Sharmila Rege (7 October 1964 – 13 July 2013) was an Indian sociologist,

feminist Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideology, ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social gender equality, equality of the sexes. Feminism holds the position that modern soci ...

scholar and author of '' Writing Caste, Writing Gender''. She led the Krantijyoti Savitribai Phule Women's Studies Centre, (the department of Gender Studies) at

University of Pune Savitribai Phule Pune University (SPPU), formerly the University of Pune, is a public state university located in the city of Pune, India. It was established in 1949, and is spread over a campus in the neighbourhood of Ganeshkhind. The uni ...

since 1991. She received the Malcolm Adiseshiah award for distinguished contribution to development studies from the

Madras Institute of Development Studies The Madras Institute of Development Studies (MIDS) is a research institute based in Chennai. It is a joint undertaking of the Governments of India and Tamil Nadu for conducting research on development problems in Tamil Nadu and the rest of Ind ...

(MIDS) in 2006. She died of colon cancer on 13 July 2013.

Academic contribution

Rege was one of the leading feminist scholars in India, whose work in developing a 'Dalit Standpoint Perspective' has been crucial in opening up feminist debates in India to questions of class,

caste A caste is a Essentialism, fixed social group into which an individual is born within a particular system of social stratification: a caste system. Within such a system, individuals are expected to marry exclusively within the same caste (en ...

, religion and

sexuality Human sexuality is the way people experience and express themselves sexually. This involves biological, psychological, physical, erotic, emotional, social, or spiritual feelings and behaviors. Because it is a broad term, which has varied ...

. Rege's work within the academia, to fight for the rights of the

Dalit Dalit ( from meaning "broken/scattered") 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 var ...

students, has been a testimony of her commitment to critical educational reform in India An obituary described her as a "Phule-Ambedkarite Feminist Welder" who brought the "structural violence of caste and its linkages with sexuality and labour into the feminist discourse". Her concerns around the woman's question in India, contributed greatly to new and alternative methods of

historiography Historiography is the study of the methods used by historians in developing history as an academic discipline. By extension, the term ":wikt:historiography, historiography" is any body of historical work on a particular subject. The historiog ...

, exposing the blind-spots of a

Hindu Hindus (; ; also known as Sanātanīs) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism, also known by its endonym Sanātana Dharma. Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pp. 35–37 Historically, the term has also be ...

Nation towards the Dalit voices and perspectives that have often been neglected in the political milieu of India's history. Her emphasis on relocating the central role of

B. R. Ambedkar Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar (Bhīmrāo Rāmjī Āmbēḍkar; 14 April 1891 – 6 December 1956) was an Indian jurist, economist, social reformer and political leader who chaired the committee that drafted the Constitution of India based on t ...

in the shaping of the modern nation state has ensured that the voice from the margins does not remain invisible opens up space for political contestation and dialogue in a public debate that is quickly being gentrified by the rhetoric of economic development and

globalisation Globalization is the process of increasing interdependence and integration among the economies, markets, societies, and cultures of different countries worldwide. This is made possible by the reduction of barriers to international trade, th ...

. One of Rege's major texts was the essay 'Interrogating the Thesis of 'Irrational Deification'', on popular Ambedkarism in the 1990s, was first published in the ''Economic & Political Weekly'' (v 43, n 7, 16 February 2008), and reprinted in the volume ''The Hunger of the Republic: Our Present in Retrospect'', part of the India Since the 90s series published by

Tulika Books Tulika Books is an Indian publisher of scholarly and academic books in the humanities and social sciences, with a "broadly left perspective." The Chennai-based Tulika Publishers is a sister company of Tulika Books. History Tulika Books was f ...

. In her last published work, ''Against the Madness of Manu'', she sought to centralise Ambedkar's role in the women's movement by invoking his ideological fight against Brahminical patriarchy, and how the caste system engenders graded violence against women. Her particular focus on alternative history writing has given new life to the local and oral traditions of knowledge and cultural practice, by bringing them into public attention through translation projects that build archives of

national memory National memory is a form of collective memory defined by shared experiences and culture. It is an integral part to national identity. It represents one specific form of cultural memory, which makes an essential contribution to national group c ...

. In 2002, she established a day care centre for children in the women’s studies department.

Bibliography

* ''Caste and gender: the violence against women in India'', European University Institute, 1996 * ''Sociology of Gender: The Challenge of Feminist Sociological Thought'', SAGE Publications India, 2003 * '' Writing Caste, Writing Gender'', Zubaan, 2006. * ''Savitribai Phule Second Memorial Lecture'', NCERT, 2009 * ''Against the Madness of Manu'', Navayana, 2013.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rege, Sharmila 1964 births 2013 deaths Indian sociologists Deaths from colorectal cancer in India 21st-century Indian women educational theorists 21st-century Indian educational theorists Writers from Pune Indian feminist writers Indian women political writers Indian political writers 20th-century Indian educational theorists 20th-century Indian women scientists 20th-century Indian social scientists 20th-century Indian women writers 20th-century Indian non-fiction writers English-language writers from India Women writers from Maharashtra 21st-century Indian women writers 21st-century Indian non-fiction writers Academic staff of Savitribai Phule Pune University Women educators from Maharashtra Educators from Maharashtra 20th-century Indian women educators