The discipline of women’s studies has had a very special history in India. While promoting an alternative worldview informed by the battle for equity and justice, it has also challenged the social processes through which patriarchy constructs and reinforces itself. As it has evolved, therefore, women’s studies in India has become both an academic field of inquiry and a force for social activism. With a view to documenting the growth and development of the discipline in India, this unique volume brings together the personal accounts of 17 scholars and activists who have initiated and/or nurtured centres for women’s studies. The heterogeneous group represented here covers the entire range of the women’s studies family in India—from centres embedded within the university system or supported by state-run institutions to independent institutions that sprang up in response to the women’s movement. The contributors highlight the inroads that women’s studies has made to the knowledge base in the social and material sciences and where it has inspired a shift in policy or a change in curriculum. They discuss a wide spectrum of activities from teaching and networking to publishing and agitating, while not ignoring the more mundane aspects of surviving on the periphery such as retaining staff and paying the rent. They also discuss the future course for women’s studies in India by drawing upon both the achievements and the disappointments of the past. Written with hope and humour and ranging from the personal to the philosophical in tone, the original essays gathered here constitute a fascinating and powerful account of the progression of women’s studies in India. They will serve as a guide and an inspiration for those waiting to carry on the struggle for justice and equality.
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