All roads will lead to central Mumbai today, where a landmark literary event will showcase the written word in a new light. Maveli Publications is organising Transforming Life Into A Song: An Evening of Ambedkarite Women’s Poetry to launch their inaugural book, Leaping Towards the Deep Blue Sky, an anthology of the work of three generations of Ambedkarite women poets from Maharashtra. The poems chart a journey from the formative currents of early Dalit feminist writing to the emergent queer, contemporary, political expressions of today.
Shrujana Shridhar, Shreeja Rao and Hira Bansode
“‘Dalit women are treated like little pickle on a thali — just for taste,’ writer-activist Hira Bansode once said to me,” says Shrujana N Shridhar, the book’s editor and curator, artist and anti-caste activist, currently doing her MFA at the Parsons School of Design, New York. “These women didn’t wait for recognition from their male counterparts. They organised and wrote about each other, for each other, creating an enduring legacy.” At the event, special guest, noted writer-activist Urmila Pawar will speak about the history of the Samvadini Stree Literary Movement and her foreword to the book. This will be followed by a conversation featuring Ambedkarite women poets Chhaya Koregaonkar, Sharda Navale, Dr Pradnya Pawar, Varsha Bhise and translator Shreeja Rao. The poets will read out their poems, followed by a video featuring editor Shrujana N Shridhar and poets unable to attend, reflecting on their journey writing anti-caste poetry.
Pradnya Pawar, Chhaya Koregaonkar and Varsha Bhise
Maveli Publications is backed by an Ambedkarite collective of artists and writers. The book is translated from Marathi to English by Shreeja Rao — a law student, journalist and US Department of State scholar — and Shridhar, with a foreword by Urmila Pawar. It includes the works of 13 visionary poets like Hira Bansode, Dr Pawar, Ushakiran Atram and Disha Pinki Shaikh. It traces a living history of struggle, sisterhood, resisting caste and Brahminical patriarchy.
Disha Pinki Shaikh, Sandhya Shivram Tambe, Sheetal Sathe and Ushakiran Atram
Reflecting on the origin of the book, Shridhar says, “When I interviewed Urmila Pawar in 2018 for my research on the Little Magazine Movement and the Dalit Panthers, she offered a vital feminist lens that laid bare the limitations of how Dalit women’s realities are understood within the anti-caste movement. The Samvadini Stree Sahitya Manch, founded in 1985 by herself, Bansode, and others, produced an anthology Dalit Lekhika Ani Sahitya (Dalit Women Writers and Literature) edited by Pawar and published by Pune University. For this, the team interviewed over 50 women poets across Maharashtra — Chandrapur, Sangli, Miraj, Pune, Mumbai, and Thane. They gathered verses born out of resistance, some in notebooks nearly destroyed by husbands, fathers, or brothers. Pawar recounts the ways in which some poets had to appease their husbands so they would let them publish. Dalit women’s poetry thrives, despite them being constrained by patriarchal roles, even within Ambedkarite homes.”
Sharda Navale, Sneha K, Rajyashri Goody and Surekha Bhagat
Rao adds, “The book makes for a telling example of how Dalit women have experienced the brunt of gendered caste oppression, but also advanced the Ambedkarite movement through their work. The most refreshing aspect of translating this book was a reminder of how my community of Ambedkarite women have found sisterhood, created culture, and found solace despite the discrimination, violence and trauma we endure.”
ON Today, 6 pm to 9 pm
AT Dadar Matunga Cultural Centre, JK Sawant Marg. Matunga West.
FREE
Read between
A verse from Sharda Navale’s powerful Suffocation/Ghusmat
“I take care of the household,
I teach my children
I give my spare time to the movement
I stand by my mothers and sisters.”
Her husband grew suspicious
That promiscuous pimp
Labelled her characterless
And on one terrifying night
He set her ablaze
Her untimely death
As if a release!
