ABSTRACT
Seeking to reclaim Dr. Neera Desai’s sociological legacy, this chapter examines her contribution to Indian social theory. Beginning with an analysis of her writing on women’s status, family, education and oral histories, the chapter argues that it is her writing on women’s movements which epitomizes her academic and political commitments. This commitment made her pioneer the entry of women’s studies in the SNDT Women’s University in Mumbai. To her, women’s studies in the university system was not a sterile discipline confined to the classroom but rather a learning that could only be imbibed through political struggles for social justice. To appreciate her theoretical contribution, this chapter reviews her unpublished papers written (between 1975 and 1985, the International Decade of Women) when women’s studies was struggling to find a niche within academia. It reveals an intimate knowledge of the women’s movement and organizations in the colonial and post-colonial periods that could have only grown through her own experiences of participating in the Indian nationalist movement and subsequently in the various post-independence struggles for social justice.
