Rupture, Loss and Living: Minority Women Speak about Post-conflict Life is an oral history volume that brings together narratives of women survivors of collective violence from three places in India— Hyderabad, Mumbai and Gujarat. These voices represent different classes, rural and urban locations and span three decades of violent events.
Thematically presented— ‘I Began to See the World for What it is’, ‘Loss and Trauma’, ‘Negotiating Survival and Livelihood’, ‘Claiming Accountability, Seeking Justice’ – this book explores the gendered complexities of negotiating the immediate and long term aftermath of collective violence.
In the Introduction, the editors provide an analytical framework built from ideas articulated in the narratives. Such a framework helps to interrogate and contextualise questions of agency, identity and justice. Concepts such as rupture, loss, dignity and accountability are laid bare in order to understand the processes and politics of recovery and survival.
This book goes beyond a restrictive understanding of collective violence and its impacts to challenge existing assumptions on Minority women’s engagement with public and private institutions in a post-conflict context. The narratives presented here foreground a critique of power and contemporary society, rooted in Minority women’s experiences of violence and survival.
This unique and deeply moving compilation will be of great interest to activists and policymakers working in areas of post-violence recovery and minorities and citizenship, as well as to scholars of women’s studies, feminism, political science, sociology, cultural politics and ethnography/oral history.
Deepa Dhanraj is a Bangalore-based documentary filmmaker, feminist researcher and writer.
K. Lalita is a feminist scholar and activist, currently associated with Yugantar, and Anveshi – Research Centre for Women's Studies in Hyderabad.
Acknowledgements Abbreviations Introduction (D. Rajan, K. Lalita and D. Dhanraj)
I BEGAN TO SEE THE WORLD FOR WHAT IT IS… Ayesha Aman Khan | Vadodara Kaneez Begum | Mumbai Sophia Khan | Ahmedabad Fatima | PanchmahalLOSS AND TRAUMA Gauhar Sheikh | Mumbai Zahera and Shehrbano | Panchmahal Noorjehan Begum | Hyderabad Shaheen Sultana | Hyderabad Aminaben Memon | Sabarkantha NEGOGIATING SURVIVAL AND LIVELIHOODS Sabah | Ahmedabad Almas Begum | Hyderabad Zakiya Khatun | Ahmedabad Zainab Begum | Hyderabad Nadira and Aalia | Mumbai CLAIMING ACCOUNTABILITY, SEEKING JUSTICE Sajidaben | Sabarkantha Waseemunnissa | Hyderabad Ruqayya Bano | Vadodara The Sheikh Family | Mumbai Masumah Iqbal | Mumbai
Afterword Glossary