Chakravarti •Vasanth Kannabiran •Gabriele Dietrich •Pamela Philipose •Sheba Chhachhi •Saheli •Norma Alvares •Ruth Vanita •Devaki Jain •Nalini Nayak•Meera Velayudhan •Roshmi Goswami •Nirmala Banerjee •Vibhuti Patel •Ilina Sen •Ritu Menon. Their inspiring, poignant, humorous and always politically engaged memoirs are not just personal stories, they are a quintessentially feminist recall of a movement they helped to shape.

In our  Essays and Nonfiction and Womens Studies sections, Rs 350 in paperback, 412 pages.  ISBN: 9788188965670