This book is based on two events-the Partition of India in 1947 and the massacre of Sikhs in 1984 after the assassination of Indira Gandhi. This is an indispensable reading for anyone concerned with exploring the paradoxes of violence, especially against women.

In The Crooked Line, Ismat Chughtai, reveals the core of female psyche. She exposes all. She draws upon all aspects of female experience and tells her tale with incomparable skill. In her effort to seek and define connections between culture and female experience, Chughtai dissects custom and ritual with a keenly discerning eye and sharp turn of phrase.

The essays in this book examine the sociological legal, cultural and economic implications of dowry. The connection between dowry or bride wealth norms and the status of women, inheritance and its impact on women’s empowerment are discussed from the multiple perspectives.

This book explores the role of women as agents and visionaries of peace in South Asia. Peace is redefined to include in its fold the attempt by women to be a part of the peace making process, reworking the structural inequalities faced by them and their struggle against all forms of oppression.

It is stories such as these, the editors argue, which when repeated over generations will inspire women to live with dignity and to create and defend lives for themselves, their families, and the women who follow them. Powerful and moving, these narratives will interest students and scholars in the fields of women’s studies and culture studies, while being widely welcomed by feminists, activists and anyone interested in the status of women in India.

The book will be a compelling read for academicians and students working in the fields of sociology, women’s studies, communication and media studies, anthropology, sexuality and gender studies. It would also interest a wide urban readership, especially NGO’s and all those concerned about women’s and Gender issues.

In this book, the trauma of the Partition in Eastern India is discussed explicitly in a way that has not happened before. Drawing upon interviews with women who were uprooted from old East Bengal, on diaries, memoirs and creative literature, the editors lift the ‘veil of silence; that has surrounded the Bengal Partition of 1947.