Oral History Recordings
- Freedom Movements
- Left and other Progressive Movements
- Feminist Movement
- Ambedkar Movement & Experiences of Dalit Women
- Environment Movement
- Pioneering Science Studies
- Tribal Life and Struggles
- Communalism, Violence and Human Rights
- Practitioners of Traditional Systems of Medicine and Traditional Healers
- Artists, Writers, Educationists
- Policy-makers
Gowramma
Gowramma was a freedom fighter from Karnataka. Her husband Venkataramayya was a active member of Sevadal and was in the frontline of freedom movement in Karnataka. Following him Gowramma also joined Sevadal. She came into contact with Kamaladevi Chattopadyaya, Sarojini Naidu, Lilavati Munshi, Umabai and others in the freedom movement. Inspired by them Gowramma also participated in the Salt Satyagraha and Non Co-operation Movement. She was beaten up by police and put in the Siddhapur jail during this struggle. She went on a hunger strike while she was in jail. Gowramma recounts with pride feeling Gandhi's blessings, visiting Kamala Nehru while she was ailing and talking to Nehru
Here we produce an extract from her interview.
Interviewer - Rameshwari / B.N. Usha
Kala Shahani
Kala Shahani was a freedom fighter. She was born in 1919. She grew up in Karachi. From the age of ten, when she had first heard Mahatma Gandhi, Kala has worn only khadi. Widowed at the age of thirty-seven, she took up a job in the Sindhi newspaper Hindustan. Her life is guided by the simple but irrevocable logic that the nation is a part of oneself; working for it should not be for personal benefits. Kala has chosen not to take the pension and other benefits offered to freedom fighters, for she says, "When you work for your mother-you call the country motherland, don't you?-how can you get paid for it?"
Here we produce an extract from her interview.
Interviewer - Dr. Govind Shahani, her son
Mrinal Gore
Mrinal Gore belongs to the Socialist Party and is the President of Keshav Gore Trust, Swadhar Kendra, Nagarik Niwara Parishad. She became a well-known figure in the politics of Maharashtra because of the active role she played in the Anti-Price Rise Agitation (Mahagai Virodhi Andolan) and she later on came to be known as 'Panivali Bai' after she organised the 'Pani Parishad'. As the representative of common people, she has always fought for the issues that affect the everyday life of the ordinary citizens.
Here we produce an excerpt from her interview.
Interviewer - Dr. Rohini Gawanka
Leela Awate
Leela Awate, a teacher by profession and a Marxist, is deeply committed to society and humanity at large. Her involvement in political work began with the Quit India Movement and she was a part of all prominent movements after that. She has been actively involved with the Bhartiya Mahila Federation, Mumbai Committee in all its work, taking up women's causes, giving legal aid, creating awareness about women's rights and motivating them to fight against injustice. She is also a writer.
Here we produce an extract from her interview.
Interviewer - Dr. Rohini Gawankar
K. Ajitha
K. Ajitha was a part of the Naxalite movement from a very young age. At present she is actively involved with all the activities of 'Anveshi', an organisation working for the cause of women involving counselling, a Legal Aid cell, community work, library and documentation work, organising workshops and seminars to increase awareness about women's issues. She is also involved in a networking forum, 'Kerala Streevedi' consisting of more than 40 organisations working jointly on many issues.
Here we produce an extract from her interview.
Interviewer - Dr. C.S.Lakshmi
Kausalya Baisantri
Kausalya Baisantri is an activist of the Ambedkar Movement and the founder member of 'Bhartiya Mahila Jagruti Parishad'. The main aim of the Parishad is to spread information about the work of Dr. Ambedkar and create awareness among Dalit women. Kausalya has also been the Joint Secretary of the student union of 'All India Scheduled Caste Federation'.
Here we produce an extract from her interview.
Interviewer - Urmila Pawar
Bhagirathibai Kasare
Bhagirathibai Kasare is an activist of the Ambedkar Movement. She worked with Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar. She was instrumental in raising the consciousness of the Dalit community by singing songs which gave information about various issues in gatherings during festivals. She has also participated in the activities of Baudhajan Panchayat in Mumbai.
Here we produce an extract from her interview.
Interviewer - Urmila Pawar
Parvathiamma
Parvathiamma is a traditional healer, who gives herbal medicines, specially to women and children. She treats women for infertility, menstrual disorder, anemia etc. She has treated more than fifty women for infertility and all of them have conceived.
Parvathiamma learnt Naati Vaidya (traditional medicine system) from her father-in-law Vaidya Shankarnarayan Bhat. She was married at the tender age of 12 and became part of a family of healers. Her mother-in-law and husband Ishwar Bhat were also into herbal healing. Parvathiamma has grown a moolikavana, a farm that has the rarest of herbs. She is now 81 years old but continues to be a healer. Parvathiamma lives in Vittla, in South Canara district, Karnataka.
Pammu Hengsu
Pammu Hengsu is a traditional midwife, who has helped many women in labour to have a normal delivery. After more than 80 years of experience as a midwife, she has now retired from her profession. Pammu Hengsu is 105 years old. Her eyesight and speech are sharp and clear. The only concession she gives to her age is a walking stick.
Pammu Hengsu has handled many tricky deliveries. Doctors attached to remote villages like Bayaru always preferred Pammu to attend the delivery cases. She would walk miles in odd hours to serve the women in labour and stay with them until she was sure that the mother and the newborn are safe. Three generations of the villages around have benefited from her service.
The unusual thing about Pammu Hengsu is that she also helps animals deliver their small ones.
Pramila
Pramila (Esther Victoria Abraham), was a Jewish girl from Calcutta. She worked as an actress in Hindi films and also was a producer and distributor. She was the first Miss India in 1947. We produce here an excerpt from her interview where she talks about how she dealt with a director who was trying to trick her into wearing a skirt that grew shorter and shorter everyday.
Maya Krishna Rao
Maya Krishna Rao is a Kathakali dancer and a theatre artiste who has an innate ability to transform everyday life objects into objects of art and create with them an intense theatrical experience. We produce here an excerpt from her interview where she talks about this experience, this amazement in theatre that she calls vismaya.
Bani Basu
Bani Basu’s writing career began with the publication of her first novel Janmabhoomi Mathribhoomi, in 1987. Her first collection of short stories was published in 1992, titled Mohana. Until her recent retirement, Bani Basu taught English in Howrah Girls College. Her novels and short stories have been widely acclaimed and her texts have been translated into many regional languages as well as English. Apart from her sixteen novels and story collections Bani Basu has also translated stories of W. Somerset Maugham and D.H. Lawrence into Bangla. Responding to the observation about the ‘commodification’ of literature, Bani basu wrote in a preface to her collection of short stories Baba Swader Golpo (Many-Flavoured Stories), that literature had always been a cultural production, a consumable commodity. She pointed out, however, that the profits generated from the sale of books rarely reached the writer in an organized manner.
Interviewer - Dr. C S Lakshmi
Mona Zote
Mona Zote, is a poet and writer whose writings have appeared in various literary journals and magazines, including the Anthology of Contemporary Northeast Poetry published in 2003 by NEHU. She is in government service and is at present working on her first novel.
Interviewer - Lalhmerliani Fanai
Avabai Wadia
Avabai Wadia has been a pioneer of the Women's Movement and Family Planning in India and has held important positions at the national and international levels for several decades. From the interesting and moving conversation that we had with this remarkable 90-year-old lady, during a SPARROW interview, we thought we would share this excerpt with you.
Interviewer - Dr. Roshan Shahani, Dr.Divya Pandye.
Digital Video Recording Projects
Photographic Project
- From family / private albums
- Portraits
- Film stills
- Activists at work
- Selected works of women photographers
- Event coverage
- From the albums of artistes/artists
| Vanmala (Susheeladevi Pawar) was the immensely popular heroine of Hindi and Marathi films such as Sikander (with Prithviraj Kapoor the hero), Vasantsena, Sharbati Aakhen, Shyamchi Aai (for which she won the President's Gold Medal) and many others. She was also deeply involved in the freedom movement along with stalwarts like Aruna Asaf Ali and Achyut Patwardhan. Even at the age of 90 she is running a school to train children in traditional Indian arts and culture - The Haridas Kala Sansthan. She is deeply involved in several social causes and is a member of the Chhatrapati Shivaji National Memorial Committee, New Delhi. Hers is an extraordinary life, lived with courage and determination. We give below some photographs chosen from her albums where she is seen as the glamorous, modern woman of her times. |
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 Narmada Bachao Andalan, 11th Sept 2001 |
 Protest against Beauty Contest, Mumbai, 1987 |
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 Protest against female foeticide, Mumbai, 14th Nov 1986 |
 Protest against female foeticide, Mumbai, 14th Nov 1986 |
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Selected works of women photographers Sadhna Marwaha |
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| 'Stand' 1998, Singapore | 'Bushed 2' November, 1998 Washington DC | |
 'Through the blind' 1998, Washington DC |
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| Sangli Event Details The Women's Wing of the Socialist
Party had organised a conference on 2nd, 3rd, 4th of
January 2003 at Sangli. Panna Roy Choudhury and Pallavi
Narkar from SPARROW covered the event. |
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When mythological and social dramas made their appearance in the early decades of the twentieth century, the female roles were mostly played by men. In folk theatre too, men played important female characters. Given below are the photographs of some male actors dressed as women. Women have also played the male roles, specially in folk theatre and some of those photographs are also given below. K.S. Ananthanarayanan was a professional
theatre artiste in the Tamil theatre in the twenties and
thirties. He had a drama troupe of his own called the
Arya Gana Sabha in Madurai. The photographs above were
taken in Karnatic Studio, Madras, 1931/ 32. |
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 K. S. Anantanarayanan, a professional artiste. |
 Portrait of K. S. Anantanarayanan. |
| K.
Mahadev and Narayan Naidu and Ramachandra Rao were actors
in the theatre company of the legendary theatre personality
in Kannada theatre, Gubbi Veeranna. These photographs
were collected from the albums of Gubbi Veeranna's daughter,
Malathamma. |
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 On the left, Ramachandra Rao as Kamala. On the right, Narayan Naidu as Mrinalini. Still from play 'Raja Bhakti', 1929. |
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 K. Mahadev dressed as a woman in a play. |
 Narayan Naidu dressed as a woman. |
 Date: 22/03/2002 Place: Erode Photographer: L. Thangaraj |
In
folk theatre, men still play female roles. In the Kongu region of Tamilnadu, there are certain folk plays which
are performed, of the legendary heroes of the region. Ponnar-Sankar is one such play. In the photograph
above, two men are playing the roles of women in the play.
On the left is Gopal and on the right is Raju in a crucial
scene. This photograph was taken a few months ago in a
demonstration performance. |
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are many women who do both male and female roles in folk
theatre. Given below are a few photographs of K. R. Ambika
who has been doing male roles from the age of eleven and
who continues to enact male roles even now at the age
of 65. These photographs were taken during a recent demonstration
performance given by her in a village in Karur district.
The last photograph is of her father who was famous for
playing female roles. |
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 K. R. Ambika on right as Harishchandra in 'Harishchandra' play. Place: Melalakshmanampatti Date: 28/09/2002 |
 K. R. Ambika on right as Madurai Veeran in 'Madurai Veeran' play. Place: Melalakshmanampatti Date: 28/09/2002 |
 K. R. Ambika on right as Vedan (hunter) in 'Valli Thirumanam' play. On her right is her daughter K. R. Indira. Place: Melalakshmanampatti Date: 28/09/2002 |
 K. R. Ambika on right as Vedan (hunter) in 'Valli Thirumanam' play. Place: Melalakshmanampatti Date: 28/09/2002 |
 Thadikombu A Ponniah, Vijaya Studio, Dindigul. |
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Media Watch Project
- Advertisements, Cartoons and Jokes
- Documentaries by women, on women
- Feature Films by women, on women
Under SPARROW's Media Watch project we collect many print-ads which have double meaning texts, which turn the woman into the product being marketed, which stereotype women and men into desirable and sturdy categories. Chosen for this section are some general ads. In the first one a woman is willing to do anything -- even that -- all for a gold pendant. In the second one what is being advertised is a dot com concern. The ad asks you if you are looking for best products, and the best products they can think of are a woman's breasts. And they come cheap. In the third and fourth what is being sold is only a bathroom fitting. Difficult to guess that considering the woman is all contorted probably trying to become a faucet or a towel-hanger. The last two ads speak for themselves. |
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 Times of India, 10th February, 1999 |
 Inside Outside, Feb 2002 |
 Indian Express, 9th March, 2001 |
 Inside Outside, Feb 2000 |
 Times of India, 11th March, 1999 |
 Times of India, 1st November, 1996 |
| Title:
Unlimited Girls Director/ Script writer: Paromita Vohra Producer: Devi Pictures Cameraperson: Mrinal Desai Sound Recordist: Subir Kumar Das Editor: Jabeen Merchant Language: English Duration: 94 minutes |
 Play |
| The
film explores the various definitions and meanings of
feminism through a group of women in a chat room on the
Internet discussing what it means to be a feminist. The
women offer varying interpretations of feminism and argue
about the myths that surround it, including the infamous
'bra-burning' myth. Included are interviews with several
women involved in the women's movement and women from
different generations, who talk about the way feminism
has affected their lives. |
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Preeti,
Prema, Pranaya… [2003]  Title : Preeti, Prema, Pranaya… Producer : Mano Murthy, Ram Prasad, Somashekar, Dr. Renuka Ramappa Director : Kavita Lankesh Camera Person : C Mahendra Year : 2003 Duration : 120 mins Language : Kannada Summary: An old widow and an old widower meet accidentally and develop a liking for each other. He is a retired doctor and she is a classical singer. His grandson and her granddaughter fall in love with each other. Taking this as an issue, parents of these teenagers fight among themselves. But the grandparents support their grand children and at the same time they also fall in love with each other. Now both the families divert their attention from their children to the respective parents. Both the families ask the respective parents to move out because they feel ashamed of their love affair. With the help of the grandchildren the two old people start their new life. The film is written and directed by Kavita Lankesh. |
Multilingual Collections
- The Word: Books, journals, pamphlets, brochures, journal articles, newspaper clippings in many Indian languages covering all areas of history and culture which matter to women and in which women are participants.
- The Image: Print visuals covering events, issues, subjects, individuals, posters, diaries, calendars and rangolis.
- She and her sister go to a mela. They are
attacked by a man who tries to molest them. Bahuchar takes a knife
and cuts her breast and bleeds to death. While she is dying she
curses the man and he begs for forgiveness. She tells him he must
dress as a woman and worship her.
- A young woman sees her husband neglecting her and going off on a white horse every night. She decides to follow him. A jungle fowl tells her she can ride on it. She finds her husband engaged in what can be termed unmanly behaviour. She confronts him and asks him why he had married her if his preferences were otherwise. She castrates him in anger and becomes a devi and makes a proclamation that men like him must worship her.
- The Sound: Audio cassettes/CDs Songs of Women's Movement and Struggles, Folk music, Film music, Classical/Semi Classical, Radio programmes
AUTOBIOGRAPHIES/BIOGRAPHIES
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Posters |
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| SPARROW has an extensive collection
of the images of goddesses as featured on popular calendars
and posters. While these images are ubiquitous, the legends
surrounding them are not. There are a plethora of goddesses
in India and all of them have their own unique stories
of origin and myths extolling their qualities. We have
featured some images from our archives with stories and
explanations excerpted from scholarly studies of the mythology
surrounding gods and goddesses in India. |
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Kali |
Kamadhenu  |
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Kali is the female form of Kala or Time. She is the origin and the end. Her four arms mean absolute dominion over all that the world contains. Her necklace of skulls signifies that she supports the living and the dead. Her colouring is dark, signifying the ultimate energy into which all things disappear. Her terrifying image shows that she herself is without fear and thus can protect her worshippers from fear. Like Shiva, she frequents lonely places like the outskirts of towns and even cremation grounds. In some myths, she is supposed to be the anger of Durga as she killed the demon Mahishasura. But the most popular myth depicts her as the killer of the demon Raktabija. Some scholars say that Parvati took on the form of Kali to help her son Skanda in battle. In the war with Mahishasura, each drop of blood from the evil Raktabija produced new demons, Kali, dark as death, spread her tongue over the battlefield and licked the demon's falling blood before it could touch the ground. So new demons could not be spawned, enabling Skanda to attack and kill Raktabija with ease. Intoxicated by the blood, Kali ran amuck across the three worlds destroying all in her path. To restrain her, Shiva took the form of a corpse and blocked her path. When Kali found herself standing over her husband, she was jolted out of her frenzy. She wondered of she had killed her own husband and placed her foot on his chest and brought him back to life. This story demonstrates that both are necessary to save the world from destruction -- the male with his inertness and the female with her shakti. Another account says that she sprang, in full armour, from the eye of Durga and joined her in destroying the powers of darkness. SOURCES: Gods and Goddesses of India by Anjula Bedi, Devi, The Mother Goddess -An Introduction by Devdutt Pattanaik. |
Kamadhenu, the cow of prosperity emerged with Lakshmi out the sea as did Chintamani, a wish-fulfilling gem and a tree called Kalpataru that bore every flower and fruit desirable. Kamadhenu had enough milk to feed the world for all eternity. In her hand, Lakshmi also held the basket of bounty - the Akshaya Patra overflowing with grain and gold. Kamadhenu is associated with Lakshmi as she is the goddess of affluence and abundance, representing the beautiful and bountiful aspect of nature. She gave birth to seven daughters, the sacred river-goddesses Ganga, Yamuna, Sindhu, Narmada, Godavari, Krishna and Kaveri who nourished the earth and supported life. To realise her, one must respect the laws of life and appreciate the wonders of existence. Source: Devi The Mother-Goddess: An Introduction By Devdutt Pattanaik. |
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Bahuchara (of Gujarat) |
Vaishnavi (of Jammu) |
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There are two stories connected with this village goddess who is worshipped by eunuchs. Source: Devi The Mother-Goddess: An Introduction By Devdutt Pattanaik. |
Trikuta wanted to marry Prince Rama of Ayodhya. But Rama said, "I already have a wife and will not take another." So Trikuta went to the mountains to live as a hermit. But there Bhairava, a sorcerer, forced his lustful attentions on her. Disgusted by his behaviour, she left her hermitage and sought refuge in a cave. He followed her there and refused to leave her alone. Finally, after being chased across many hills and valleys, Trikuta decided to run no more. She turned on her tormentor with a sword and after a great battle, succeeded in beheading him. The beheaded Bhairava apologised to the goddess and accepted her as his mother. From a lustful man he was transformed into an innocent child, by the grace of Trikuta. Thereafter, the hill-dwellers began revering her as a goddess. She came to be known as Vaishnavi, as it is said that she will be Vishnu's bride when Kali Yuga, the dark age of spiritual blindness, comes to an end. Source: Devi The Mother-Goddess: An Introduction By Devdutt Pattanaik. |
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 Folk
Songs of Maharashtra |
 Folk
Songs of Bengal -Part 1 |
| Hear
samples: Aashuk MashukNatale
Tumachyasaathi |
Hear
samples: MoynayeBaapDeGangaNaoTumi |
