EPW: Reminiscences

Sociologist, scholar, author and former guest editor of the Economic & Political Weekly's "Review of Women's Studies," the writer gives an anecdotal account of her association with the journal and how she continues to watch the weekly grow and transform with changing times. Her association with the EPW--as an observer and a participant--is inextricably linked with her own life story.

When I was asked to write about my association with the journal, to mark its 50th anniversary, I was not quite sure how to go about it. My association with the Economic & Political Weekly (EPW) will inevitably be conjoined with my family history.

K N Raj was our professor and director of the Delhi School of Economics while I was doing my Master of Arts (MA) along with Krishna Raj (KR). That is when I sent my first piece, a book review to the Economic Weekly (EW), on the history of women in the copper mines of Bolivia. It was an unsigned piece, but Ashok Mitra who read it, encouraged me to write more often. The EW was owned by the Sekhsarias and Sachin Chaudhuri was the editor. When KR sent some pieces, Chaudhuri asked Raj to send him to the EW.