Editorial: ULR Issue 6, Freedom

The first feminist was born the day patriarchy was created
– Kamla Bhasin (24th April 1946 to 25th September 2021)

Misunderstood and maligned, the term feminism can polarise like few others. Add caste, religion, environment, and capitalism to the conversation and you would find yourself isolated in the middle of a battleground. Kamla Bhasin taught us that it doesn’t have to be this complicated, that open dialogue in the simplest language can be immensely effective. We dedicate this issue, Magna Carta to Kamla ji.

There are things to celebrate, the effectiveness of peaceful protests, the speed of the fastest POCSO trial that concluded in Bihar. And there is much that deserves our compassion, our solidarity – people being denied human rights on the basis of their geographies, religion, race, sex, gender; lifeforms being denied habitat on land and in water, languages being relegated to labeled unimportant

Usawa #6 invites you to introspect what human rights mean at individual, community, and global levels, and the various ways in which they are denied.

Each section has been lovingly put together, and immense amounts of thought and discussions have gone into it. Every piece that appears is a work of art that we collectively feel humbled and honoured to hold within these pages, creating an extremely rich, textured volume comprising of various genres of literature.

Fiction has been curated by Babitha Marina Justin, the Translations & Bhasha section by Suneetha Balakrishnan, Poetry by Vinita Agrawal, and the Books section by Kinjal Setia. And it has all been held together through thick and thin by our very own Kinshuk Gupta. All technical magic managed by our webmaster Sneha Mohite.

We also have some book recommendations made by the team, and our guest blogger, the Bankrupt Bookworm.

We hope that our work reaches and enriches your inner world.

Love and gratitude,
Smita Sahay

Mumbai
30th of November 2021