Vasanth Kannabiran – India – World People's Blog

She is one of the 1000 women proposed for the Nobel Peace Price 2005.

For over 30 years, Vasanth Kannabiran (born 1939) has been closely involved with questions of armed militancy, civil liberties, and the meaning of peace for women in her native state of Andhra Pradesh. She is among the first women in the country to move into feminist activism through the Stree Shakti Sangathana. Ten years ago, she set up a radical women’s collective in Andhra Pradesh called Asmita, which brings diverse groups of women into networks addressing issues spanning conflict, peace, survival, women’s rights, and secularism … For over 30 years, Vasanth Kannabiran has been closely involved with issues of militancy, civil liberties, and the meaning of peace for women in her native Andhra Pradesh state. (1000peacewomen 1/2).

She writes: … The omnipresent phenomenon of globalization has made its impact on women writing as well; with there being some sort of an inverse relationship between the 2: the opening up of the markets has resulted in the closing of individual and cultural spaces. One may argue that women are no more in the ‘clumsy clutches of patriarchy’ and have the freedom to think and do as they please; however in the present times, they will encounter another Hand, ‘not ugly this time, but carefully manicured, that will seat them on cushioned thighs’. Comfortable? It will let them speak out from there; it doesn’t mind that. Lulled by this false sense of security, they might even forget the ever-present grip, but the moment they want to step down, the Hand will ensure they are put back in place … (full text).

Vasanth Kannabiran – India

She works for the National Alliance for Women NAWO.

Women and words: forging new bonds, with Vasanth Kannabiran, Ritu Menon, Meenakshi Mukherjee and Kalpana Kannabiran.

Comrade Vasanth’s Vision.

The book: Web of Deceit: Devadasi Reform in Colonial India, Kalpana Kannabiran and Vasanth Kannabiran. Reprint. New Delhi, Kali for Women, 2003, x, 217 p., $17. ISBN 81-86706-63-1

Bharati Ray: Women of India … chapter 6: … Citizenship and its Discontents, A Political History of Women in Andhra, by Vasanth Kannabiran and Kalpana Kannabiran … (full text).

… And lastly – the ballet was written by Vasanth Kannabiran – a poet, writer and translator. Also one of the thousand women world wide nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2005 … (full text).

India’s intellectual voices condemn Neelan’s assassination … The statement was signed by … Vasanth Kannabiran … (full text).

Find her and her publications on UNjobs.org; on Google Group-search; on Google Book-search; on Google Scholar-search; on Google Blog-search.

Vasanth Kannabiran, city-based human rights activist, Mogulamma, a physically challenged woman working for the welfare of the disabled in Kosigi mandal of Mahbubnagar district, and Murari Pramila, a nurse and health worker of Guntur, are among 1,000 women, whose names have been submitted to the Nobel Peace Prize Committee – 2005 … (full text).

(1000peacewomen 2/2) … As a child, Vasanth Kannabiran (born 1939) was taught to question and assert herself, and it is a habit that has stayed with her. Born into a family of first-generation Communist leaders in the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, Vasanth was an indifferent student but a voracious reader. She secured an M Litt in English Literature from the Central Institute of English and Foreign Languages in Hyderabad, the state capital, and went on to teach English at a woman’s college from 1961 to 1985.

But Vasanth, who is married to K G Kannabiran, a lawyer and leading civil and democratic rights activist, was no ordinary teacher. Since the mid-1970s, she has worked alongside her husband to fight for the rights of political dissidents, often at great risk to herself and her family. When she began to work on issues of human rights, the Emergency had just been declared, and all civil liberties stood suspended. There were many cases of disappearances, arbitrary arrests, detentions, and deaths in custody. While her husband set out to defend the rights of political activists in the courts, Vasanth shouldered the responsibility of sheltering these activists, providing them with emotional support and care in traumatic circumstances and at great personal risk. This element of her work continues in some form today, since there is a confrontation going on in the region between the state and militant Left groups.

During the 1970s, Vasanth also became a member of one of the earliest women’s collectives in India, the Stree Shakti Sangathana, and eventually moved from college teaching to development work. Ten years ago, she set up a radical women’s collective in Andhra Pradesh called Asmita, which brings diverse groups of women into networks that address a range of issues spanning conflict, peace, survival, women’s rights, and secularism. Vasanth is also a founding member of Hyderabad Ekta, the first anticommunal front in Hyderabad, which began its work in an atmosphere of worsening communal polarization.

Further, she founded the women’s program at the Deccan Development Society, working with rural women on issues of development and human rights in the 1980s. Even before her involvement in feminist networking, she was elected president of the largest network of college teachers in Andhra Pradesh, the Telengana Affiliated Colleges Teachers Association. Dissatisfied with the political apathy and social indifference that mark an average college teacher’s life, she led protests and direct action that has not just secured service advantages for teachers, but also dignity and recognition.

For more than 30 years now, Vasanth has been closely involved with the questions of armed militancy, civil liberties, and the meaning of peace for women in Andhra Pradesh.

At the national level, Vasanth has been an adviser to several government initiatives on bringing gender into governance, especially with the police and judiciary. Her longstanding contribution have benefited networks like the National Alliance of Women and the Indian National Social Action Forum, of which she was president. She has worked on capacity-building, especially in Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh, in the NGO sectors, training, working with, and encouraging successive generations of development workers, especially women, and making tools of feminist praxis accessible for grassroots mobilization.

Vasanth works internationally with networks like the Asia South Pacific Bureau of Adult Education, as well as in pre- and post-Beijing networks of women on issues of violence and human rights. She is a consultant at the international level, bringing gender concerns into development work. Moreover, she is part of widely–recognized feminist historiography initiatives like the documenting of women’s participation in the Telangana armed struggle.

Vasanth has played an invaluable role in initiating, sustaining, and supporting campaigns for a democratic order by offering her services, shelter, critiques, resources, advocacy efforts, and creative energies. What is unique about her is her capacity to train leaders and build alliances. She has been able to straddle the local and the international, addressing questions of inequality, discrimination, and diversity in every sphere of her work.

Her other special quality is that she is not afraid to either question or assert herself. She is often deeply critical of undemocratic trends in Left movements, and has worked hard to bring a gender approach to the work of the Left, even to the extent of alienating some of her coworkers.

For example, she carried out research that resurrected women’s history in Left movements at a time when the radical Left was unwilling to recognize the importance of women’s perspectives. Since she was located within the Left both in terms of her family background and civil rights work, the consequences of this research were far from comfortable for her. She faced personalized attacks on her and other members of the feminist collective. However, by bringing women’s concerns into radical political struggles, and actively encouraging the formation of networks of women from diverse backgrounds, her work has led to an understanding that women’s perspectives are indispensable to any form of struggle.

Even while coping with the insecurities of a disgruntled state for more than two decades, she never questioned the imperative to carry on with her work. Relationships were built around political work, which became central to the identity of the whole family. (1000peacewomen 2/2).

links:

The Naxal Revolution Archives;

Speaking Silence: Narrative of Gender in the Historiography;

National Resource Centre for Women NRCW;

Women’s News Network WNN;

The Telangana Affiliated Colleges Teachers Association on Just Samachar;

Deccan Development Society DDS, and its genes, gender and biodiversity community genebanks;

Progress for Women of Color, the National Women’s Alliance;

National Alliance of Women, same on UNIFEM;

Indian National Social Action Forum on WISER;

Asia South Pacific Bureau of Adult Education;

Feminist historiography initiatives, Abstracts;