Gita Ramaswamy | |
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| Born | Sholapur, Maharashtra, India |
| Nationality | Indian |
| Alma mater | Osmania University |
| Occupation(s) | Social Activist, Publisher |
| Organization | Hyderabad Book Trust |
| Spouse | Cyril Reddy [1] |
| Relatives | George Reddy (brother-in-law) |
Gita Ramaswamy is an Indian social activist and writer.
Gita Ramaswamy was born in 1953 to K.H. Ramaswamy (Kizhakemadam Harihara Ramaswamy) and Lakshmi Ramaswami in Sholapur, Maharashtra, India. She was the fourth of five daughters. She began her education in Bombay at the Convent of Jesus and Mary School. However, her family moved to Madras when she was nine years old, and stayed there till she was fifteen. In Madras, she studied at the Rosary Matriculation School in Santhome till she was fourteen. [2]
Ramaswamy became a grass-roots organizer and activist for women's rights and the rights of the poor while a student. [3] She co-founded the Hyderabad Book Trust, a non-profit Telugu publishing collective. She has published books in both English and Telugu, as the sole author of India Stinking (2005), and as co-author of Taking Charge of Our Bodies (2004), On Their Own (2005), and The Oxford India Anthology of Telugu Dalit Writing (2016).
She has also translated Devulapalli Krishnamurthi’s autobiography Ooru, Vaada, Batuku into English as Life in Anantharam (2016). She also published an anthology of Gauri Lankesh’s writings in Telugu. [4]
Srirangam Srinivasa Rao, popularly known as Sri Sri, was an Indian poet and lyricist who is known for his works in Telugu literature and films. Noted for his anthology Maha Prasthanam, Sri Sri is a recipient of a National Film Award, a Nandi Award and a Sahitya Akademi Award.
Potti Sreeramulu, was an Indian freedom fighter and revolutionary. Sreeramulu is revered as Amarajeevi in the Andhra region for his self-sacrifice for the Andhra cause. He became famous for undertaking a hunger strike for 56 days in support of having separate state for Andhra Pradesh; he died in the process. His death sparked public rioting and Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru declared the intent by the newly liberated nation to form Andhra State three days following the death of Sreeramulu. He contributed his life for the formation of a separate Telugu-speaking state from the dominant Tamil-speaking Madras presidency. His struggles led to the formation of separate Telugu-speaking state called "Andhra state".
Kancha Ilaiah Shepherd is an Indian political theorist, writer and a Dalit rights activist. He writes in both English and Telugu languages. His main domain of study and activism is the annihilation of caste.
Tarabai Shinde (1850–1910) was a feminist activist who protested patriarchy and caste in 19th century India. She is known for her published work, Stri Purush Tulana, originally published in Marathi in 1882. The pamphlet is a critique of caste and patriarchy, and is often considered the first modern Indian feminist text. It was very controversial for its time in challenging the Hindu religious scriptures themselves as a source of women's oppression, a view that continues to be controversial and debated today. She was a member of Satyashodhak Samaj.
Kapu is a Hindu caste primarily found in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. Kapus are classified as a Forward caste, and are a community of land-owning agriculturists. Historically, they also served as military generals (Nayakas) and warriors in Hindu kingdoms such as the Vijayanagara Empire. Kapus are a dominant caste of Andhra Pradesh. They are primarily present in Coastal Andhra, with a major concentration in the Godavari-Krishna delta region. Kapus commonly use the title Naidu.
The Tank Bund Road is a road in Secunderabad, Hyderabad, India. The Tank Bund dams Hussain Sagar lake on the eastern side and connects the twin cities of Hyderabad and Secunderabad. It has become an attraction with 33 statues of famous people from the region.
Ilavenil Meena Kandasamy is an Indian poet, fiction writer, translator and activist from Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India.
Rao Bahadur Namasivayam Sivaraj was an Indian lawyer, politician and Scheduled Caste activist from the state of Tamil Nadu.
Dalit literature is a genre of Indian writing that focuses on the lives, experiences, and struggles of the Dalit community, who have faced caste-based oppression and discrimination for centuries. This literature encompasses various Indian languages such as Marathi, Bangla, Hindi, Kannada, Punjabi, Sindhi, Odia and Tamil and includes diverse narratives like poems, short stories, and autobiographies. The movement originated in response to the caste-based social injustices in mid-twentieth-century independent India and has since spread across various Indian languages, critiquing caste practices and experimenting with different literary forms.
Katikithala Ramaswamy was a former judge of the Supreme Court of India.
Katti Padma Rao is a Dalit poet, scholar and activist from Andhra Pradesh, India. He is the founding general secretary of Dalit Mahasabha, a people's organisation that spearheaded the Dalit movement in Andhra Pradesh in the aftermath of the 1985 Karamchedu massacre in the coastal region of that state. A scholar in both Telugu and Sanskrit, he has published several volumes of poetry, and books on sociology, religion, philosophy, history, and women's studies. He is a regular columnist in major Telugu newspapers and magazines.
Bama , also known as Bama Faustina Soosairaj, is a Tamil Dalit feminist, teacher and novelist. Her autobiographical novel Karukku (1992) chronicles the joys and sorrows experienced by Dalit Christian women in Tamil Nadu. She subsequently wrote two more novels, Sangati (1994) and Vanmam (2002) along with three collections of short stories: Kusumbukkaran (1996) and Oru Tattvum Erumaiyum (2003), 'Kandattam'(2009). In addition to this, she has written twenty short stories.
Gogu Shyamala is a Telugu-language writer and women's activist and a prominent Dalit.
Susie Tharu is an Indian writer, publisher, professor, editor and women's activist. Throughout her career and the founding of several women's activist organizations, Tharu has helped to highlight those issues in India.
Kusuma Satyanarayana is an Indian scholar, editor and anti-caste activist. He is a Professor in the Department of Cultural Studies, English and Foreign Languages University (EFL-U), Hyderabad, and concentrates in the burgeoning field of Dalit studies.
K. Varalakshmi is a Telugu short story writer.
Bojja Tharakam was an Indian poet, writer, social and political activist and a human rights advocate. Tharakam was a lawyer in the Andhra Pradesh State High Court, fighting against the problems that Dalits have had to confront.
Baby Kamble, commonly known as Babytai Kamble, was an Indian activist and writer. She was born into an untouchable caste, Mahar, the largest untouchable community in Maharashtra. She was a well-known Dalit activist and writer who was inspired by B. R. Ambedkar, prominent dalit leader. Kamble and her family converted to Buddhism and remained lifelong practicing Buddhists. In her community, she came to be admired as a writer and was fondly called as Tai. She is widely remembered and loved by the Dalit community for her contributions of powerful literary and activist work. She is one of the earliest women writers from the untouchable communities whose distinctive reflexive style of feminist writing setting her apart from other Dalit writers and upper caste women writers who gaze was limited and reflexivity incarcerated in caste and masculinity.
Aparna Lanjewar Bose is an Indian trilingual writer, poet, critic, and translator. She is currently working in The English and Foreign Languages University, Hyderabad as an Associate Professor, at the School of Literary Studies. She is an author of several books and articles in Marathi and English.
Swami Vidya Prakashananda Giri, born Ananda Mohan, was an Indian spiritual Guru from Andhra Pradesh. He was a disciple of Malayala Swamy. He was the founder of Sri Sukabrahmashram in Srikalahasti. His commentary on Bhagavad Gita named Geetha Makarandam is one of the prominent works in spiritual literature.
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