BOOK REVIEW THE ISSUES AT STAKE – THEORIES AND PRACTICES IN THE CONTEMPORARY WOMEN’S MOVEMENTS IN INDIA BY NANDITA GANDHI AND NANDITA SHAH

The authors begin the book with „Who “we” are‟….which puts them in the context of their childhood and young age which was influenced by the Nationalist Movement, Charisma od Gandhiji, Alexander Dumas, Maxim Gorky, Mulk Raj Anand, and many other worlds and national phenomena. They also talk about their detachment for the first-hand experiences of the troubled and tortured as they were coming from the upper middle class Hindu savarna families. In the process of narrowing down the whole idea of movements related to women‟s issues, the authors have selected four major areas namely sexual violence, health, work, and legal campaigns. They also excluded the collection of case studies form their preview. By 1984, they came up with their first office with the name” the Women‟s Decade Research Collective- WDRC. In 1985, they got a grant from the ISS Holland. By 1986 their struggle started in the various parts of India to collect the stories/ data/ cases and documents. Their train journey from Assam to Benaras to Madhya Pradesh taught them to be a part of the daily struggle put up by the women across India. The action program got strengthened by the little surveys they took and the information and advice they picked up during the journey. The women‟s movement has no beginning or “origin”. It exists as an emotion, anger deep within us. The women‟s movement history also is like notes in a cycle of rhythm; each is a eparate piece, yet a part of the whole.