Here are three excellent new works by ICWI’s members! The Stories Around Us, by Rana Khan, focuses on how South Asian communities in Toronto, Canada grapple with the challenges of mental health. Ten South Asian women shared their stories that offer glimpses into various facets of mental health, but at the same time reveal the common struggles and challenges faced by them. Dr. Chinnaiah Jangam has translated Gabbilam, a highly regarded classic written by Gurram Jashua, the Father of modern Dalit Telugu literature. As Dr. Jangam notes, “With an untouchable whose rebellious spirit questioned the legitimacy of Hindu Brahmanical ideology cast as its hero, Gabbilam’s revolutionary intervention subverted the content and form of the classical Telugu literary sphere. It was a socially and politically relevant text because in it, Jashua also engaged with anti-colonial nationalism and other issues of his time.” Finally, Dr. Madhumita Dutta’s new book Mobile Girls Koottam chronicles the everyday experiences and lives of young women – rural emigres – working in the electronics industry in Tamil Nadu’s Kancheepuram District. The work beautifully captures – through conversations and with rich illustrations, their “lives as working-class women, the nature of their work, and their dreams, each from her own unique and nuanced perspective.”
The Stories Around Us
Rana Khan
Gabbilam
A Dalit Epic
Gabbilam, written by Gurram Jashuva, the father of Dalit literature in Telugu, is the first Dalit text written in classical Telugu in a poetic form close to the Sanskrit meter.
Translated into English by Prof. Chinnaiah Jangam,
Related work by Prof. Jangam: Desecrating the sacred taste: The making of Gurram Jashua—the father of dalit literature in Telugu.
Mobile Girls Koottam
Working Women Speak
Madhumita Dutta
Illustrated by Madhushree Basu
A humorous chronicle that explores contemporary media in the lives of Indian working women.
In 2013 Madhumita Dutta, a doctoral student, went to do research in Kancheepuram district, Tamil Nadu. There she met Kalpana, Abhinaya, Satya, Lakshmi, and Pooja—all women working inside an electronics factory. In the women’s rented room, they would gather regularly over the next year, drinking tea, chatting, and producing a radio podcast: Mobile Girls Koottam. [more]
JUST OUT! On The Hindu’s Sunday Magazine! Mobile Girls Koottam — Working Women Speak review: Conversations in Muthu’s room