Book Reviews
Navaneetha Mokkil and Shefali Jha (Eds.), Thinking Women: A Feminist
Reader (Kolkata Stree Publication, 2019), 528 pp., `999, ISBN 978-
8190676007 (Paperback).
Navaneetha Mokkil and Shefali Jha’s edited volume, Thinking Women:
A Feminist Reader gives those of us teaching gender at the undergraduate
level, something to dance about. At 500 pages, the reader has 56 chapters
that include excerpts from life narratives, fiction and poetry, well-known
feminist essays from India and elsewhere. Even as the edited volume
makes space for well-established writers of fiction and scholarship, it
proudly showcases the writings of less-known feminist thinkers like
P. Radhika, Samata Biswas and Soibam Haripriya. Further, the inclusion
of English translations of the works of creative writers and essayists in
Indian languages such as Salma, Jayaprapha, Swarupa Rani and Sara
Aboobacker significantly revises notions such as ‘woman’ and feminism’
that have otherwise acquired their conceptual vocabulary primarily from
English. Among recognized Indian scholars and creative writers are the
works of Sharmila Rege, Partha Chatterjee, Tejaswini Niranjana and
Susie Tharu, Bama, Urmila Pawar, Bhargavi Davar, Mahasweta Devi
and C. S. Lakshmi.
A refreshing aspect of the book is its framing of feminism not as a
concept or category that requires an explanation but as a way of living,
acting and thinking, an idea that Susie Tharu highlights in her preface
to the collection. Four frames stand out: feminism’s ability to form
collectives, its strength as a personal trait, its ability to interrogate
entrenched disciplines and most importantly, its critical indifference to
normative hierarchical binaries. Mokkil and Jha in their introduction to
the book, emphasize two ideas that are significant in this regard: that
gender as a category informs our everyday lives in minute ways that are
best captured through the personal narratives that populate the book;
Indian Journal of Gender Studies
30(2) 236–257, 2023
© 2023 CWDS
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DOI: 10.1177/09715215231157994
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