Urvashi Butalia (born 1952) is an Indian
feminist
Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism incorporates the position that society prioritizes the male po ...
writer, publisher and activist. She is known for her work in the women's movement of India, as well as for authoring books such as ''The Other Side of Silence: Voices from and the Partition of India'' and ''Speaking Peace: Women's Voices from Kashmir''.
Along with
Ritu Menon
Ritu Menon is an Indian feminist, writer and publisher.
Career
In 1984, Menon co-founded Kali for Women, India's first exclusively feminist publishing house, along with Urvashi Butalia, her longtime collaborator. In 2003, ''Kali for Women'' sh ...
, she co-founded
Kali for Women
Kali for Women was a start-up feminist publisher in India. Urvashi Butalia and Ritu Menon set up Kali for Women in 1984, arguably the first Indian publishing house dedicated to publishing on and for women. When they decided to take this step, ...
, India's first feminist publishing house, in 1984. In 2003, she founded
Zubaan Books
Zubaan Books is an imprint of Kali for Women, India's first feminist publishing house.
History
In 1984, Urvashi Butalia and Ritu Menon founded Kali for Women, India's first feminist publishing house. Its objectives were to publish quality work ...
, an imprint of Kali for Women.
In 2011, Butalia and Menon were jointly awarded the
Padma Shri
Padma Shri (IAST: ''padma śrī''), also spelled Padma Shree, is the fourth-highest Indian honours system, civilian award of the Republic of India, after the Bharat Ratna, the Padma Vibhushan and the Padma Bhushan. Instituted on 2 January 1954, ...
, India's fourth highest civilian award, for their work in Literature and Education.
Early life and education
Butalia was born in
Ambala
Ambala () is a city and a municipal corporation in Ambala district in the state of Haryana, India, located on the border with the Indian state of Punjab and in proximity to both states capital Chandigarh. Politically, Ambala has two sub-area ...
,
Haryana
Haryana (; ) is an Indian state located in the northern part of the country. It was carved out of the former state of East Punjab on 1 Nov 1966 on a linguistic basis. It is ranked 21st in terms of area, with less than 1.4% () of India's land ar ...
, into a progressive and atheist family of
Punjabi heritage. She is the third of four children of Subhadra and Joginder Singh Butalia. Her mother ran a counselling centre for women. Butalia has one
ldersister, Bela, and two brothers,
Pankaj and Rahul.
Pankaj Butalia
Pankaj Butalia is an Indian documentary filmmaker. His 1993 film ''Moksha'' (also known by the English title ''Salvation''), on the widows of Vrindavan, received four international awards. Several of his films have been screened extensively thr ...
is a left-wing documentary filmmaker best known for a documentary on the miserable conditions of widows living in
Vrindavan
Vrindavan (; ), also spelt Vrindaban and Brindaban, is a historical city in the Mathura district of Uttar Pradesh, India. It is located in the Braj Bhoomi region and holds religious importance in Hinduism as Krishna spent most of his childho ...
.
Butalia earned a BA in literature from
Miranda House
Miranda House is a constituent college for women at the University of Delhi in India. Established in 1948, it is one of the top ranked colleges of the country and ranked as number 1 for consecutively six years (as of 2022).
History
Miranda ...
,
Delhi University
Delhi University (DU), formally the University of Delhi, is a collegiate university, collegiate Central university (India), central university located in New Delhi, India. It was founded in 1922 by an Act of the Central Legislative Assembly and ...
, in 1971, a
Master's degree
A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice. in literature from Delhi University in 1973, and a Master's in South Asian Studies from the
University of London
The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degree ...
in 1977.
She speaks Hindi, Punjabi and Bengali, along with English, Italian and French.
Career
Butalia started her career working with
Oxford University Press
Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...
in
Delhi
Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, primarily its western or right bank, Delhi shares borders w ...
. She worked for a year at their Oxford headquarters,
[ before moving briefly to London-based ]Zed Books
Zed Books is an independent non-fiction publishing company based in London, UK. It was founded in 1977 under the name Zed Press by Roger van Zwanenberg.
Zed publishes books for an international audience of both general and academic readers, co ...
as an editor in 1982. She then returned to India and, along with Ritu Menon
Ritu Menon is an Indian feminist, writer and publisher.
Career
In 1984, Menon co-founded Kali for Women, India's first exclusively feminist publishing house, along with Urvashi Butalia, her longtime collaborator. In 2003, ''Kali for Women'' sh ...
, set up a feminist publishing house, Kali for Women
Kali for Women was a start-up feminist publisher in India. Urvashi Butalia and Ritu Menon set up Kali for Women in 1984, arguably the first Indian publishing house dedicated to publishing on and for women. When they decided to take this step, ...
, in 1984.
Butalia engages herself in teaching at the Young India Fellowship
Ashoka University is a philanthropy-driven private university located in the National Capital Region (NCR), India, focusing on a liberal education in the Humanities, the Social Sciences, and the Sciences. The university is on a mission to bu ...
at Ashoka University
Ashoka University is a philanthropy-driven private university located in the National Capital Region (NCR), India, focusing on a liberal education in the Humanities, the Social Sciences, and the Sciences. The university is on a mission to buil ...
through her course on women, society and changing India.
Butalia's main areas of interest are the Partition
Partition may refer to:
Computing Hardware
* Disk partitioning, the division of a hard disk drive
* Memory partition, a subdivision of a computer's memory, usually for use by a single job
Software
* Partition (database), the division of a ...
and oral histories
Oral history is the collection and study of historical information about individuals, families, important events, or everyday life using audiotapes, videotapes, or transcriptions of planned interviews. These interviews are conducted with people wh ...
from a feminist and left-wing perspective. She has written on gender
Gender is the range of characteristics pertaining to femininity and masculinity and differentiating between them. Depending on the context, this may include sex-based social structures (i.e. gender roles) and gender identity. Most cultures u ...
, communalism
Communalism may refer to:
* Communalism (Bookchin), a theory of government in which autonomous communities form confederations
* , a historical method that follows the development of communities
* Communalism (South Asia), violence across ethnic ...
, fundamentalism
Fundamentalism is a tendency among certain groups and individuals that is characterized by the application of a strict literal interpretation to scriptures, dogmas, or ideologies, along with a strong belief in the importance of distinguishing ...
and media. Her writings have appeared in several newspapers and magazines , including ''The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'', the ''New Internationalist
''New Internationalist'' (''NI'') is an international publisher and left-wing magazine based in Oxford, England, owned and run by a worker-run co-operative with a non-hierarchical structure. Known for its strict editorial and environmental pol ...
,'' ''The Statesman
A statesman or stateswoman typically is a politician who has had a long and respected political career at the national or international level.
Statesman or Statesmen may also refer to:
Newspapers United States
* ''The Statesman'' (Oregon), a n ...
'', ''The Times of India
''The Times of India'', also known by its abbreviation ''TOI'', is an Indian English-language daily newspaper and digital news media owned and managed by The Times Group. It is the third-largest newspaper in India by circulation and largest ...
,'' ''Outlook
Outlook or The Outlook may refer to:
Computing
* Microsoft Outlook, an e-mail and personal information management software product from Microsoft
* Outlook.com, a web mail service from Microsoft
* Outlook on the web, a suite of web applications ...
'' and ''India Today
''India Today'' is a weekly Indian English-language news magazine published by Living Media India Limited. It is the most widely circulated magazine in India, with a readership of close to 8 million. In 2014, ''India Today'' launched a new onl ...
''. She has been a regular columnist for the left-wing ''Tehelka
''Tehelka'' (Hindi: Sensation) is an Indian news magazine known for its investigative journalism and sting operations. According to the British newspaper ''The Independent'', the ''Tehelka'' was founded by Tarun Tejpal, Aniruddha Bahal and a ...
'' and for ''Indian Printer and Publisher,'' a business-to-business
Business-to-business (B2B or, in some countries, BtoB) is a situation where one business makes a commercial transaction with another. This typically occurs when:
* A business is sourcing materials for their production process for output (e.g., a ...
(B2B) publication dealing with the print and publishing industry.
Butalia is a consultant for Oxfam India
Oxfam is a British-founded confederation of 21 independent charitable organizations focusing on the alleviation of global poverty, founded in 1942 and led by Oxfam International.
History
Founded at 17 Broad Street, Oxford, as the Oxford Co ...
and holds the position of Reader
A reader is a person who reads. It may also refer to:
Computing and technology
* Adobe Reader (now Adobe Acrobat), a PDF reader
* Bible Reader for Palm, a discontinued PDA application
* A card reader, for extracting data from various forms of ...
at the College of Vocational Studies at the University of Delhi
Delhi University (DU), formally the University of Delhi, is a collegiate central university located in New Delhi, India. It was founded in 1922 by an Act of the Central Legislative Assembly and is recognized as an Institute of Eminence (IoE) ...
.[
]
Kali for Women
Kali for Women, India's first exclusively feminist publishing house, which Butalia co-founded with Ritu Menon, was set up in 1984 as a trust to increase the body of knowledge on women in the Third World
The term "Third World" arose during the Cold War to define countries that remained non-aligned with either NATO or the Warsaw Pact. The United States, Canada, Japan, South Korea, Western European nations and their allies represented the " First ...
, to give voice to such knowledge as already exists, and provide a forum for women writers, creative and academics.
In 2003, co-founders Butalia and Menon parted ways. Both went on to set up their own imprints under the banner of Kali for Women, with Menon establishing Women Unlimited and Butalia founding Zubaan Books.
Zubaan Books
Originally set up as a non-profit in 2003, Zubaan
''Zubaan'' () is a 2015 Indian musical drama film written and directed by Mozez Singh, starring Vicky Kaushal and Sarah-Jane Dias, Sarah Jane Dias, with music composed by Ashutosh Phatak.
The film is the coming of age story of a young boy Dils ...
now operates as the private company, Zubaan Publishers Pvt. Ltd. The independent publishing house publishes fiction and academic books, "on, for, by and about women in South Asia", with the list including renowned authors such as Jaishree Misra
Jaishree Misra is an Indian author
An author is the writer of a book, article, play, mostly written work. A broader definition of the word "author" states:
"''An author is "the person who originated or gave existence to anything" and who ...
, Nivedita Menon
Nivedita Menon (1960, Poona/Pune) is a writer and a professor of political thought at Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi. She previously taught at Lady Shri Ram College and the Department of Political Science at Delhi University.
Scholarly c ...
, Manjula Padmanabhan
Manjula Padmanabhan (born 23 June 1953) is an Indian playwright, journalist, comic strip artist, and children's book author. Her works explore science, technology, gender, and international inequalities.
Life
Padmanabhan was born in Delhi in ...
, Suniti Namjoshi
Suniti Namjoshi (born 1941 in Mumbai, India) is a poet and a fabulist. She grew up in India, worked in Canada and at present lives in the southwest of England with English writer Gillian Hanscombe. Her work is playful, inventive and often chall ...
and Annie Zaidi.
''The Other Side of Silence''
Apart from several newspaper articles and op-ed
An op-ed, short for "opposite the editorial page", is a written prose piece, typically published by a North-American newspaper or magazine, which expresses the opinion of an author usually not affiliated with the publication's editorial board. O ...
pieces dealing with feminist issues, Butalia has authored or co-authored several books. ''The Other Side of Silence'' (1998), the product of more than seventy interviews conducted with survivors of the Partition
Partition may refer to:
Computing Hardware
* Disk partitioning, the division of a hard disk drive
* Memory partition, a subdivision of a computer's memory, usually for use by a single job
Software
* Partition (database), the division of a ...
, is being used as an academic text in some Indian universities.
The Goethe Institute
The Goethe-Institut (, GI, en, Goethe Institute) is a non-profit German cultural association operational worldwide with 159 institutes, promoting the study of the German language abroad and encouraging international cultural exchange and ...
has described it as "one of the most influential books in South Asian studies to be published in recent decades... It emphasises the role of violence against women
Violence against women (VAW), also known as gender-based violence and sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV), are violent acts primarily or exclusively committed against women or girls, usually by men or boys. Such violence is often consi ...
in the collective experience of tragedy." ''The Other Side of Silence'' won the Oral History Book Association Award in 2001 and the Nikkei Asia Prize The Nikkei Asia Prize (Japanese: 日経アジア賞) is an award which recognizes the achievements of people and organizations that have improved the lives of people throughout Asia. The awards were created and presented by Nikkei Inc, one of the l ...
for Culture in 2003.
Activism
Butalia is an associate of the Women's Institute for Freedom of the Press
Women’s Institute for Freedom of the Press (WIFP) is an American nonprofit publishing organization that was founded in Washington, D.C. in 1972. The organization works to increase media democracy and strengthen independent media. Mo
Basic infor ...
(WIFP).
Awards and recognition
In 2000, Butalia won the Pandora Award from Women in Publishing
A woman is an adult female human. Prior to adulthood, a female human is referred to as a girl (a female child or adolescent). The plural ''women'' is sometimes used in certain phrases such as "women's rights" to denote female humans regardl ...
.
In 2011, Butalia was awarded the Padma Shri
Padma Shri (IAST: ''padma śrī''), also spelled Padma Shree, is the fourth-highest Indian honours system, civilian award of the Republic of India, after the Bharat Ratna, the Padma Vibhushan and the Padma Bhushan. Instituted on 2 January 1954, ...
by the Government of India.
In 2017, the Goethe Institute
The Goethe-Institut (, GI, en, Goethe Institute) is a non-profit German cultural association operational worldwide with 159 institutes, promoting the study of the German language abroad and encouraging international cultural exchange and ...
awarded Butalia the Goethe Medal
The Goethe Medal, also known as the Goethe-Medaille, is a yearly prize given by the Goethe-Institut honoring non-Germans "who have performed outstanding service for the German language and for international cultural relations". It is an offici ...
, an official decoration of the Federal Republic of Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated between ...
that "honors individuals who have displayed exceptional competence of the German language
German ( ) is a West Germanic languages, West Germanic language mainly spoken in Central Europe. It is the most widely spoken and Official language, official or co-official language in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, and the Ita ...
as well as in international cultural exchange."
Works
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
References
External links
Zubaan Books website
Interview
by Anupama Arora and Sandrine Sanos, ''Journal of Feminist Scholarship'' 6 (Spring 2014)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Butalia, Urvashi
1952 births
20th-century Indian businesspeople
20th-century Indian businesswomen
20th-century Indian journalists
20th-century Indian women writers
21st-century Indian businesspeople
21st-century Indian businesswomen
21st-century Indian journalists
21st-century Indian women writers
21st-century Indian writers
Alumni of the University of London
Businesspeople from Haryana
Businesswomen from Haryana
English-language writers from India
Feminist studies scholars
Indian feminist writers
Indian feminists
Indian political writers
Indian publishers (people)
Indian women journalists
Indian women political writers
Indian women publishers
Journalists from Haryana
Journalists from Meghalaya
Living people
People from Ambala
Recipients of the Padma Shri in literature & education
Delhi University alumni
Women writers from Haryana
Writers from Haryana
Winners of the Nikkei Asia Prize