Publishing and Disseminating Dalit Literature
An international AHRC funded conference
hosted by the English Department and the Centre for Dalit Studies
at Delhi University, India
convened by Judith Misrahi-Barak and Nicole Thiara
in collaboration with Tapan Basu, Raj Kumar and Sumanyu Satpathy
under the aegis of the Centre for Postcolonial Studies at Nottingham Trent University
in partnership with EMMA at the Université Paul-Valéry Montpellier 3, France
17-19 December 2015
List of bios
Joshil K. Abraham completed his Masters in English Literature from Pondicherry central University,
India, and has taught in colleges in Kerala and Delhi. He worked as Research Assistant in Cinema Studies
Department, SAA, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi. He has presented papers in international
conferences including the Conrad Conference held in Bath Spa University, UK in 2012. He is co-editor
of the Routledge volume Dalit Literatures in India (2015). He is currently working as an Assistant
Professor at G B Pant Engineering College, IP University, Delhi, and is Head of Humanities and Applied
Sciences.
joshilkabraham@gmail.com
Ananta Acharya, Publisher and Editor of journal, Chetana Lahar (Wave of Consciousness). He is
Director, Democratic Action Forum of Dalits, Women and Minorities (Dafodwam), an organization that
works towards bringing about equality and justice in Indian society. Chetana Lahar is the publication
of Dafodwam which publishes writings by Dalits, women and religious minorities. The writings include
both creative and non-fiction writings which deal with subjects related to Marxism and Indian
rationalism. The writings are on movements of protest, inequity, exploitation, inequality, caste, class,
gender and minority.
dafodwam.dafodwam@gmail.com
S. Anand is the publisher of Navayana. He is the co-author of Bhimayana, and has annotated the critical
edition of Dr B.R. Ambedkar's Annihilation of Caste.
anand@navayana.org
Tapan Basu taught at the Department of English, Hindu College, University of Delhi, for over twentyeight years before taking up a position as Associate Professor at the Department of English, University
of Delhi. His areas of teaching and research interest are American Literature (African-American
Literature in particular) and Caste Studies (Dalit Studies in particular).
He has been the recipient of the University Grants Commission’s Junior Research Fellowship
(1979-80), the Fulbright Pre-Doctoral Scholarship (1988 – 89), under the aegis of which he was a
Visiting Fellow at Yale University, the Fulbright-Hays Travel Grant (1988–89), the South Asian Research
Program Fellowship (2006), awarded by the Social Science Research Council, New York, and the
Ferguson Fellowship (2006–2007), awarded by the Ferguson Centre for African and American Studies,
the Open University, Miton-Keynes, U.K.
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He is the co-author of a monograph, Khaki Shorts Saffron Flags: A Critique of the Hindu Right, published
in 1992 by Orient Longman Publishers. In the field of Dalit Studies, his publications include Translating
Caste (New Delhi: Katha, 2002), and two recently published articles, 'Dalit Experience Re-cast(e): Some
Reflections on the Translation of Dalit Literature from the Regional Languages into English' and
'Writing Humiliation, Righting Humiliation: Marking the Dalit Moment in the History of India’s
Untouchables and Beyond'. He is also the co-editor of a forthcoming text-book of Dalit Writing,
entitled Listen to the Flames (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2015). Tapankbasu1@gmail.com
Ruchika Bhatia is presently employed as an Assistant Professor at the Janki Devi Memorial College,
University of Delhi. Her key areas of interest are gender studies, issues of sexuality, and studying the
representations of gendered identities within a society. Her pre-doctoral dissertation topic was
'Gender Performativity, Melancholia, and the Issue of Queering: Understanding Judith Butler'; she
dealt with the significant idea of gender performativity and its association to the process of gendering,
identity formation, and cultural identifications. Other areas that she is interested in include the subject
of sexual dissidence and its importance in understanding the ideologies of modernism; and how
autobiographical writings are integral in understanding the process of subject-formation and
individuation. She is also a post graduate in Advertising and Public Relations from the Indian Institute
of Mass Communications, New Delhi.
83.ruchika@gmail.com
Urvashi Butalia is co-founder of Kali for Women, India’s first feminist publishing house and is currently
Director of Zubaan, one of the two houses set up when Kali ceased operations in 2003. She is also an
independent scholar and writer. Among her best known publications is the award winning history of
Partition: The Other Side of Silence: Voices from the Partition of India.
urvashib@zubaanbooks.com
Manoranjan Byapari, famous now as the rickshaw-puller who became a writer and won prizes, began
to learn to read and write in jail when he was in his early twenties. Byapari has won the highest literary
prize in the State: Paschimbanga Bangla Akademi Award. He has been invited to conferences in Delhi,
Hyderabad and Pune, among other cities. His writing, translated by Meenakshi Mukherjee in Economic
and Political Weekly, was among the first to bring Bengali Dalit writing to the nation’s attention. He is
author of Itibritte Chandal Jeebon (History of My Chandal life), Anya Bhuban (Another World),
Chhannachhara (Rootless), Chhera Chhera Gadya (Fragmented Prose), and many others.
Aakash Chakrabarty is Commissioning Editor at Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, Informa plc. He has
over 9 years’ experience in the publishing industry, having worked with leading trade and academic
publishers. He has an overarching interest in history, sociology and literature, and is presently focusing
on Indian politics and public policy. He has a Masters in English literature from Jadavpur University,
Kolkata, and graduated from St. Xavier’s, Kolkata. He likes reading, travelling and photography, all of
which run parallel to his editorial interests.
Aakash.Chakrabarty@tandfindia.com
Satish Chandar is an independent editor, a trendsetting poet and an inimitable satirist. He is known
for launching and reviving newspapers. He formed the entire editorial team and conceived editorial
content during the launch (in 1996) of ‘Vaartha’ newspaper as the Associate Editor and revived ‘Andhra
Prabha’ Daily (in 2004) as the Chief Editor. He founded A.P.College of Journalism (in 1997) at
Hyderabad.
As a poet, he has brought out three anthologies of poems (Panchama Vedam, Pasupu Jabilli
and Adi Parvam) and a long poem (Nanna Cycle). His poems were translated into many Indian
languages besides English. His poems in ‘Panchama Vedam’ are part of curriculum in Telugu literature
at Post graduate level in all Universities of Andhra Pradesh (India).
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His satirical columns on contemporary politics, social relations and human values have made
him a household name in the two Telugu speaking states. His seniors fondly call him ‘Andhra Art
Buchwald’ for his wit and humor.
Though his short stories are less in number, critics often quote them.
As Media teacher, he has produced thousands of journalists who constitute a major chunk in Media
folks of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.
mschandar@yahoo.com
Arpita Das, Publisher and Founder, Yoda Press, an independent press publishing works by young and
old writers, with a special focus on sexuality studies. Arpita is also Adjunct Faculty in Publishing at
Ambedkar University, Delhi.
Santosh Dash teaches English in an undergraduate college at Savli, Gujarat. His M. Litt. at CIEFL,
Hyderabad, was on Rousseau’s Discourse on Inequality and the question of Enlightenment. His doctoral
research was completed at Maharaja Sayajirao University, Baroda where he worked on caste critiques
of education. His dissertation is published as English Education and the Question of Indian Nationalism:
A Perspective on the Vernacular. He has received the South Asia Regional Research Fellowship as well
as the SARPF Collaborative Grant from SSRC, New York for translation and comparative research. He is
presently working on nineteenth and early twentieth century Gujarati writing and has completed the
translation of a Gujarati memoir, Vananchal.
santoshkumardash@gmail.com
Asis De is Assistant Professor of English Language and Literature in the Department of English,
Mahishadal Raj College (Govt. Sponsored Post Grad College), Mahishadal, West Bengal, India. His M.
Phil dissertation was on the search for home and identity in V.S. Naipaul’s fiction. His PhD dissertation
(recently submitted in Jadavpur University, Kolkata) concentrates on the study of Identity negotiation
in newer/ diasporic cultural spaces with particular reference to the fiction of Amitav Ghosh and Ben
Okri. In a number of publications (Orient Blackswan and Atlantic mainly) and conference presentations
in India and in Europe (Belgium, Germany and England), he has worked on the issue of cultural identity
and transnationalism in Asian, Caribbean and African fictional narratives. Presently his research
interest also includes Indian Dalit and Tribal literatures in translation. He also teaches Anglophone
Postcolonial Literatures, Cultural Studies and Diasporic Literatures in two Universities in India as Guest
Faculty. He is a member of some eminent research organizations like Postcolonial Studies Association
(UK), GAPS (Germany), EACLALS and IACLALS.
ademrc@gmail.com
Cho Dharman, the son of Solaiappan and Ponnuthai of Urulaikudi village of Koyilpatti, is a leading Dalit
writer and is widely known as one of the karisal writers. For a while he worked in a textile mill. He has
published two novels Thoorvai (Agaram, 1995) and Koogai (Kalachuvadu, 2005) and a non-fiction work,
Villicai Vendar Pichakkutti (Marutha, 2002). His short story collections include Eeram (Sindu Publishers,
1992), Sogavanam (Sarulatha Publishers, 1996), Vanakumaran (Mathi Publishers, 1998), and So.
Dharuman Kathaigal (Marutha, 2003). He received the State Award from the Tamil Nadu Government
in 2007, the award of "The Tamil Literary Garden" from Toronto University in 2008, the best short story
writer of the year “Ilakkiya Chinthanai award” in 1992 and 1994, and the “Katha award” in the year
1993. Some of his works are translated in English, Hindi and Malayalam. His novel, ‘Koogai’ is translated
in English and Malayalam. Translations of his stories have appeared in journals including Indian
Literature, and in national dailies like The Indian Express, Economic Times, and The Hindu.
chodharman@gmail.com
Radhaben Garva is an illustrator and activist from the Kutch Mahila Vikas Samiti, Gujarat. Author and
illustrator of the book Picture This!
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Jayati Gupta is currently Tagore National Fellow for Cultural Research of the Ministry of Culture,
Government of India. She is working on a Project entitled ' The Cultures of Travel in Bengal' at the
National Library, Kolkata. She was Professor of English at the West Bengal State University before
taking up this Fellowship earlier this year. She has spent almost 25 years of her 35 year teaching career
at the erstwhile Presidency College, Kolkata. She is guest faculty at the University of Calcutta, had
been Visiting Professor at Viswa-Bharati, 2012 and was invited to lecture at the Centre of Travel
Writing, Nottingham Trent University, U.K. in 2010. In addition to her passion for researching travel
writing, she is interested in issues of social marginalisation and has translated Manohar Mouli Biswas
and Kalyani Thakur’s writings for Stree Samya. She is now working on Kalyani’s autobiography.
jayatig1@gmail.com
Ruby Hembrom is the founder of Adivaani, an independent publishing house that focuses archiving
and publishing the work of Adivasis in India.
hembromruby@gmail.com
Gopika Jadeja is a graduate research student with the South Asian Studies Programme at the National
University of Singapore. Gopika edits and publishes a print journal and a series of pamphlets for Five
Issues, a performance-publishing project. Gopika’s translations of poetry as well as her poetry have
been published in various journals and magazines. A recipient of the Charles Wallace Scholarship for
Creative Writing, she has published a chapbook of poems in collaboration with Visthar-Bangalore. She
is currently working on a project of English translations of poetry from Gujarat and a collection of her
(for lack of a better phrase) own poetry.
gopikajadeja@gmail.com
Des Raj Kali has produced hundreds of articles on dalits, culture and literature in various magazines
including ‘Tehalka’ and has been conferred upon several awards as fiction writer. He has been a key
Panel Speaker at Jaipur Literature Festival (2010) and Speaker at Samanvay Samagam, Habitat Centre,
Delhi. He has offered regular features on All-India Radio, Jalandhar since 2013. His Punjabi stories and
novels have been translated into Hindi, Urdu, English, Bengali, Tamil, Kashmiri, Gujrati and Rajsthani.
Five of the projected series of Kali's seven novels enmeshing a mythological past and a real present
have already been published with critical acclaim. He also made a major contribution in the film ‘Kite
mil ve Mahi’ and has regularly participated in seminars and conferences at the universities of Punjab,
Haryana, Maharashtra, Kashmir, Chandigarh and Delhi.
kali.desraj@gmail.com
Kavita is the Regional Editor of Khabar Lahariya. She was married at 12 and persevered through a tough
personal battle to complete her education. Having reported fearlessly on local issues, she is a role
model for many young women. She trains, guides and mentors other women from rural India to come
into journalism. She has covered stories on politics, crime and development from various districts of
Uttar Pradesh.
Raj Kumar is Professor in the Department of English, Delhi University. His research areas include
autobiographical studies, Dalit literature, Indian writing in English, Odia literature and post-colonial
studies. He has been a Fellow at the Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla in 1999 and has
published in journals such as Social Action, Sateertha Bulletin, The Fourth World, Creative Forum,
Language Forum, Jadavpur Journal of Comparative Literature, Indian Literature, Social Scientist,
Journal of the School of Language, Literature and Culture Studies and The Economic and Political
Weekly. Raj Kumar has also translated literary texts from Indian languages, especially Odia into English.
His book, Dalit Personal Narratives: Reading Caste, Nation and Identity has been published by Orient
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BlackSwan, New Delhi in 2010 and got reprinted in 2011. His English translation of Bheda, the first Odia
Dalit novel is scheduled for publication by Oxford University Press in 2015.
bedamatiraj@yahoo.co.in
Balbir Madhopuri was born and raised in Madhopur a small village in district Jalandhar, Punjab.
Though he was a child labourer (on farms and in forests), he managed to attend school. He began
writing poetry as a teenager, attended college and post-graduated with a degree in Punjabi. His
writings focus primarily on the experience of Dalits and the curious situation of casteism amongst
Sikhs, a community that moved away from Hinduism and its divisions. Balbir’s autobiography
Chhangiya Rukh in Punjabi has reprinted ten times and was translated into English by Tripti Jain (OUP,
2010). Madhopuri has authored 14 books in Punjabi and translated 29 works from Hindi and English
into Punjabi. Balbir retired as the editor of Yojna (Punjabi) a monthly published by the Publications
Division, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.
bmadhopuri@yahoo.in
Devika Mehra is a research scholar at Jamia Millia Islamia, Delhi. She is currently working on Children’s
Cinema as a genre in India for her Ph. D. She is interested in children's literature and popular culture,
especially how they construct and reconstruct ideas of childhood, and the influence of media
conglomeration, globalization and consumerism on the world of children’s literature in India and the
World. Her pre-doctoral dissertation was on the changing constructions of childhood in select British
and American children’s fiction where she attempted a symptomatic and cross-cultural comparative
study of eleven cycles written between 1940s till 2010. She has recently presented a paper, ‘Locating
Constructions of Childhood in Dalit Literature’ at a conference (International Conference on Dalit
Literature and Historiography: Resistance and Reconstruction) held at Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi;
and another, ‘Constructions of Childhood Pranks as Modes of Resistance in West Asian Cinema’ at the
National Seminar: South and West Asian Literature and Film: Narratives of Modernity, Department of
English, Punjabi University, Patiala, in February 2014.
devika86m@gmail.com
Judith Misrahi-Barak Associate Professor at Paul-Valéry University Montpellier, France, currently
teaches English and Postcolonial Literatures. Her Doctorate was on the Writing of Childhood in
Caribbean Literature. She has published articles on Caribbean and Indo-Caribbean writers and the
Caribbean and Indian diaspora (Atlantic Studies, Commonwealth, The Journal of Postcolonial Writing,
Moving Worlds, The Journal of the Short Story in English, The Journal of Haitian Studies, The Journal of
Transnational American Studies…), as well as book chapters in edited collections, including most
recently Narrating Nomadism: Tales of Recovery and Resistance (G. N. Devy, G. V. Davis & K. K.
Chakravarty, eds. Routledge, 2012) ; Tracing the New Asian Diaspora (Om Dwivedi, ed. Rodopi,
2014). She has organised several international conferences with invited writers. She is General Editor
of the series PoCoPages (Coll. ‘Horizons anglophones’, Presses universitaires de la Méditerranée). The
latest volume is Diasporas, Cultures of Mobilities, 'Race' Vol. 2 (2015).
http://www.pulm.fr/index.php/collections/horizons-anglophones/pocopages.html
Her latest edited book is Dalit Literatures in India (co-edited with Joshil K. Abraham, Routledge, 2015).
https://www.routledge.com/products/9781138891944
She is Co-Investigator on the AHRC Research Network Series 'Writing, Analysing, Translating Dalit
Literature' (Principal Investigator Dr Nicole Thiara, Nottingham Trent University, Uk), 2014-15.
http://pays-anglophones.upv.univ-montp3.fr/?page_id=996
judith.misrahi-barak@univ-montp3.fr
Rimina Mohapatra is Publishing Manager at Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, Informa plc and the
key liaison for editorial desk production for the Routledge India list. She has an experience of nine
years in academic publishing, involved directly with over 650 books in the humanities and social
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sciences, both print and electronic, and has had an active role in the origination and development of
the Routledge India programme in South Asia founded in 2005. She completed her MPhil in Philosophy
from the University of Delhi and MA in Philosophy from St. Stephen’s College. Her MPhil dissertation
was on a Kantian critique of linguistic minimalism entitled ‘Problem of Method in Linguistic Inquiry:
How is Biolinguistics Possible?’ She was Junior Specialist at the Department of Philosophy, University
of California Santa Cruz for a brief period and Junior Research Fellow, University Grants Commission
of India. Among her publications include Reading Hegel: The Introductions (co-edited with Aakash
Singh, 2008, 2013). She is currently working on a second collection of Hegel’s writings (forthcoming
2016), and has eclectic interests across metaphysics, knowledge, literature, arts and culture.
Rimina.Mohapatra@tandfindia.com
Sipra Mukherjee is Professor, Department of English, West Bengal State University. Her research
interests are religion, caste, folklore, oral literatures. She is translating Byapari’s autobiography (SageStree Samya, forthcoming). Sipra has been Visiting Fellow at the Department of English, University of
Hyderabad, and Guest Faculty at Department of English, University of Calcutta. She is Guest Faculty at
School of Cultural Texts and Records, Jadavpur University since 2013. She has published with Anthem
Press, Brill Books, McGill-Queen's University Press, Oxford University Press, permanent black, Ravi
Dayal, Routledge, Sage, Sahitya Akademi and Taylor & Francis.mukherjeesipra@gmail.com
Aparajita Ninan is graphic designer who lives in Delhi. She was as an intern at Navayana in 2010–11
and worked on the graphic adaptation of Jotiba Phule's Gulamgiri into A Gardener in the Wasteland,
in 2012. She worked as a designer with Penguin Books and is now with Sesame Street.
S R Ramakrishna is the translator of poet Siddalingaiah’s autobiography, A Word With You World, from
Kannada to English. His other widely read translation is Birds, Beasts and Bandits, which narrates the
jungle adventure of Krupakar and Senani following their kidnap by the notorious forest brigand
Veerappan. Ramakrishna is now working on a translation of Dr U R Ananthamurthy’s autobiography,
Suragi. His original writing and translated work have appeared in many dailies, magazines and literary
journals. An MA in English from Bangalore University, his M Phil dissertation is about problems in
literary translation between Kannada and English. He now works in a senior editorial capacity with The
New Indian Express, Bengaluru. Earlier, he was resident editor of Mid Day, Bengaluru, and assistant
professor, Asian College of Journalism. He founded and edited The Music Magazine
(www.themusicmagazine.com), India’s first online music magazine, for five years. In recent years, he
has scored music for several award-winning Kannada films.
srramakrishna@gmail.com
Bhagwant Rasulpuri has been active on the Punjabi Literary scene since 1990. His first collection of
stories Chanan di Leek was published in 1992. It was followed by Main, Shaitan te Indumani (1997),
Teeja Netar in 2005, Maran Rutt in 2010, Kuvelay Turya Pandhi in 2013. His two books for childrenRaje de Insaff (2014) and Sanjhe Wahde de Bute (2014) were published by Deepak Publishers,
Jalandhar. A children’s book Hardeep Ate Ohdi Vehiman Maan (2011), both in Punjabi and Hindi was
brought out by National Book Trust India, New Delhi. Three books translated by him have been
published by the National Book Trust of India in 2007), 2009 and 2013. He also translated Bhagwan
Das’s Main Bhangi Haan in 2006.
He started publishing a monthly magazine SUR SANJH in 1999 as its Publisher, Printer and
Editor. Thereafter he launched a quarterly magazine KAHANI DHARA in 2006. Having experience in
publications, Rasulpuri launched his own publishing unit Parwaz in 2010 and has published dozens of
books, mainly by Dalit writers. His stories have been published in other languages as he has also been
conferred with several awards.
kahanidhara@gmail.com
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Munira Salim is a lecturer and Head of the Department of English, Stewart Science College, Cuttack
(Govt. aided) Cuttack, Odisha. Her research interests include Subaltern Studies/Feminist Studies. At
present she is pursuing her PhD in Ravenshaw University, Cuttack, Odisha. In her PhD dissertation she
is focusing on the selected autobiographies of Dalit Women. In conference presentations, she has
presented papers on’ Eco-criticism’ and ‘Bama’s Karukku’. She also teaches Communicative English at
graduate level since 2006.
munirasalim23@gmail.com
Mandira Sen has worked in publishing for over four decades, starting with six years in Boston, then as
a freelancer with Oxford University Press, Oxford, and in India with Orient Longman. From 1984 she
started on her own, and in 1990, formed the partnership of Bhatkal and Sen with the Bhatkals of
Popular Prakashan, Mumbai, which publishes two imprints: Stree (gender studies from 1990) and
Samya (on culture, caste, and the writings of dalits, from 1996). She is a pioneer in publishing dalit
writings. Since September 2015 she has joined Sage to publish Sage-Stree Samya. She is based in
Kolkata.
samyastreco@gmail.com
K. Satyanarayana is Professor in the Department of Cultural Studies, English and Foreign Languages
University (EFL-U), Hyderabad. Active in the student movement during the 1990s, he was the FounderGeneral Secretary of Kula Nirmoolana Porata Samiti (Forum for Caste Annihilation). He has also edited
the little magazine Kulanirmoolana. He co-edited two volumes of South Indian Dalit writing: No
Alphabet in Sight, 2011, and Steel Nibs Are Sprouting, 2013. He also co-edited a new volume (with
Gopal Guru, Devesh Kapur and Ramnarayan Rawat), The Dalit Studies: New Perspectives on South Asian
History and Society (forthcoming from Duke University, USA).
ksatya2005@gmail.com
Shashikumar oversaw translations from Indian languages into English at Oxford University Press India.
Currently, he is pursuing PhD candidate in Translation Studies at IGNOU, New Delhi. He is a bilingual
translator, translation studies scholar, academic, educationist and a creative Dalit writer in Kannada.
He is currently translating Annihilation of Caste published by Navayana into Kannada.
shashikannada@gmail.com
Neeti Singh is Assistant Professor in English with the Department of English, Faculty of Arts, The
Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, Vadodara. She published a poetry collection The Serpent of
Slumber, 1995, the critical book Medieval Bhakti Poetry in India, Its Inception, Cultural Encounter and
Impact with special reference to the work of Kabir and Nanak, 2004, and translated and introduced
Bhai Jaita’s Sri Guru Katha, 2015. Dr Singh holds a visharad degree in Hindustani Classical music (vocal)
and she was as an active member of amateur theatre groups like the Shakespeare Society and Centre
for Performing and Visual Arts, Baroda, from 1989 to 1995. She acted in 10 full length English plays.
Her poems (in English) have been published in journals like Indian Literature, Kavya Bharati, The Poetry
Journal of India (Delhi), Kunapipi, and in the Toronto Review edited by M.G.Vasanji from Canada.
Working on Black Verse, my next collection of poems exploring the dark side of the mind/nature.
thelotuslake@gmail.com
Kalyani Thakur Charal is a writer, publisher and an activist in her mid-forties. She writes in Bangla and
is a gifted poet and is equally prolific in her non-fiction writings. She is author of Phire Elo Ulongo Hoye
(And Returned Naked), Sammukhe Samar (War Ahead), Je Meyev Aandhar Goney (The Girl Who Counts
Darkness), and has authored a series of books under the pen name of Chandalini (the Chandala Girl),
such as Chandalini Bhane, Chandalinir Kabita, Chandalinir Katha, among other published writings. She
began editing a wall magazine some twenty years ago in her Working Girls’ Hostel, and now edits a
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journal Neer which publishes writings by women from the margins. Her autobiography, Ami Keno
Chhanral Likhi (Why I Add Charal to My Name), is forthcoming.
Nicole Thiara teaches postcolonial and contemporary literature at Nottingham Trent University. Her
area of research is Dalit and diasporic South Asian literature. She is author of the monograph Salman
Rushdie and Indian Historiography: Writing the Nation Into Being (Palgrave Macmillan, 2009) and has
published articles in the Journal of Commonwealth Literature, the Journal of Commonwealth and
Postcolonial Studies and Contemporary South Asia. She is Principal Investigator on the AHRC Research
Network Series 'Writing, Analysing, Translating Dalit Literature' (Co-Investigator Dr Judith MisrahiBarak, Université Paul-Valéry Montpellier 3, France), 2014-16.
Nicole.thiara@ntu.ac.uk
Kalpna Verma is a research scholar of Hindi Translation course at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New
Delhi. She has taught Hindi Translation as an optional course to B. A. (Honours) Foreign Language
students at Jawaharalal Nehru University. She has presented papers at various seminars on
Translation, English Literature and Language, Hindi at J. N.U, Delhi University, and English and Foreign
languages University, Hyderabad. Her research work includes translation of a Dalit woman’s
autobiography (Sushila Takbhore) Shikanje Ka Dard from Hindi to English. She is widely engaged in the
translation of Dalit Literature. She has published papers on the literature of marginalized communities.
verma.kalpna72@gmail.com
Vinod Verma is Associate Professor, Department of English, Maharaja Agrasen College, University of
Delhi, India. He was born in 1962 in a Chhippa hand-block printing community, was a school drop-out
when 10 years old and a child-labourer for seven years. He passionately pursued studies when 17 years
old, starting with alphabets of English and earning an M.Phil. in English Literature. He has been
associated with MAC, University of Delhi, English Department, since 2001 as Associate Professor.
Between 1992 and 2000 he ran an NGO for socially and economically under-privileged children’s
education. Co-editor of DU textbooks The Individual & Society and Living Literatures, he has researched
Dalit writings and Bhakti/Mukti Literature in Indian vernaculars for the last ten years and shared it in
conferences held in Indian and UK universities. His published works include critical papers on Dalit
Literature, Kabir, poetry, drawings, book cover designs, digital paintings, photographs and films. He
also conducts workshops on Dalit Arts, Visual Design, Film Appreciation, Performing Arts and
Photography & Film-Making.
vinodkvverma@yahoo.com
Durgabai Vyam was born, circa 1974, in the village Barbaspur in Dindori district of eastern Madhya
Pradesh in the Gond tribe. She started making dignas at the age of six—using different kinds of clay to
draw colourful patterns on walls during festivals and weddings. Never formally schooled, in 1996, she
moved with her husband Subhash Vyam to Bhopal and worked with the legendary Pardhan Gond
artists Janagrh Singh Shyam. Since 2001, she has done illustrations for more than a dozen books in
English and Hindi, primarily for children. The Night Life of Trees, coauthored by her, won the
BolognaRagazzi Award in 2008. Her most celebrated work Bhimayana was published in 2011.
Subhash Vyam was born in 1970 in the village Sanpuri, Dindori district of Madhya Pradesh. He began
working with clay at the age of 10. He began his artistic career sculpting in wood. Since 2001, he has
been doing paintings on canvas and paper. Bhimayana is his first book and he worked with his wife
Durgabai on it. He lives in Bhopal.
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