The Sarojini Naidu Centre for Women’s Studies (SNCWS), Jamia Millia Islamia, in collaboration with The Book Review Literary Trust, organized a one-day symposium titled ‘Writing, Reviewing, Translating: Women, Words and Worlds’ on 17 February 2026 at Mir Anis Hall, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi. The event, spread over three sessions, brought together writers, translators, reviewers, and scholars to deliberate on women’s literary production, the politics of reviewing, and the transformative potential of translation.
The symposium commenced with an inaugural address by Professor Nishat Zaidi, Director, Sarojini Naidu Centre for Women’s Studies, Jamia Millia Islamia, wherein she mapped the journey and the achievements of the Centre on the completion of its 25 years. This was followed by an address by Chandra Chari, one of the three Founder Editors of The Book Review and Chairperson of The Book Review Literary Trust. She traced the origins of the journal, highlighting its commitment to fostering critical engagement with literature and creating space for serious book reviewing in India. Emphasizing the crucial role of women in shaping literary cultures, she underscored how reviewing functions not merely as evaluation but as intellectual dialogue and archival preservation. She outlined the aims of The Book Review Literary Trust to promote inclusive literary criticism, nurture emerging voices, and sustain an ecosystem where diverse narratives receive thoughtful attention. Her address set the tone for the symposium, foregrounding reviewing as an ethical, political, and scholarly act.
Reviewing, Writing, Publishing Women: A Critical Exploration of Gendered Literary Landscapes
Chair: Aakriti Mandhwani
The first session examined the intersections of authorship, identity, publishing structures, and critical reception.
Dr. Semeen Ali, Poetry Editor of Muse India, opened the discussion by reflecting on poetry as a space of creative autonomy. Reading from her anthology Writing From the Solitary Space: An Anthology of Loneliness, she argued that women’s writing is not simply autobiographical narration but an active process of self-decipherment. Identity, she asserted, should serve as a starting point rather than a constraint, cautioning against reductive categorization.
Rachna Kalra, Founder of Windword, gave insights from the perspective of independent publishing. While acknowledging that social conditioning shapes tone and expression, she advocated reading beyond gender labels and evaluating texts on merit. Her work demonstrated how alternative literary platforms can challenge mainstream editorial gatekeeping and amplify overlooked voices.
Malvika Maheshwari of Ashoka University introduced a political lens, interrogating the epistemic authority of literary reviews. She posed critical questions: What constitutes knowledge in a review? Who verifies ‘facts’ amid political biases? Drawing from her research on dissent, she described reviewing as both scholarship and resistance, arguing that invisibility can become a site of subversion for marginalized knowledges.
Sucharita Sengupta of Jamia Millia Islamia emphasized the pedagogical role of reviewing. Referring to her work on Rohingya women’s narratives, she stressed that invisibility in mainstream discourse does not equate to insignificance. She drew a careful distinction between ‘women’s writing’, which consciously centres gendered experiences, and ‘writing by women’, which may not always explicitly interrogate patriarchy.
Kanupriya Dhingra of BML Munjal University concluded the session by examining the sustainability of women’s literary cultures in South Asia. She highlighted the role of small libraries and community spaces in sustaining everyday reading practices. Translation, she noted, allows women to enter new linguistic worlds, while reviewing operates as the ‘ending act’ that validates and preserves literary labour.
The session collectively addressed concerns of underrepresentation, editorial bias, and market preferences, while proposing mentorship, alternative platforms, and intentional editorial diversity as pathways forward. The discussion was marked by lively audience engagement.
Writing the City
Chair: Faiz Ullah
This session explored literary engagements with urban spaces, focusing particularly on Delhi as a site of memory, transformation, and affect.
Ekta Chauhan, drawing from Sheher Mein Gaon, reflected on Delhi’s urban villages, particularly Khidki Village. She examined the coexistence of rural sensibilities and urban pressures, complicating conventional notions of metropolitan modernity.
Author Aishwarya Jha, speaking on her book The Scent of Fallen Stars, traced shifts between the Delhi of the 1980s and the contemporary city. Her reflections illuminated the interplay of nostalgia, transformation, and lived memory.
Ananya Vajpeyi, referencing her workplace, foregrounded the emotional and poetic dimensions of urban existence. She suggested that writing the city is also an act of intimate remembrance, where personal affection and collective histories intersect.
The discussion addressed interiority and exteriority in urban life, the conceptualization of cities as both lived and imagined spaces, and the uncertain futures of urban villages amid rapid transformation.
Writing/Translating Women
Chair: Dr. Amina Hussain
The final session focused on translation, representation, and the politics of voice.
Amina Hussain initiated the discussion by foregrounding women’s writing as a long-contested site of epistemic legitimacy. She highlighted how women’s literary contributions have historically been sidelined.
Renowned Hindi author Mridula Garg emphasized that writing must create disturbance and discomfort. She challenged the assumption that women’s rebellion must necessarily be directed against the home, calling this a problematic reduction. On translation, she cautioned against imposing personal interpretations that distort the original text, while asserting that she writes not ‘as a woman writer’ but simply as ‘Mridula Garg’.
Arjumand Ara examined representations of women in adab and history. She invoked historical instances of women asserting political agency and cited voices such as Rashidun Nisa, who urged women to learn to write to claim authority. Through references to literary figures and narratives of cross-cultural subjugation, she demonstrated that women’s oppression is not monolithic but layered across class, culture, and history.
Deeba Zafir highlighted intersectionality in women’s writing, especially in Dalit feminist narratives. She discussed ‘writings from the margins’, and the formation of alternative canons, raising concerns about translator bias and the pressures of publishing in English. She emphasized that invisibilization of identity is neither possible nor ethical, urging authors to acknowledge their privileges.
Firdous Azmat Siddiqui discussed Shorfa patriarchy and its impact on Muslim women’s mobility and representation. Drawing from her works Rind and Zindaan, she challenged stereotypical portrayals of Muslim women solely as victims and foregrounded their complexity, agency, and participation in the freedom struggle, particularly in Allahabad.
In her concluding remarks, Amina Hussain distilled key takeaways: writing should unsettle; the home need not be a trap; and marginality must be portrayed with sensitivity and nuance. The panel agreed that while translators must avoid imposing their frameworks, translation inevitably carries interpretive limits and can sometimes prompt authors to rethink their own work.
Conclusion
The symposium concluded with a Vote of Thanks delivered by Amina Hussain. Gratitude was extended to Professor Mazhar Asif (Vice Chancellor, Jamia Millia Islamia), Professor Mahtab Alam Rizwi (Registrar, Jamia Millia Islamia), Chandra Chari (Founder Editor, The Book Review), and Professor Nishat Zaidi (Director, Sarojini Naidu Centre for Women’s Studies, Jamia Millia Islamia), along with faculty members, staff, and students whose efforts ensured the programme’s success.
‘Writing, Reviewing, Translating: Women, Words and Worlds’ emerged as a vibrant intellectual forum that moved beyond celebratory gestures toward critical engagement. Across sessions, participants collectively reaffirmed that women’s writing is not peripheral but foundational to literary cultures, and that reviewing and translation remain powerful acts of dialogue, preservation and transformation.
*Report prepared by students of Sarojini Naidu Centre for Women’s Studies, Jamia Millia Islamia.