Dr. Vina Mazumdar (28 March 1927 – 30 May 2013) was an Indian academic, left-wing activist and feminist. A pioneer in

women's studies Women's studies is an academic field that draws on Feminism, feminist and interdisciplinary methods to place women's lives and experiences at the center of study, while examining Social constructionism, social and cultural constructs of gender; ...

in India, she was a leading figure of the Indian women's movement. She was amongst the first women academics to combine activism with scholarly research in women's studies. She was secretary of the first Committee on the Status of Women in India that brought out the first report on the condition of women in the country, '' Towards Equality'' (1974).Interview with Vina Mazumdar, Global Feminisms Project

Deep Blue Deep Blue may refer to: People, figures, and characters * Deep Blue (musician), electronic and drum and bass musician * Deep Blue (DC Comics), a superhero in the post-Crisis DC Universe * Deep Blue (''Tokyo Mew Mew''), a character from ''Tokyo ...

, Michigan University She was the founding Director of the Centre for Women's Development Studies (CWDS), an autonomous organisation established in 1980, under the

Indian Council of Social Science Research The Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR) is the national body overseeing research in the social sciences in India. It was established in New Delhi New Delhi (; ) is the Capital city, capital of India and a part of the Delh ...

(ICSSR). She was a National Research Professor at the Centre for Women's Development Studies, Delhi.

Early life and education

Vina Mazumdar was born in a middle-class

Bengali Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to: *something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia * Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region * Bengali language, the language they speak ** Bengali alphabet, the w ...

household in

Kolkata Kolkata, also known as Calcutta ( its official name until 2001), is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of West Bengal. It lies on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River, west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary ...

, the youngest of five children, three boys and two girls. Her father, Prakash Majumdar, was an engineer. Her uncle was the noted historian R.C. Majumdar (1888–1980). She did her schooling from

St. John's Diocesan Girls' Higher Secondary School St. John's Diocesan Girls' H.S. School (informally known as Diocesan or Dio) is a girls-only day school located in Kolkata (Calcutta), West Bengal, India. It was established in 1876 by British people, British missionary Angelina Margaret Hoare ...

, then studied at Women's College,

Banaras Hindu University Banaras Hindu University (BHU), formerly Benares Hindu University, is a collegiate, central, and research university located in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, India, and founded in 1916. The university incorporated the Central Hindu College, ...

, and subsequently at

Asutosh College Asutosh College, established in 1916, is a semi-government college in Kolkata. It is considered as one of the most prestigious educational landmarks in Kolkata .It offers undergraduate level courses in various arts, commerce and science subjects ...

, the

University of Calcutta The University of Calcutta, informally known as Calcutta University (), is a Public university, public State university (India), state university located in Kolkata, Calcutta (Kolkata), West Bengal, India. It has 151 affiliated undergraduate c ...

, where she became the secretary of the Ashutosh College Girls Students Union. While at the college, she organised a meeting in the support of Rama Rao Committee which recommended expansion of the inheritance rights for daughters through crucial

Hindu Law Hindu law, as a historical term, refers to the code of laws applied to Hindus, Buddhists, Jains and Sikhs in British India. Hindu law, in modern scholarship, also refers to the legal theory, jurisprudence and philosophical reflections on the na ...

Reform. In 1947, just after independence, she went to

St Hugh's College, Oxford St Hugh's College is a Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent college of the University of Oxford. It is located on a site on St Margaret's Road, to the north of the city centre. It was founded in 1886 by Elizabeth Wordsworth as a ...

, where she completed her graduation in 1951. She returned to

Oxford University The University of Oxford is a collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the second-oldest continuously operating u ...

in 1960 and received her

D.Phil. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

there in 1962.

Career

She started her career as a lecturer of Political Science in

Patna University Patna University is a public state university in Patna, Bihar, India. It was established on 1 October 1917 during the British Raj. It is the first university in Bihar and the seventh oldest university in the Indian subcontinent in the modern e ...

in 1951, soon becoming the first Secretary of the Patna University Teachers' Association. Later, she taught at

Berhampur University Berhampur University is a public teaching-cum-affiliating university in Brahmapur, Odisha, India. History Berhampur University was established on 2 January 1967 as an affiliating University by the Odisha Act 21 of 1966. Lingaraj Law College ...

, where she was appointed upon the recommendation of Professor Bidhu Bhusan Das, her friend from

, who was Director of Public Instruction, Odisha, at the time. Subsequently, she joined the University Grants Commission Secretariat, New Delhi as an Education Officer and became a Fellow of the

Indian Institute of Advanced Studies The Indian Institute of Advanced Study (IIAS) is a research institute located in Shimla, India. It was set up by the Ministry of Education, Government of India in 1964 and started functioning from 20 October 1965. History and establishment The ...

Shimla Shimla, also known as Simla ( the official name until 1972), is the capital and the largest city of the northern Indian state of Himachal Pradesh. In 1864, Shimla was declared the summer capital of British India. After independence, the city ...

, for the research project, 'University Education and Social Change in India' (April 1970 – Dec. 1970). She was Member Secretary for the Committee on the Status of Women in India (1971–74). The committee, appointed by the Government of India in 1971, was reconstituted in 1973 with her, a late entrant, as Member Secretary. The report of the committee, ''Towards Equality'', highlighted the rise in poverty amongst women in the transition from agrarian to industrial society, as also the decline of sex ratio in India. Eventually, the report became a turning point both for Women's Studies and the women's movement in India. Later Mazumdar became Director, Programme of Women's Studies,

from 1975 to 80. Mazumdar helped organise a meeting to support the recommendations of the Rama Rao Committee on Hindu Law Reform (to expand the inheritance rights of daughters. In 1980, she co-founded the Centre for Women's Development Studies (CWDS), New Delhi and remained its founder-Director from 1980 till her retirement in 1991. CWDS initiated the concept of "action-research" as it organised landless peasant women in

Bankura district Bankura district (Pron: bãkuɽa) is an District#India, administrative unit in the Indian States and territories of India, state of West Bengal. It is part of Medinipur division—one of the five Divisions of West Bengal, administrative divisi ...

of West Bengal. It soon became an influential institution which impacted the course of women's studies in India. Through her career, Mazumdar straddled both the scholarship and activism side of women's studies, which she referred as "women's studies movement". She was also a founding-member of the Indian Association of Women's Studies (IAWS, founded 1982). Thereafter she was Senior Fellow at CWDS and JP Naik National Fellow, ICSSR for two years. From 1996 to 2005 she was the chairperson, Centre for Women's Development Studies, New Delhi. She published her memoir
''Memories of a Rolling Stone''
in 2010. [Reviews

Frontline, Volume 27 – Issue 15, 17–30 July 2010
Pamela Philipose: Vina Mazumdar's Rolling Story
30 October 2010
Vina Mazumdar, the fighter
Times of India, 5 June 2010] Vina 1

Personal life

She married musician Shankar Mazumdar in 1952, who she met while working in Patna. Upon her marriage, she changed the spelling of surname from Majumdar (her maiden name) to Mazumdar (her marital name). The couple had four children - three daughters and a son. One of her daughters was the first wife of

Sitaram Yechuri Sitaram Yechury (12 August 1952 – 12 September 2024) was an Indian Marxist politician and the General Secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), who was a member of the Politburo of the CPI(M) since 1992. Previously, he was a Memb ...

, leader of

Communist Party of India (Marxist) The Communist Party of India (Marxist) (abbreviated as CPI(M)) is a Communism in India, communist List of political parties in India, political party in India. It is the largest communist party in India in terms of membership and electora ...

. Dr. Mazumdar died at a hospital in Delhi on May 30, 2013, after a brief illness at the age of 86, and is survived by her children.

Bibliography

* ''Education & social change: three studies on nineteenth century India''. Indian Institute of Advanced Study, 1972. * ''Role of rural women in development''. University of Sussex. Institute of Development Studies. Allied Publishers, 1978. * ''Symbols of power: studies on the political status of women in India''. Allied, 1979. * ''Women and rural transformation: two studies'' with Rekha Mehra, Kunjulekshmi Saradamoni. ICSSR. Centre for Women's Development Studies. Pub. Concept, 1983. * ''Emergence of the Women's Question in India and the Role of Women's Studies''. Centre for Women's Development Studies, 1985. * ''Khadi and Village Industries Commission''. Centre for Women's Development Studies. 1988. * ''Peasant Women Organise for Empowerment: The Bankura Experiment''. Centre for Women's Development Studies. 1989. * ''Women workers in India: studies in employment and status'', with Leela Kasturi, Sulabha Brahme, Renana Jhabvala. ICSSR. Chanakya Publications, 1990. . * ''Legislative Measures and Policy Directions for Improving the Lot of Farm Women'', with Kumud Sarma, Lotika Sarkar.

Indian Council of Agricultural Research The Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) is an autonomous body responsible for co-ordinating agricultural education and research in India. It reports to the Department of Agricultural Research and Education, Ministry of Agriculture. Th ...

. * ''Women and Indian nationalism'', with Leela Kasturi. Vikas Pub. House, 1994. . * ''Changing Terms of Political Discourse: Women's Movement in India, 1970s–1990s'', with Indu Agnihotri.

Economic and Political Weekly The ''Economic and Political Weekly'' (EPW) is a weekly peer-reviewed academic journal covering all social sciences, and is published by the Sameeksha Trust. In January 2018, academic Gopal Guru was named the new Editor of the journal. Guru will be ...

, Vol. XXX No. 29, 4 March 1995 * ''Political Ideology of the Women's Movement's Engagement with Law''. Centre for Women's Development Studies, 2000. * ''Face to face with rural women: CWDS' search for new knowledge and an interventionist role''. Centre for Women's Development Studies, 2002. * ''The Mind and the Medium. Explorations in the Evolution of British Imperial Policy in India''. Three Essays Collective. 2010. * ''Memories of a Rolling Stone''. Zubaan Books. 2010. .

References

Additional references

* ''A Pathmaker: tributes to Vina Mazumdar''. Rainbow Publishers, 2002. .
Vina Mazumdar Bibliography

, Michigan University *

External links

Vina Mazumdar, Documentary Sparrow, India
Duration: 92.07 min; Director: Vishnu Mathur; Genre: Documentary; Produced In: 2003. Sound and Picture Archive for Research on Women (SPARROW)
Unlimited Girls – Interview with Veena Mazumdar, Part 1
Location: New Delhi; Duration: 68 min Director: Paromita Vohra (2002)
Unlimited Girls – Interview with Veena Mazumdar, Part 2
Location: New Delhi; Duration: 42 min Director: Paromita Vohra (2002) {{DEFAULTSORT:Mazumdar, Vina 1927 births 2013 deaths Alumni of St Hugh's College, Oxford Asutosh College alumni Banaras Hindu University alumni Founders of learned societies Indian women sociologists Indian feminists Scholars from Kolkata Indian sociologists Indian women's rights activists Indian institute directors Scientists from Kolkata Academic staff of Patna University University of Calcutta alumni Women's studies academics Indian women philanthropists Indian philanthropists Indian women activists 20th-century Indian educators 20th-century Indian women educators 20th-century Indian women scientists 20th-century Indian social scientists 21st-century Indian women scientists 21st-century Indian social scientists Indian women political writers 21st-century Indian women writers 21st-century Indian non-fiction writers 20th-century Indian women writers 20th-century Indian non-fiction writers Indian political writers Writers from Kolkata Women writers from West Bengal Activists from West Bengal Educators from West Bengal Indian women scholars Women educators from West Bengal Indian women memoirists