Playing with Fire: Feminist Thought and Activism Through Seven Lives in India

by Sangtin Writers, Richa Nagar

Seven voices contribute to this rare glimpse of the work being done on the front lines of the fight for social change in India. Playing with Fire is written in the collective voice of women employed by a large NGO as activists in their communities and is based on diaries, interviews, and conversations among them. Together their personal stories reveal larger themes and questions of sexism, casteism, and communalism, and a startling picture emerges of how NGOs both nourish and stifle local struggles for solidarity. The Hindi edition of the book, Sangtin Yatra, published in 2004, created controversy that resulted in backlash against the authors by their employer. The publication also drew support for the women and instigated a public conversation about the issues exposed in the book. Here, Richa Nagar addresses the dispute in the context of the politics of NGOs and feminist theory, articulating how development ideology employed by aid organizations serves to reinforce the domination of those it claims to help. The Sangtin Writers, Anupamlata, Ramsheela, Reshma Ansari, Richa Singh, Shashibala, Shashi Vaish, Surbala, and Vibha Bajpayee, are grassroots activists and members of a small organization called Sangtin in Uttar Pradesh, India. Richa Nagar teaches women’s studies at the University of Minnesota.

Genres: Feminism, Nonfiction, India, School, Grad School, Cultural

232 pages, Paperback

First published June 23, 2006

Reviews

[Nisha · Rating 4 out of 5]

It may be my Indian ethnicity that initially prevented me from reading this, but it may also be the very reason I did. As an NRI (non resident Indian), I come from a fairly privileged place, knowing little of the hardships women face from family and society. I can relate to the patriarchial family structure, but not to the inherent suffering each of the women in this book faced. It's jarring to understand how they broke (or still breaking, really) from the chains of family and social enslavement.

Unlike most biographical or feminist texts that I've come across (not many, mind you), I feel like this one was unique, basically an English representative of the collective voices of 7 poor oppressed women. Actually, they are no longer so oppressed anymore, with their work as fieldworkers in a grassroots feminist organization. The stories of each woman is reorganized and compiled into topics that remind us that misery comes in so many different forms.

The unfortunate thing about this text was the numerous voices and stories that blend together to a point that it confuses readers about the lives of the individual women. I wanted to relate more with these women, but the objective voice removed our ability to make a closer connection with these women. Instead, we are only privy to vignettes of their personal tragedies.

Overall, I enjoyed this text more than I expected. The beginning is boring, but it gets better, until it again loses momentum at the end, where every argument either sounds petty or redundant.

[Nivetha · Rating 5 out of 5]

A game changer in academic postcolonial feminist writing. The rejection of the highly individualized, objective academic voice in favor of the collectivist weaving of seven voices into one narrative make this unlike any other academic text I've ever read. The long-term nature of the project centered around personal lived experiences and rooted in female friendship and the politics of place and home makes it unique among postcolonial feminist texts as well. In addition, the points made about the hypocrisy of increasingly neoliberal NGOs and development organizations are really illuminating for anyone interested in development and the developing world at large. This book is a testimony to the raw power of radical socialist feminist politics, grassroots activism, and emancipatory education and ethics. And its reception by the NGO its activists work with and critique here is a testimony to the entrenched nature of casteist capitalist hierarchies in many of India's institutions and a reminder of just how much work still needs to be done.

[Dani · Rating 4 out of 5]

I gave this book an extra star because I’m just so proud of the women who shared their stories. So powerful and moving. My biggest issue with this book is that I wanted more. I almost think it was over-edited. Otherwise, it’s a strong qualitative academic study that is easy for the lay-person to read.

[Sahel's · Rating 5 out of 5]

Have I every cried over a theory book? Have I ever seen a unique academic theory book like this? Have I ever came across such deep stories of activism? The answer to all these is no! Needless to say that I loved this book so much. The writers meant to do away with boundaries between theory and practice and they succeeded. Through the lives of nine women from Uttar Pradesh, through simple paragraphs, non-abstract descriptions and real life stories dealing with life and death issues, we see a a praxis that is closely infused with academia, politics and real life. This is a book I've been looking forward to my whole life and I never knew about it until this year!

[Heather Montes Ireland · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is imminently teachable, providing great material for a thoughtful discussion of so many nuanced issues around privilege, intersectionality, agency, equity, class, globalization, and more. The collaborative approach of this work makes it a stand-out and also particularly interesting for readers; I have noticed that this is also what students found really engaging. This book documents what transnational feminist praxis looks like--and how our feminist and social justice commitments are negotiated as we read and learn from the experiences of seven activists, and in fact, the work of nine women who are grappling with power, self-reflexivity, and complex social issues together.

[Lweeze · Rating 5 out of 5]

one of those books that changed my life and how i see the world.

playing with fire is the story of seven women NGO workers in Uttar Pradesh, India. we hear their personal stories, and then how they come together to form a community. they discuss the various intersections of their identities: religion, culture, ethnicities, casteism, socioeconomic background, access to education, access to institutions of power, language, gender, sexuality, and trauma both inherited and personally lived. the book also touches upon the trials and tribulations of people in the global south doing NGO work in their own country.

i was utterly captivated by how the writers navigated the chasms of differences between their lived experiences. the book strives to be as honest as possible about that process: it was difficult and not without pitfalls; neither does it claim to have all the answers. they openly discuss the process of writing the book, and how it came to be presented the way it is (they write with the pronoun "we" as a collective, and refer to themselves in third person when discussing individual narratives).

a lot of social justice is focused around identity politics and common experiences. but even within people belonging to a particular political identity, there will be differences. the sangtin writers don't attempt to force a "united front" on their collective, smoothing out the differences - they confront these differences and discuss them openly. the whole collective advances together, or not at all.

the book makes no pretentions at being any kind of a guide for doing social justice. it is a highly localized narrative. and yet for me it was exactly that: it outlined possibilities for being in community without oppressively silencing nuances in experiences.

[Makayla · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reading for a gender and development class, I appreciated the participatory research. Writing the book would have been a monumental task, and everyone is fully appreciated for what they contributed. It’s incredible how it’s still a mystery as to how to include on the ground, local workers in development work but hopefully the book encourages a wealth of more discussions to be had (that are genuinely listened to by development organizations).

[Rory Dreyfus · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read in my transnational feminisms class. Necessary reading for anyone interested or involved in the world of NGOs (which, really, is everyone), especially transnational. Academic discussion & thought without academic gatekeeping in language or access. Brilliant.

[Jessica · Rating 5 out of 5]

Heartbreaking and honest look at castes, classism, sexism, and NGOs in India.

[Nolina · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's like everything that was churning in my head about the friction of NGOs as institutions and feminism has been spelled out already in beautifully clear and accessible language.

[Mike Young · Rating 5 out of 5]

Richa Nagar’s postscript... damn.

[Megan McIntyre]

great insight on collective storytelling as a feminist practice

[amani · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[Cricket]

This was a short, very powerful book weaving together the autobiographical writings of seven village-level feminist activists in India. Methodologically, the book shares much with consciousness-raising—the text is based on the women’s collective analysis of each writer’s frank autobiographical reflections on the ways processes of gender, caste, class, and religion shaped their lives and their current activist work. To me, this is feminist theory at its best: the women are courageous in their honesty, a courage born from the commitment and hope that structures and relations can be changed. Here’s a quote that I especially liked:

Whenever we reflect deeply and collectively on a set of personal or structural issues, that reflection ceases to be a critique of a specific individual or organization. It becomes connected to all those social, economic, and political conditions and processes within which we are living. Then why should we be afraid of saying everything that happened to us but could not be spoken of because our mouths were shut by tightly pressed hands, belonging sometimes to our mothers and aunts, sometimes to our grandfathers and brothers, sometimes to the people from our sasural and sometimes to our own friends, coworkers, bosses and ministers?

[John Benson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Richa Nagar, the main co-author of this book, was my office mate when I was in graduate school at the University of Minnesota. I heard her speak at the Association of American Geographers conference about her newest book last month. I had not kept up with her writing since graduate school so I read this one and will read her memoir. This book tells of Richa's connection with a group of Indian women who tell their life stories individually and collectively in the bulk of this book. Upon the publication of this book in India, these women were threatened by the organization that they worked for in Uttar Pradesh, India. The stories are very powerful and become even more powerful as part of a collective. Richa contributed the introduction and postscript to the story. It is a powerful book that brings out the lives of rural women in India very well.

[Can Kartoglu · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hindistan'da yaşayan kadınların hayatlarının belirli dönemlerinde hangi zorluklarla karşılaştıklarını bu zorlukları bizzat yaşamış olan yedi kadının günlüklerinden yola çıkarak aktarmaya çalışıyor kitap. Samimiyetini asla sorgulamadığınız hikayeler ile Hindistan'daki eşitsizliği, yozlaşmayı gözler önüne seriyor adeta. Bunun yanı sıra kadın erkek arasında var olan eşitsizliği ortan kaldırmaya, kadınları iş hayatında güçlendirmeyi amaçlayan STK'ların kendi içlerindeki hiyerarşi ve önyargılardan bunu kendi organizasyon seviyelerinde bile gerçekleştiremediklerini görüyoruz. Feminizm ve STK örgütlenmeleri hakkında merakı olan herkesin okumasını öneriyorum.

[Vin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an honest and important book about the journey of this group of village level activists in addressing the issues of casteism, communalism and patriarchy as well as the issues of elitism within the NGO sphere. I really enjoyed the collective voice of the book. It may be difficult to follow the individual strands of each writer's experience, but it highlights the need to resist lumping together 'rural poor women' in the fight for women's empowerment because there is so much difference and diversity amongst these communities.

[Addie · Rating 5 out of 5]

An honest and eye-opening work that highlights the struggles that women in rural India face in relation to gender, caste, economic status, and religion while challenging the politics of knowledge production and of NGOs.

[Kay · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a truly incredible book. The sangtin collective, a group of the nine women who wrote it, blends their stories seamlessly while not erasing any individual voice. Really unique research. Deeply impressed by their efforts.

[Naomi · Rating 5 out of 5]

must read!