Shailaja Paik (born 1973 or 1974) is an Indian historian of modern Indian history who focuses on intersections of class, sexuality, and caste, with a particular emphasis on Dalit experiences and perspectives. She is currently the Charles Phelps Taft Distinguished Research Professor of History and affiliate faculty in Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and Asian Studies at the University of Cincinnati. She is a 2024 MacArthur Fellow. [1]
Paik was born into a Marathi-speaking Dalit family in Pohegaon, Maharashtra, India, where she was one of four daughters. The family moved to Pune, where Paik grew up in a "one-room house in a slum area" in Yerawada. Her parents, and especially her father, encouraged the girls to obtain an education. [2]
Paik attended Nowrosjee Wadia College and Savitribai Phule Pune University (1994 BA, 1996 MA) before earning her PhD in 2007 from the University of Warwick. [1] [3]
Paik first came to the U.S. in 2005, as part of a fellowship from Emory University. [2]
Paik has previously worked at Union College as a visiting assistant professor of history (2008–2010) and at Yale University as a postdoctoral associate and visiting assistant professor of South Asian history (2012–2013). Paik has worked at the University of Cincinnati since 2010. [1]
She has written two books: Dalit Women's Education in Modern India, which focuses on the "double discrimination" experienced by Dalit women throughout their pursuit of basic rights, and The Vulgarity of Caste: Dalits, Sexuality, and Humanity in Modern India, about the experiences of Dalit women in the Marathi theatre form Tamasha. [3]
Jyotirao Govindrao Phule, also known as Jyotiba Phule, was an Indian social activist, businessman, anti-caste social reformer and writer from Maharashtra.
Dalit is a term used for untouchables and outcasts, who represented the lowest stratum of the castes in the Indian subcontinent. They are also called Harijans. Dalits were excluded from the fourfold varna of the caste hierarchy and were seen as forming a fifth varna, also known by the name of Panchama. Several scholars have drawn parallels between Dalits and the Burakumin of Japan, the Baekjeong of Korea and the peasant class of the medieval European feudal system.
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.
Prabha Atre was an Indian classical vocalist from the Kirana gharana. She was awarded all three of the Padma Awards by the Government of India. She died after experiencing breathing difficulty in the early hours and was taken to Dinanath Mangeshkar Hospital. She died from cardiac arrest before reaching the hospital. Atre died on 13 January 2024, at the age of 91.
Savitribai Phule was one of the first female teachers in India, a social reformer, and a poet. Along with her husband, Jyotiba Phule, in Maharashtra, she played a vital role in improving women's rights in India. She is considered to be the pioneer of India's feminist movement. She strived to abolish discrimination and unfair treatment of people based on caste and gender. She and her husband were pioneers of women's education in India. They started their first school for girls in 1848 in Pune at Tatyasaheb Bhide's residence or Bhidewada.
Gail Omvedt was an American-born Indian sociologist and human rights activist. She was a prolific writer and published numerous books on the anti-caste movement, Dalit politics, and women's struggles in India. Omvedt was involved in Dalit and anti-caste movements, environmental, farmers' and women's movements, especially with rural women.
The Bhandari community is a caste that inhabits the western coast of India. Their traditional occupation was "toddy tapping".they were also good naval warriors. They form the largest caste group in the state of Goa, reportedly being over 30% of that state's Hindu population, and play a major role in deciding the future of any political party there. Bhandaris are included in the list of Other Backward Classes (OBCs) in Goa and Maharashtra.
Shantabai Krushnaji Kamble was an Indian Marathi writer and Dalit activist. She wrote the first female Dalit autobiography.
Majya Jalmachi Chittarkatha is an autobiography of Shantabai Kamble published in 1983. This is considered the first autobiographical narrative by a Dalit woman writer. The work has been translated into various languages and is required reading for Marathi literary students at the University of Mumbai.
Dalit literature is a genre of Indian writing that focuses on the lives, experiences, and struggles of the Dalit community over centuries, in relation to caste-based oppression and systemic discrimination. This literary genre encompasses various Indian languages such as Marathi, Bangla, Hindi, Kannada, Punjabi, Sindhi, Odia and Tamil and includes narrative-styles like poems, short stories, and autobiographies. The movement started gaining influence during the mid-twentieth-century in independent India and has since spread across various Indian languages.
Sharmila Rege was an Indian sociologist, feminist scholar and author of Writing Caste, Writing Gender. She led the Krantijyoti Savitribai Phule Women's Studies Centre, at University of Pune which position she occupied since 1991. She received the Malcolm Adiseshiah award for distinguished contribution to development studies from the Madras Institute of Development Studies (MIDS) in 2006.
Urmila Pawar is an Indian writer and activist in the dalit and feminist movements in India and her works, all of which are written in Marathi language, have often been hailed as a critique of social discrimination and the savarna exploitation by commentators and media outlets.
Rasta Peth is the oldest neighbourhood located in the city of Pune, India. The name is derived from the name of Raste who was a relative of Peshwa’s in the Maratha Empire.
Mahad Satyagraha or Chavdar Tale Satyagraha was a satyagraha led by B. R. Ambedkar on 20 March 1927 to allow untouchables to use water in a public tank in Mahad, Maharashtra, India. The day is observed as Social Empowerment day in India.
Gangadhar Nilkanth Sahasrabuddhe was an Indian social activist from Maharashtra. He was born in a Marathi Chitpawan Brahmin family and belonged to the Social Service League. Along with other activists - Surendranath Tipnis, chairman of the Mahad Municipality and A.V. Chitre, he was instrumental in helping Babasaheb Ambedkar during the Mahad Satyagraha. During the satyagraha he burnt the book Manusmriti. Later, he went on to become the editor of Ambedkar's weekly 'Janata'.
Surendranath Tipnis was the president of the Mahad Municipality in the early 1900s and a social activist. He was born in a CKP family. Along with other progressive social activists of the time such as A.V. Chitre and the Chitpawan Brahmin G. N. Sahasrabudhe, he was instrumental in helping Babasaheb Ambedkar during the Mahad Satyagraha. He declared Mahad's public spaces open to untouchables and invited Ambedkar to hold a meeting at Mahad in 1927. Later, he went on to become an MLA in Ambedkar's Independent Labour Party. He was awarded the titles 'Dalitmitra'(friend of the dalits) and 'Nanasaheb'.
Sulochana Dongre, also known as Sulochanabai Dongre, was an Indian activist and feminist. She was a prominent advocate for birth control and female emancipation.
Shantabai Dhanaji Dani (1919–2001) was an Indian Dalit writer, politician, and social worker. She wrote primarily in the Marathi language.
Songadya (transl. Jester) is a 1971 Indian Marathi-language drama film directed by Govind Kulkarni and written by Vasant Sabnis. The film was produced and is starred by Dada Kondke with Usha Chavan. It was the debut of Kondke's own kind of ribald comedy, vaguely borrowed from tamasha, with a seductive heroine, an innocent but bumbling hero, and dialogue full of innuendo and sexual puns.
Mohityanchi Manjula is a 1963 Indian Marathi-language historical fiction film directed by Bhalji Pendharkar who also provide story, screenplay and dialougues and produced by Jay Bhavani Chitra, the film stars Suryakant, Jayshree Gadkar, Chandrakant, Baburao Pendharkar in the pivotal roles. The film plot follows a fictional story inspired from the life of Bahirji Naik, a secret agent of Chhatrapati Shivaji.