Gita Ramaswamy


Gita Ramaswamy is a social activist and writer. She works for the “Hyderabad Book Trust”, a not-for- profit Telugu publishing collective. She has published both in English and Telugu, has authored India Stinking and co-authored Taking Charge of Our Bodies, On Their Own, and The Oxford India Anthology of Telugu Dalit Writing. She has also translated Devulapalli Krishnamurthi’s autobiography Ooru, Vaada, Batuku into English as Life in Anantharam. She
has recently published an anthology of Gauri Lankesh’s writings in Telugu.

Personality

Born female in a male-dominated orthodox south Indian Brahman family, Gita turned her disadvantages to advantages from a very early age. She was a top student and, very early, was bothered by the many inequalities in society, and went to work to reduce them and also to attack poverty. She quickly became active in student organizations focused on these issues and ultimately left the university with a master's degree to work for social change full time. She went to work at the grassroots level in association with other young colleagues from the far left. She eventually decided that she did not believe in that path and helped to found and build up the Hyderabad Book Trust, a not-for-profit organization that produces, publishes, and sells serious social literature in Telugu, the language of Andhra. After this "sabbatical", she went back to grassroots organizing and developed her new model. She works through the Vyavasaya Coolie Slangham, opening a practical way for India's poor and, more broadly, India's society, to advance to a more just, productive, and united world future.

Works

  1. Jeena Hai To Marna Seekho: The Life and Times of George Reddy
  2. The Oxford India Anthology of Telugu Dalit Writing
  3. Here I Am and Other Stories
  4. Life in Anantharam
  5. Taking Charge of Our Bodies: A Health Handbook for Women
  6. On their own: a socio-legal investigation of inter-country adoption in India
  7. India Stinking: Manual Scavengers in Andhra Pradesh
  8. The child and the law
  9. Women and law
  10. The Lambadas: a community besieged: a study on the relinquishment of Lambada girl babies in South Telangana
  11. Nenu Communistuni, Biography of C.K.Narayanareddy
  12. Maakoddii candaalam