Sharmila Rege

Sharmila Rege (7 October 1964 – 13 July 2013)[1] was an Indian sociologist, feminist scholar and author of Writing Caste, Writing Gender.[2] She led the Krantijyoti Savitribai Phule Women's Studies Centre, (the department of Gender Studies) at University of Pune which position she occupied since 1991.[3] She received the Malcolm Adiseshiah award for distinguished contribution to development studies from the Madras Institute of Development Studies (MIDS) in 2006.[4]

Sharmila Rege
Born(1964-10-07)7 October 1964
Pune, Maharashtra, India
Died13 July 2013(2013-07-13) (aged 48)
Pune
NationalityIndian
Occupation(s)Sociologist, writer, feminist

Academic contribution

Rege was one of the leading feminist scholars in India, whose work in developing a 'Dalit Standpoint Perspective'[5] has been crucial in opening up feminist debates in India to questions of class, caste, religion and sexuality. Rege's work within the academia, to fight for the right of the Dalit student's rights, has been a testimony of her commitment to critical educational reform in India[6] An obituary described her as a "Phule-Ambedkarite Feminist Welder" who brought the "structural violence of caste and its linkages with sexuality and labour into the feminist discourse".[7] Her concerns around the woman's question in India, contributed greatly to new and alternative methods of historiography, exposing the blind-spots of a Hindu Nation towards the Dalit voices and perspectives that have often been neglected in the political milieu of India's history. Her emphasis on relocating the central role of B. R. Ambedkar in the shaping of the modern nation state has ensured that the voice from the margins does not remain invisible opens up space for political contestation and dialogue in a public debate that is quickly being gentrified by the rhetoric of economic development and globalisation.[8] One of Rege's major texts was the essay 'Interrogating the Thesis of 'Irrational Deification'', on popular Ambedkarism in the 1990s, was first published in the Economic & Political Weekly (v 43, n 7, 16 February 2008), and reprinted in the volume The Hunger of the Republic: Our Present in Retrospect, part of the India Since the 90s series published by Tulika Books.

In her last published work, Against the Madness of Manu,[9] she sought to centralise Ambedkar's role in the women's movement by invoking his ideological fight against Brahminical patriarchy, and how the caste system engenders graded violence against women. Her particular focus on alternative history writing has given new life to the local and oral traditions of knowledge and cultural practice, by bringing them into public attention through translation projects that build archives of national memory.[10]

In 2002, she established a day care centre for children in the women’s studies department.[11][12]

Personal

She died of colon cancer on 13 July 2013.[1]

Bibliography
  • Caste and gender: the violence against women in India, European University Institute, 1996
  • Sociology of Gender: The Challenge of Feminist Sociological Thought, SAGE Publications India, 2003
  • Writing Caste, Writing Gender, Zubaan, 2006.
  • Savitribai Phule Second Memorial Lecture, NCERT, 2009
  • Against the Madness of Manu, Navayana, 2013.

References
  1. Trivedi, Divya (13 July 2013). "Sociologist who studied intersection of gender, caste". The Hindu. Retrieved 14 July 2013.
  2. Rege, Sharmila (2 July 2006). Writing caste, writing gender: reading Dalit women's testimonios. Zubaan. ISBN 978-81-89013-01-1. Retrieved 27 September 2011.
  3. Unacknowledged. "Krantijyoti Savitribai Phule Women's Studies Centre, University of Pune". University of Pune. Retrieved 26 September 2011.
  4. Rege, Sharmila (22 November 2006). "Dalit studies must move across disciplines: Sharmila Rege". The Hindu. Archived from the original on 23 August 2007. Retrieved 26 September 2011.
  5. "Sharmila Rege | Economic and Political Weekly". Epw.in. Retrieved 14 July 2013.
  6. "Cartoon controversy – In conversation with Satyanarayana: Sharmila Rege". Kafila. Retrieved 14 July 2013.
  7. Devika, J; John, Mary E; Kannabiran, Kalpana; Sen, Samita; Swaminathan, Padmini (2013). "Sharmila Rege (1964-2013): Tribute to a Phule-Ambedkarite Feminist Welder". Economic and Political Weekly. 48 (32): 22–25. eISSN 2349-8846. ISSN 0012-9976. JSTOR 23528021. Retrieved 13 November 2022.
  8. "Kractivism " Sharmila Rege". Kractivist.org. Retrieved 14 July 2013.
  9. "Against the Madness of Manu". Navayana.org. Archived from the original on 17 July 2013. Retrieved 16 July 2013.
  10. "Songsters From The Mudhouse | Sharmila Rege". Outlookindia.com. Retrieved 14 July 2013.
  11. "Day Care Centre : Department of Womens Studies Center,University of Pune". www.unipune.ac.in. Retrieved 25 June 2020.
  12. Trivedi, Divya (13 July 2013). "Sociologist who studied intersection of gender, caste". The Hindu. ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 25 June 2020.
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