This essay series tracks the response of the autonomous Indian women’s movement to the issue of portrayal of women in the Indian media. With its lens focused on the eighties, the essay starts with early sparks of feminist response to women’s representation in the media and moves towards analyses and debates on the issue within what became the full-fledged and organised women’s movement. 

The face behind two feminist organisations in India, Abha Bhaiya writes about how the creation of political-yet-intimate feminist spaces is for her both an endorsement as also a critique of the autonomous Indian feminist movement. Read on!

“…I realized that feminism is not merely yet another “ism” or a heavy-duty principle but a hope, desire, and a voice hidden in a corner of every woman’s heart”. Hindi writer and translator Veena Shivpuri shares her memories from the eighties.

Of all the things that make archives so fascinating…is to see the evolution of issues and turns in a debate, but especially the long journeys of individuals, their spine and spirit. Like these two young girls who left their homes - for good - to join the convent. Years later, they left their religious home too, again in search for answers. What they finally found changed their paradigms, and their names!