Alma mater Banaras Hindu University | ||
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Notable works Social Dimensions of Early BuddhismRewriting History: The Life and Times of Pandita Ramabai Institutions University of Delhi, Miranda House, University of Delhi Books The social dimensions of early B, Rewriting History: The Life a, Everyday Lives - Everyday, The Delhi riots, Pandita Ramabai‑A Life & A T | ||
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Uma Chakravarti is an Indian historian and feminist who taught at the Miranda House, University of Delhi. Her scholarship focused on Buddhism, early Indian history, 19th century history, and contemporary issues. She has also been an activist associated with the women's movement and the movement for democratic rights, participating in several fact-finding committees including the `International Tribunal on Justice for Gujarat'. A leading scholar of feminist history-writing in India, she has been called the `founding mother' of the Indian women's movement.
Contents
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Early life
Uma Chakravarti was born in Delhi on 20 August 1941. Her father was a civil servant, originally from Palghat in Kerala. Uma studied in the Delhi Public School and, later, Mount Carmel College, Bangalore. Afterwards, she studied Law at the College of Law, Bangalore and simultaneously completed a Master's in History from the Benaras Hindu University.
Career
Chakravarti joined the Miranda House, the premier women's college in Delhi University, in 1966. She worked there till 1988, working on Buddhism, early Indian history, the 19th century history and contemporary issues. She authored 7 books and over 50 research articles.
Since the 1970s, Chakravarti has been associated with the women's movement and the movement for democratic rights. She participated in several fact-finding teams to investigate human rights violations, communal riots and state repression.
In most recent work, she has directed two films, one on the life of a child bride Subbulakshmi who went on to participate in the Indian independence movement and the second on the writer Mythili Sivaraman who worked with labouring men and women, documenting their oppressions.
Jawaharlal Nehru University historian Kumkum Roy has edited a volume of scholarly essays in Chakravarti's honour, stating that she had inspired generations of teachers, students and friends. Ashley Tellis from City University of New York adds that she had a profound influence on the lives and careers of scores of young scholars and activists, playing the role of a `founding mother' of Indian feminist history-writing as well as the Indian women's movement.
Personal life
Uma is married to Anand Chakravarti, a sociologist. Together they have a daughter Upali and son Siddhartha. She lives in Delhi along with her husband and daughter.
Works
Reception
Chakravarti's Social Dimensions of Early Buddhism, based on her doctoral thesis, is regarded as a classic piece of work, forming mandatory reading for all students of early Indian history. Chakravarti based her analysis on the Buddhist texts written in Pali, the language spoken by the commoners in early India, ... In her later work, she built on this research to reformulate the issues of social stratification, labour, renunciation and domesticity in early India, with a firm focus on gender, caste and class.
Everyday Lives, Everyday Histories is a compilation of 14 essays derived from three decades of work on the history of early India, previously published in various journals and collections. Scholar Shonaleeka Kaul states that the anthology still retains freshness because it represents a "new take on early Indian history," presenting an understanding of the past beyond the vantage of the elite and the orthodox (the "Kings and Brahmanas"). It is the history of the people on the "margins," where margins is translated as "labouring groups including women who labour and women as a wider category." The Introductory chapter offers an account of Chakravarti's own journey through the women's movement as well as her production of India's first feminism-informed histories.