To know your present, you must know your past. Thankfully in India, there are some great minds at work, helping us understand our past better. One such mind is that of Indian historian and filmmaker Uma Chakravarti.
Chakravarti has written extensively on Indian history, highlighting issues relating to gender, caste, and class. Her work mainly focuses on the history of Buddhism, ancient India, and 19th-century India, advancing towards modernisation.
Born into a family of bureaucrats from Kerala, Chakravarti completed her early education in Delhi and Bangalore. After completing her master’s in history from Banaras Hindu University, Uma decided to venture into teaching. Her career became firmly established during her tenure at Miranda House in the University of Delhi, where she taught for more than 30 years.
During this time, Uma Chakravarti also published many books like Social Dimensions of Early Buddhism, Rewriting History: Life and Times of Pandita Ramabai, and Gendering Caste.
Over the course of her life, Uma Chakravarti championed the women’s movement in India by engaging with feminist issues and democratic rights activism and by participating in fact-finding committees, including the International Tribunal on Justice for Gujarat, set up after the infamous 2002 riots.
But her life is not all books. Chakravarti has also directed four documentary films, which include A Quiet Little Entry, Fragments of a Past, Ek Inquilab Aur Aaya, and Prison Diaries. The common theme in all four documentaries is women’s history in India.
The CSR Journal hopes that Uma’s life with her sociologist husband, Anand Chakraborty and her daughter Upali and son, Siddharth, has been comfortable up till now. Looks like Delhi is treating her well!
