Books by Urmila Pawar

Originally published in Marathi in 1989, this title details the history of women's participation in B R Ambedkar's Dalit movement. Focusing on the involvement of women in various Dalit struggles since the early twentieth century, it goes on to consider the social conditions of Dalit women's lives, daily religious practices and marital rules.

Using the classic short story form with its surprise endings to great effectiveness, Pawar brings to life strong and clever women from all classes of society, women who are brave in the face of caste oppression, strong in opposing their in-laws, defiant when at the receiving end of insults, determined when guarding their interests or those of their sisters. Urmila Pawar identifies herself as a Dalit woman writer, a Buddhist and a feministand all three identities reveal themselves powerfully in her stories. The protagonists are not always Dalit, nor is the mood always one of anger, and in this Pawar defeats the stereotypes that attach themselves to Dalit writing. Her harsh, sometimes vulgar and hard-hitting language subverts another stereotype that of the soft-spoken woman writer."