About the Book

"With over 40 million widows—highest in the world—India confronts widowhood not just as loss, but as a gendered crisis marked by centuries of beliefs, taboos, rituals, discriminatory practices and economic exclusion. Speaking (of) Widows, a powerful volume from the Gender Equity Studies, Centre of Janki Devi Memorial College and the Guild of Service, attempts to bring together cultural critique, legal analysis, and grassroots research—including voices of Vrindavan widows. Bridging theory and activism, it calls for urgent policy reform and a reimagining of widowhood with dignity and justice at its core.

About the Author

Namita Sethi is an Associate Professor at the Department of English, Janki Devi Memorial College, University of Delhi. Her publications include In Search of Delhi, (with Jitender Gill, Routledge 2023), an edition of Gulliver’s Travels (Worldview, 2023) and Re-Discovering Delhi (Pinnacle, 2021, co-edited with Jitender Gill)). She has an abiding interest in gender studies and has published and lectured widely on women in literature and culture. She is currently Director, Centre for Gender Equity Studies at JDM College. She received her PhD from the University of Delhi. She was an Associate at the Indian Institute of advanced Studies, Shimla