Those Who Did Not Die  (English, Hardcover, Padhi Ranjana)

While the issue of peasant suicides owing to the severity of the agrarian crisis in India has been discussed widely over media and academia, the impact of these suicides on the survivors is largely invisible and has remained unexplored. Those Who Did Not Die brings in this relevant yet unexplored aspect and asserts the impact of the agrarian crisis through the voices of women survivors.

The book takes a dig at the so-called agricultural prosperity of Punjab regarded as the cradle of the green revolution and provides empirical data through a socialist-feminist perspective in order to explain the plight of the marginalized peasants. It takes a close look at the issues of womens labour, the patriarchal compulsions of marriage and dowry, and the rising costs of health care, and thus projects that such heavy chores of duty that women have perform are still not recognized as labour in our society.

Drawing inferences from extensive field work and interviews with the survivors of peasant suicides, this book draws political and humanitarian attention to coping strategies of women, who are marginalized already in this deeply traditional and patriarchal society.

About the Author
Ranjana Padhi has been active with the autonomous women’s movement since the mid-eighties. She belongs to Orissa and is based in Delhi since her college days. Ranjana has been part of autonomous, non-funded collectives like Saheli, Workers’ Solidarity and Kashipur Solidarity. She has also been an active part of many joint coalitions and campaigns around issues of state repression; democratic rights and civil liberties; workers’ rights; sexuality; slum demolitions; forcible evictions caused by corporate land acquisition; and communal violence. For her living, Ranjana has been an editor and language trainer.