Interview with Urvashi Butalia

Abstract

Urvashi Butalia is a co-founder (in 1984) of Kali for Women, India’s first feminist publishing house. In 2003, Urvashi launched a new venture, Zubaan, which is an imprint of Kali. She obtained her undergraduate and master degrees in literature from Delhi University, and a Master’s in South Asian Studies from the University of London in 1977. She has worked as an editor at the Oxford University Press and Zed Press Books for several years, and has also held a position of reader at the college of vocational studies at Delhi University for over 20 years where she taught book publishing. Butalia is very active in the Indian women’s movement, and is a dedicated civil rights activist as well. She has also edited and authored several books, including the anthology, Speaking Peace: Women’s Voice from Kashmir, and with Tanika Sarkar, Women and the Hindu Right. She is the co-author with Ritu Menon of Making a Difference: Feminist Publishing in the South, and author of The Other Side of Silence: Voices from the Partition of India. She has won several awards for her work, among them the Nikai Asia Prize for Culture in 2003 in Japan for her work as an author and co-founder of Kali for Women; the Oral History Association Book Award in 2001 in the U.S. for The Other Side of Silence, and the Pandora Women in Publishing Award in 2000 in the UK.