Ritu Menon is an Indian feminist, writer and publisher.[1][2]

Ritu Menon
NationalityIndian
Occupation(s)publisher, author

Career edit

In 1984, Menon co-founded Kali for Women, India's first exclusively feminist publishing house, along with Urvashi Butalia, her longtime collaborator. In 2003, Kali for Women shut shop due to lack of commercial viability compounded by irreconcilable personal differences between Menon and Butalia. Thereafter, Menon independently founded Women Unlimited, another feminist publishing house.[3]

She has also written numerous newspaper articles and op-eds. Her writing focuses on violence against women, religion's take on women and the gender divide across the society from a strongly feminist and left-wing perspective.[4]

Over a Zoom call, she talked about Address Book: A Publishing Memoir in the time of COVID, which she wrote during the pandemic without an explicit plan to publish a book. “It became a form of putting down what I was going through, remembering, thinking, reading, and worrying about,” she says (13 July 2021).[5]

Publications edit

  • The Unfinished Business, Outlook, May 2001[6]
  • Anti-CAA protests by Muslim women are about where, how and why you belong, Indian Express, Feb 2020[7]
  • Borders & Boundaries: Women in India's Partition[8]
  • Unequal Citizens: A Study of Muslim Women in India[9]
  • From Mathura to Manorama: Resisting Violence Against Women in India[10]
  • address book: a publishing memoir in the time of covid

Honour edit

In 2000-2001 she served on the International Advisory Board of the Raja Rao Award for Literature.[11] In 2011, Menon and Butalia were jointly conferred the Padma Shri, India's fourth-highest civilian award, by the Government of India.[12]

References edit

  1. ^ "Unlock Diaries: About being normal by Ritu Menon". Hindustan Times. 3 June 2020. Retrieved 16 January 2021.
  2. ^ "Menon, Ritu". SAGE Publications Inc. 16 January 2021. Retrieved 16 January 2021.
  3. ^ Menon, Ritu (16 September 2020). "A publishing diary written during the pandemic: Ritu Menon's literary memories and encounters". Scroll.in. Retrieved 16 January 2021.
  4. ^ "Ritu Menon". The Kennedy Center. Archived from the original on 14 July 2014. Retrieved 13 July 2013.
  5. ^ "The Ritu Menon interview | 'Feminist publishing is a development activity. It is not just about producing books'". Firstpost. 13 July 2021. Retrieved 29 December 2021.
  6. ^ "The Unfinished Business | Outlook India Magazine". magazine.outlookindia.com/. Retrieved 16 January 2021.
  7. ^ "Anti-CAA protests by Muslim women are about where, how and why you belong". The Indian Express. 4 February 2020. Retrieved 16 January 2021.
  8. ^ Menon, Ritu; Bhasin, Kamla (1998). Borders & Boundaries: Women in India's Partition. Rutgers University Press. ISBN 978-0-8135-2552-5.
  9. ^ Hasan, Zoya; Menon, Ritu (14 September 2006). Unequal Citizens: A Study of Muslim Women in India. OUP India. ISBN 978-0-19-568459-9.
  10. ^ Kannabirān, Kalpana; Menon, Ritu (2007). From Mathura to Manorama: Resisting Violence Against Women in India. Women Unlimited. ISBN 978-81-88965-35-9.
  11. ^ "Professional Notes", World Englishes, Vol. 20, No. 1 (Wiley-Blackwell 2001), pp. 117–118.
  12. ^ "Padma Awards Announced" (Press release). Ministry of Home Affairs. 25 January 2011. Retrieved 16 August 2013.

External links edit