With Resource persons on gender

 With some of the experts and Resource persons  who had come from different Institutes for the Gender Sensitisation program organised by the, Centre for Women’s Studies at the University of Hyderabad . Dr. Gayatri from IIT, who spoke on Gender  and popular culture, Radhika Mamidi from IIIT who spoke on Sexism in Social media, Nilanjana Ray from TISS who discussed on Trafficking of women, , Ram Lakshmi a Retd, IFS Officer who highlighted on Government policies on Gender, Dr. Anupama the CMO of University of Hyderabad, who highlighted on Gender and health and Dr. Ananth, a Consultant on water.

Second day of the gender Sensitisation Course

 Day Two of the Gender Sensitisation course by  the Centre for Women's Studies at the University of Hyderabad, had lectures and interaction on the issues of  Gender and social Identity, Gender and Education, Gender and Technology and Gender and Management. The teachers felt very happy interacting with the scholars and lot of discussion took place.

Kameshwari at the gender sensitisation Course

A dear friend Kameshwari came for my Gender Sensitisation course. She was in the University with me in the History Department till 1991and then left the University to focus only on women.  

Today Kameshwari is a consultant on  Gender issues with a  large number of Projects both in India and abroad. We had both struggled to get a Centre for Women's Studies in our University from the late seventees and early eightees  and as very Junior lecturers then we were not successful. We had a Women’s Studies Cell and under it we conducted a large number of activities like Seminars, Projects which would not fall in mainstream history. We got a formal Centre sanctioned only  in 2007. Kameshwari introduced me to a large number of NGO's in Hyderabad and she played a big role in helping us get money for our Centre through Malladi Subamma. I showed her around our building. We had a great time and laughed that we had started our career at a time when senior Professors in the Department, always sent us to receive guests and during meetings wanted us to serve tea and write down the minutes and  were shocked that we opposed it, saying we will all do this by rotation. We have indeed come much further than those early days when Gender was not a serious subject (in the eyes of many Professors), and we were often given some good professional advice that if we want to make our mark we need to focus and work in our main stream disciplines and not waste our time about trivial issues like Gender. We had to struggle a lot to introduce courses on Gender  which cut across disciplines and justify to the senior faculty in Academic Council that we were competent enough to teach and will not bring a bad name to the University or lower the standards of teaching. Today we can laugh at all this for Gender studies has got a legitimacy and there is insistance from Government, UGC to address gender issues  but four decades back Patriarchy was very strong in the Departments.

Field work, collecting data on Siddis

 On 28th July, 2018, morning, I traveled to the Old city of  Malakpet, Barkhas, Badryangutta and finally to AC guards for doing some field work with the Siddis. The Siddis are the African diaspora in India. The forefathers of the Siddis had migrated to India from Africa centuries back and settled here. They do not have a memory of being brought here as slaves and neither do they accept this. They are very proud of the fact that their forefathers were Bodyguards in the Nizam empire. They still retain their African features of a dark skin and curly hair though a lot of mingling with the local Muslim population has occurred. While in Goa, they converted to Christianity, in Maharashtra they are Hindus and in Hyderabad they are Muslims. In Karnataka you have all the three, Hindu, Christian and Muslim Siddis. I had done a lot of field work with this community women in 2005 and 2006.I revisited these people once again. Thanks to Sumanth Reddy who has come from the US to study this community and my two students Rizwan Ahmad  and  Pabitra S , I could revisit this place. Thanks Rizwan for the pictures. I could not speak to women today and may be from tomorrow onwards we will meet many. I did not find much change since 2005, except that there is now a little more education amongst this group. They are not economically a well off group and exists on the fringes of society. However, they continue their  legacy of music and excelling in Sports. They were very proud of the fact that the Cricketer who played for IPL, Muhammad Siraj was a Siddis boy who has made it big and now had to move out. This is a very close knit community and now have become very Indianised. Field work is always fun and brings in a lot of enthusiasm.

Refresher Course in CWS, UOH

 On 27th July, 2018,  the Centre for Women's Studies in the University of Hyderabad, inaugurated  the one week Gender Sensitisation Program with forty participants. I was very happy to see a large number of men and many from the Science stream, Physics, Chemistry, Maths, Life Sciences attending this program. Majority of the participants are from Maharashtra, though we have representation from Karnataka, Assam, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra and Telengana too. It is nice to know that this program has been made mandatory by the UGC and through these teachers from different parts of the country one can reach a large number of students and this can be a precursor of change. I am very thankful to Prof. Gyan Mudra, the Head of the Hyman Resource Development from National Institute of Rural Development, NIRD who gave a beautiful Key note address and the participants liked  the talk very much and had a large number of questions and many participants  asked me to call her back for another lecture. Our Dean Prof. Venkat Rao an anthropologist also gave an in depth scholarly talk on the beginnings  of Gender discrimination and dwelt at length some of the issues related to Gender including matriarchal, matrileneal societies, dowry, bride price etc. I also met two of my history students, Aruna who is teaching at   Osmania University and Shivaji,  from NEHU University. This is going to be a week full of hectic activities from nine in the morning to five thirty in the evening. I am very thankful to my Ph. D. students Pooja Chetry and  Pabitra S who are helping with this program and the logistics of organising this and taking care of the day to day issues that arise. Indeed a great boon to have such students on whom we can bank completely.

Kargil Vijay Diwas 2018

 Kargil Vijay Diwas programme.

Kargil Vijay Diwas Celebrations in 2018

 Today, 26th July, is celebrated as the Kargil Vijay Diwas, marking the victory of Indian army in Kargil in the Kashmir and Dras region in  1999, through out the country. Among the 527 soldiers that laid their lives during this war was Major Padmapani Acharya, a Maha Vir Chakra recepient. He received the second highest military honour for his bravery in Lone Hill and the capture of Teoling peak in Kargil region. A son of a Wing Commander an airforce officer he  was thirty years of age at that time. Though from Odhisa he was  settled in Hyderabad. Today, a community Hall is constructed in his memory  and a street is named after him. When Major Acharya died his wife was six months pregnant and his daughter was born three months after his martyrdom. His daughter is now a nineteen years old girl studying law at Symbiosis University in Hyderabad. I was invited to speak about the Kargil war in this function. I spoke of the memories of partition and the four  wars that we have had with Pakistan in 1948,1965,1971 and in 1999  besides the various other skirmishes. Finally in a war both sides loose due to the loss of resources and man power. As a teacher of History now for four decades I have been also  talking  about wars both with in the country and outside it for years together in a class room  and we analyse it and speak of causes and results. Today, I saw the war at such close quarters when the war widows were felicitated. There were mothers who had lost a son, parents who had lost a child, wives who had lost their husband's and sisters who had lost a brother. A very solemn reminder that there are families that bear the brunt of this war and suffer the loss of loved ones. There were many Muslim women also who were war widows and were felicitated a  grim reminder that divisions are a creation of a minority of  people who do not think in terms of the country but caste, community, region and religion.  A very touching and poignant moment where we remember the sacrifices made by the soldiers to protect the nation in the rough terrain and high altitude Himalayan region. Thanks Kiran Uniyal for making me a part of this and getting to know so many brave women.  Indeed this was a very different and unique experience.

Morning in Aijawal

 Early morning mist in the mountains at Aijawl. So refreshing and beautiful.

In Aijawl at Mizoram University

 On 8th July, 2018, found myself at Aijawl at Mizoram University. It is always a pleasure to connect to your old students. Hmingthanzuali  is now an Assistant Professor in the Department of History and she received me.  I am here for a Gender Sensitisation program from MHRD. The 38 kilometres  drive from the airport to the University is beautiful with lush green forests on both sides and a lovely green cover as far as the eyes can see. The rainy season starts here from March and goes on till September.The locals get fed up no doubt with this lengthy rainy season and there is a lot of rain even now. To me this is indeed a very soothing environment and a pleasure to be here, especially since we have not had much rains in Hyderabad this season.