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{{Short description|Feminist and historian}}
{{EngvarB|date=August 2014}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2014}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Urvashi Butalia
| image = UrvashiButalia.jpg
| alt =
| caption = Urvashi Butalia in 2011
| birth_name =
| birth_date = {{Birth year and age|1952}}
| birth_place = [[Ambala]], [[Haryana]], India
| death_date =
| death_place =
| nationality =
| other_names =
| alma_mater = [[University of Delhi]] <br> [[University of London]]
| occupation = {{Nowrap|Publisher and historian <br> Co-founder of [[Kali for Women]] (1984) <br> Founder of [[Zubaan Books]] (2003)}}
| known_for =
| relatives = [[Pankaj Butalia]]
| website = {{URL|zubaanbooks.com}}
}}

'''Urvashi Butalia''' (born 1952) is an Indian [[feminist]] writer, publisher and activist. She is known for her work in the women's movement of India, as well as for authoring books such as ''The Other Side of Silence: Voices from and the Partition of India'' and ''Speaking Peace: Women's Voices from Kashmir''.

Along with [[Ritu Menon]], she co-founded [[Kali for Women]], India's first feminist publishing house, in 1984. In 2003, she founded [[Zubaan Books]], an imprint of Kali for Women.<ref>{{cite news|last=Daftuar|first=Swati|title=Identity matters|url=http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-features/tp-metroplus/article853524.ece|access-date=26 April 2013|newspaper=The Hindu|date=28 October 2010}}</ref>

In 2011, Butalia and Menon were jointly awarded the [[Padma Shri]], India's fourth highest civilian award, for their work in Literature and Education.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.pib.nic.in/newsite/erelease.aspx?relid=69364|title=Press Information Bureau|website=www.pib.nic.in|access-date=2019-03-07}}</ref>

==Early life and education==
Butalia was born in [[Ambala]], [[Haryana]], into a progressive and atheist family of [[Punjabi people|Punjabi]] heritage. She is the third of four children of Subhadra and Joginder Singh Butalia. Her mother ran a counselling centre for women. Butalia has one [older] sister, Bela, and two brothers, [[Pankaj Butalia|Pankaj]] and Rahul. [[Pankaj Butalia]] is a left-wing documentary filmmaker best known for a documentary on the miserable conditions of widows living in [[Vrindavan]].

Butalia earned a BA in literature from [[Miranda House]], [[University of Delhi|Delhi University]], in 1971, a [[Master's degree]] in literature from Delhi University in 1973, and a Master's in South Asian Studies from the [[University of London]] in 1977.<ref name=lettre>{{cite web|title=Bio – Butalia|url=http://www.lettre-ulysses-award.org/jury06/bio_butalia.html|publisher=Lettre Ulysses Award for the Art of Reportage|access-date=26 April 2013}}</ref> She speaks Hindi, Punjabi and Bengali, along with English, Italian and French.<ref name="lettre-ulysses-award.org">{{cite web|url=https://www.lettre-ulysses-award.org/jury06/bio_butalia.html|title=Lettre Ulysses Award {{!}} Urvashi Butalia, India|website=www.lettre-ulysses-award.org|access-date=2019-03-07}}</ref>

==Career==
[[File:Urvabu.jpg|thumb|Urvashi Butalia in October 2016]]

Butalia started her career working with [[Oxford University Press]] in [[Delhi]]. She worked for a year at their Oxford headquarters,<ref name=lettre/> before moving briefly to London-based [[Zed Books]] as an editor in 1982. She then returned to India and, along with [[Ritu Menon]], set up a feminist publishing house, [[Kali for Women]], in 1984.<ref name="mint">{{cite web|url=http://www.livemint.com/Companies/595QfElEltDLfuvgNqTiOI/Urvashi-Butalia--I-want-to-prove-that-feminist-publishing-c.html|title=Urvashi Butalia: I want to prove that feminist publishing can survive commercially|last=Ghoshal|first=Somak|date=14 June 2013|publisher=Livemint|access-date=16 August 2013}}</ref>

Butalia engages herself in teaching at the [[Young India Fellowship]] at [[Ashoka University]] through her course on women, society and changing India.

Butalia's main areas of interest are the [[Partition of India|Partition]] and oral histories from a feminist and left-wing perspective.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://feminisminindia.com/2018/11/08/urvashi-butalia-historian-partition/|title=Urvashi Butalia: The Historian Who Revived The Forgotten Voices of Partition|first=Areeba|last=Sundus|website=Feminism In India (FII)|date=8 November 2018|access-date=28 April 2021}}</ref> She has written on [[gender]], [[communalism]], [[fundamentalism]] and media. Her writings have appeared in several newspapers and magazines publications, including ''[[The Guardian]]'', the ''[[New Internationalist]],'' ''[[The Statesman (India)|The Statesman]]'', ''[[The Times of India]],'' ''[[Outlook (Indian magazine)|Outlook]]'' and ''[[India Today]]''. She has been a regular columnist for the left-wing ''[[Tehelka]]'' and for ''Indian Printer and Publisher,'' a B2B publication dealing with the print and publishing industry.

Butalia is a consultant for [[Oxfam India]] and holds the position of Reader at the [[College of Vocational Studies]] at the [[University of Delhi]].<ref name=lettre/>

===Kali for Women ===
Kali for Women, India's first exclusively feminist publishing house, which Butalia co-founded with Ritu Menon, was set up in 1984 as a trust to increase the body of knowledge on women in the Third World, to give voice to such knowledge as already exists, and provide a forum for women writers, creative and academics.<ref>Puri, Jyoti, ''Woman, Body, Desire in Postcolonial India: Narratives of Gender and Sexuality'' (London: Routledge, 1999).</ref>

In 2003, co-founders Butalia and Menon parted ways. Both went on to set up their own imprints under the banner of Kali for Women, with Menon establishing Women Unlimited<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.womenunlimited.net/authors/authors_ritumenon.htm |title=Ritu Menon|publisher=Women Unlimited|access-date=2019-03-07}}</ref> and Butalia founding Zubaan Books.<ref name=AABP>{{cite web|url=http://www.allaboutbookpublishing.com/120/padma-shri-awarded-to-publishing-stalwarts-after-a-decade/|title=Padma Shri Awarded To Publishing Stalwarts After A Decade|website=All About Book Publishing|date=February 2011|access-date=28 April 2021}}</ref>

=== Zubaan Books ===
Originally set up as a non-profit in 2003, [[Zubaan Books|Zubaan]] now operates as the private company, Zubaan Publishers Pvt. Ltd. The independent publishing house publishes fiction and academic books, "on, for, by and about women in South Asia",<ref>{{cite web|url=https://zubaanbooks.com/about-zubaan/|title=About {{!}} Zubaan|language=en-US|access-date=2019-03-07}}</ref> with the list including renowned authors such as Jaishree Misra, [[Nivedita Menon]], [[Manjula Padmanabhan]], [[Suniti Namjoshi]] and [[Annie Zaidi]].

===''The Other Side of Silence''===
Apart from several newspaper articles and [[op-ed]] pieces dealing with feminist issues, Butalia has authored or co-authored several books. ''The Other Side of Silence'' (1998) is the product of more than seventy interviews conducted with survivors of the [[Partition of India|Partition]], is being used as an academic text in some Indian universities. The Goethe Institute has described it as "one of the most influential books in South Asian studies to be published in recent decades...It emphasises the role of violence against women in the collective experience of tragedy."<ref name="Staff">{{cite web|url=https://shop.scroll.in/book/843417/feminist-publisher-urvashi-butalia-wins-the-prestigious-goethe-medal|title=Feminist publisher Urvashi Butalia wins the prestigious Goethe Medal|author=Scroll Staff|website=Scroll.in|language=en-US|access-date=2019-03-07}}</ref>

''The Other Side of Silence'' won the Oral History Book Association Award in 2001 and the Nikkei Asia Award for Culture in 2003.<ref name="lettre-ulysses-award.org" />

== Activism ==
Butalia is an associate of the [[Women's Institute for Freedom of the Press]] (WIFP).<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.wifp.org/who-we-are/associates/|title=Associates {{!}} The Women's Institute for Freedom of the Press|website=www.wifp.org|language=en-US|access-date=21 June 2017}}</ref>

== Awards and recognition ==
In 2000, Butalia won the Pandora Award from [[Women in Publishing]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.boell.de/en/person/urvashi-butalia|title=Urvashi Butalia|website=Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung|language=en|access-date=2019-03-07}}</ref>

In 2011, Butalia was awarded the [[Padma Shri]] by the Government of India.<ref name=AABP />

In 2017, the German Federal Republic awarded Butalia the [[Goethe Medal]], an official distinction that "honors individuals who have displayed exceptional competence of the German language as well as in international cultural exchange."<ref name="Staff"/><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.goethe.de/resources/files/pdf131/about-urvashi-butalia.pdf|title=Awardee: Urvashi Butalia|publisher=Goethe Institut}}</ref>

== Works ==

*{{cite book|author1=Urvashi Butalia|author2=Ritu Menon|author3=Kali for Women |title=In Other Words: New Writing by Indian Women|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7cllAAAAMAAJ|year=1992|publisher=Kali for Women|isbn=978-81-85107-48-6}}
*{{cite book|author1=Urvashi Butalia|author2=Ritu Menon|title=Making a Difference: Feminist Publishing in the South|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8mU8AQAAIAAJ|year=1995|publisher=Bellagio Publishing Network}}
*{{cite book|author1=Tanika Sarkar|author2=Urvashi Butalia|title=Women and the Hindu Right: A Collection of Essays|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CRIqAAAAYAAJ|year=1995|publisher=Kali For Women|isbn=978-81-85107-66-0}}
*{{cite book|author1=Tanika Sarkar|author2=Urvashi Butalia|title=Women and Right Wing Movements: Indian Experiences|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RjUqAAAAYAAJ|year=1995|publisher=Zed Books|location= London|isbn=978-1-85649-289-8}}
*{{cite book|author=Urvashi Butalia |title=The Other Side of Silence: Voices from the Partition of India|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JGklJI4eiNIC|year=1998|publisher=Penguin Books India|isbn=978-0-14-027171-3}}
*{{cite book|author=Urvashi Butalia|title=Speaking Peace: Women's Voices from Kashmir|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1WvaAAAAMAAJ|year=2002|publisher=Kali for Women|isbn=978-81-86706-43-5}}
*{{cite book|author=Urvashi Butalia (ed.)|title=Inner Line: The Zubaan Book of Stories by Indian Women|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7nfNcEiSSMEC|year=2006|publisher=Zubaan|isbn=978-81-89013-77-6}}

==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}

==External links==
{{commons category|Urvashi Butalia}}
{{wikiquote}}
* [http://www.zubaanbooks.com/ Zubaan Books website]
* [http://www.lettre-ulysses-award.org/jury06/bio_butalia.html Biography as a member of the 2006 Lettre Ulysses Award jury]
* [https://digitalcommons.uri.edu/jfs/vol6/iss6/6/ Interview] by Anupama Arora and Sandrine Sanos, ''Journal of Feminist Scholarship'' 6 (Spring 2014)

{{Authority control}}

{{Padma Shri Award Recipients in Literature & Education}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Butalia, Urvashi}}
[[Category:1952 births]]
[[Category:20th-century Indian businesspeople]]
[[Category:20th-century Indian businesswomen]]
[[Category:20th-century Indian journalists]]
[[Category:20th-century Indian women writers]]
[[Category:21st-century Indian businesspeople]]
[[Category:21st-century Indian businesswomen]]
[[Category:21st-century Indian journalists]]
[[Category:21st-century Indian women writers]]
[[Category:Alumni of the University of London]]
[[Category:Businesspeople from Haryana]]
[[Category:Businesswomen from Haryana]]
[[Category:English-language writers from India]]
[[Category:Feminist studies scholars]]
[[Category:Indian feminist writers]]
[[Category:Indian feminists]]
[[Category:Indian political writers]]
[[Category:Indian publishers (people)]]
[[Category:Indian women journalists]]
[[Category:Indian women political writers]]
[[Category:Indian women publishers]]
[[Category:Journalists from Haryana]]
[[Category:Journalists from Meghalaya]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:People from Ambala]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Padma Shri in literature & education]]
[[Category:University of Delhi alumni]]
[[Category:Women writers from Haryana]]
[[Category:Writers from Haryana]]
[[Category:Winners of the Nikkei Asia Prize]]

Urvashi Butalia - Revision history

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