Kalpana Kannabiran

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Kalpana Kannabiran
Kalpana Kannabiran.jpg
Kannabiran in 2021
Born1 December 1961
Known forAsmita Resource Centre for Women

NALSAR University of Law

Council for Social Development
Parents
  • K. G. Kannabiran (father)
  • Vasanth Kannabiran (mother)

Kalpana Kannabiran (born 1961) is an Indian sociologist, lawyer, human rights columnist, writer and editor based in Hyderabad, India. In March 2021, after a decade-long tenure, she retired from the post of Professor and Regional Director of the Council for Social Development, Southern Regional Centre, a research institute recognised by the Indian Council of Social Science Research. She is amongst the founding faculty of NALSAR University of Law, Hyderabad, and is a co-founder of the women's rights group, Asmita Resource Centre for Women, set up in 1991 in Hyderabad.  She was nominated as the Civil Society Advisory Governor for Asia by the Commonwealth Foundation, London in January 2020 for a term of two years.[1]

She has edited and authored twenty-one books[2] and close to a hundred essays,[3] apart from making regular contributions to the national press, online magazines and blogs.[4]

Kalpana's work has focused on sociology of law, historical sociology, social movements, disability rights, violence and gender studies, caste, indigenous/adivasi rights, jurisprudence, equality and anti-discrimination law etc.    

Early life and education[edit]

Kalpana Kannabiran was born on 1 December 1961 in Secunderabad. She completed her schooling from the St. George's Girls' Grammar School, Hyderabad, appearing for the first batch of ICSE Examination[5] in December 1975.

Thereafter, she studied Intermediate (Arts) at the RBVRR Women's College, Hyderabad[6] from 1976 to 1978, and obtained a B.A. Degree with a focus on Sociology, Economics and Geography from Nizam College, Osmania University,[7] in 1981. She completed her M.A. and M.Phil. in Sociology from University of Hyderabad[8] in 1983 and 1985 respectively, being a part of the third batch in the then newly established University. Alongside her B.A. and M.A., she obtained a Diploma and Advanced Diploma in Russian with distinction from the Central Institute of English and Foreign Languages, Hyderabad (now English and Foreign Languages University)[9] in 1981 and 1982 respectively.

In 1993, after having worked under the supervision of Professor Yogendra Singh, she was awarded PhD in Sociology from the prestigious Jawaharlal Nehru University.  In 1999, she obtained LLB degree from the Sultan ul Uloom College of Law, Hyderabad.[10] She also holds an LLM in Jurisprudence from the Post Graduate College of Law, Osmania University.[11]

Personal life[edit]

Kalpana Kannabiran is the second of three children of the noted civil liberties advocate K.G. Kannabiran, and feminist poet and writer Vasanth Kannabiran,[12] one of the 1000 women worldwide nominated for a shared Nobel Peace Prize in 2005.  Her sister Dr. Chitra Kannabiran (b. 1960) is a molecular biologist based in Hyderabad,[13] and her brother Arvind Kannabiran (b. 1966) is a cinematographer based in Mumbai/Hyderabad.[14]

She is married to Raj Mohan Tella, an independent advertising, branding and communications expert, formerly Senior Creative Director of DDB Mudra Group, a position he held for 17 years from 1989 to 2006.[15]  She has two daughters – Ramya Kannabiran Tella, who has a PhD in geography from King's College London,[16] and Keertana Kannabiran Tella, who has a Masters in Development Studies from IIT, Hyderabad.[17]

Career[edit]

After obtaining her doctorate degree in sociology from the Jawaharlal Nehru University, from 1994 to 1999, Kalpana Kannabiran served as the Director of Research and Legal Outreach at the Asmita Resource Centre for Women in Secunderabad where she provided pro-bono legal counselling to women victims of domestic violence and women in difficult situations. Even after leaving her full-time position in 1999, Kannabiran continued to be actively involved with Asmita, designing the organisation's legal aid, strategic litigation, training and capacity building programmes.

In July 1999, she joined the NALSAR University of Law at Hyderabad as a founding faculty. As a Professor of Sociology, Kannabiran taught undergraduate and postgraduate courses in sociology, labour law and criminal law; and was a part of the team that introduced and taught the Masters Programme (LLM) in Human Rights.

From March 2011 until March 2021, Kannabiran served as a Professor and Regional Director at the Council for Social Development, Southern Regional Centre ('CSD'). In 2012, she started the PhD programme in social sciences and women's studies in collaboration with the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Hyderabad and Mumbai.

In the year 2007–08, she was invited as a member of the Expert Group on the Equal Opportunity Commission ('EOC') constituted by the Ministry of Minority Affairs of the Government of India in order to prepare a structure for the working of proposed EOC in India.[18]

In 2007 and 2014, when India had to submit its national compliance reports to United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women, and, Kannabiran as a part of the National Alliance of Women, edited the two consecutive NGO Alternative Reports – in 2007[19] and 2014[20] submitted to the Committee at this time. The recommendations made in these two reports were crucial in informing the stance taken by the Committee in its Concluding Comments.[21]

Kalpana Kannabiran submitted recommendations to the Parliamentary Standing Committee ('PSC') on the Persons with Disabilities Bill before the PSC session chaired by Member of Parliament Ramesh Bias during its review conducted on 3 December 2014. She also presented her analysis of the law on sexual assaults before the Justice Verma Committee, whose recommendations ultimately led to the enactment of the Criminal Law (Amendment) Act, 2013.  In 2004, she made recommendations to the PSC led by Member of Parliament Arjun Singh on the enactment of the Protection of Women Against Domestic Violence Act. Kalpana is a life member of Indian Association for Women's Studies and has been elected to the position of Joint Secretary (1996-1998) and General Secretary (1998-2000). She has been active in the International Sociological Association, and was the Chair of Research Committee 32: Women in Society (2002-2006) and a member of the executive committee from 2014 to 2018.[22]

Major Works[edit]

De-Eroticizing Assault: Essays on Modesty, Honour and Power (Stree 2002, with Vasanth Kannabiran)[23][edit]

The essays in this book seek to map out and understand the effect of hegemonies that structure gender relations in the society by looking at the social, cultural and political forces, which interact together to produce these relations of power. In praise of the book's central thesis, Zillah Eisenstein, author of Capitalist Patriarchy and the Case for Socialist Feminism pertinently remarks in the blurb as follows –  “De-Eroticizing Assault: Essays on Modesty, Honour and Power” is a must-read for anyone wanting a more specific lens on how gender oppression forms part of the new globalisation and right-wing nationalisms.  Kalpana and Vasanth repeatedly give us new insights on the complex and changing relations on power expressed in the arenas of sexual exploitation. Their discussions of rape, modesty and the state through the visor of caste and class are truly brilliant.  Feminists across the globe should give thanks for this generous gift".

Veena Poonacha captures the essence of the book's contribution in her review as under – "Capturing the complexity and the dilemmas of the times, the essays give us insights into the theory and praxis of the women's movement from the south. Located in Andhra Pradesh - a state with a long history of radical politics – the essays delineate feminist politics through the experiences of those who were in the forefront of the struggle".[24]

Further, Aneela Zeb Babar in her review of the book as published in the journal Gender, Technology and Development remarks that "this is a book that students of gender studies should make an essential part of their collection, as it brings in women’s activism with a strong theoretical critique-a task few of us can accomplish so admirably".[25]

Violence of Normal Times: Essays on Women’s Lived Realities (Women Unlimited 2005)[26][edit]

In this book edited by her, Kalpana canvasses the continuum of systemic violence faced by women in India in their day-to-day lives, in both private spaces such as one's home and in public spaces such as courtrooms meant to uphold and give effect to their rights. The issues in this volume are analysed in a four-fold manner – firstly, as first-hand experiences of women victims; secondly, as concerns that ought to be appropriately articulated in feminist debates; thirdly, by identifying the avenues for collective organisation to raise one's voice on issues of common concern; and, finally, by understanding and responding to the reception (both positive and negative) of such articulation by instrumentalities of a patriarchal state and by the formal structures of law.

Geetha Ramaseshan in her appraisal of the book writes in The Book Review Volume XXX Number 5 (May 2006) as under – "The book in review addresses a slice of the kinds of violence faced by women. With a collection of ten essays and a rich introduction by the editor, the volume traces the development of a feminist understanding of violence against women across various fields. It also represents the range of writing that has been generated by the politics of women’s movements in India. The essays cover a wide range topics starting from the traditional justice systems in India and gender relations in Adivasi communities, to women working in Export Processing Zones, lesbian women, women who are targets of communal hatred and the Gujarat Catastrophe. The essays explore various disciplinary standpoints in different locales. While much written themes such as dowry have been left out, the existing themes in the volume add a lot to the study of this subject and actually force a re-examination of the ways in which violence has been welded to the question of rights. The themes have been chosen with great care and include many issues that do not find a part in mainstream discourse."

Tools of Justice: Non-Discrimination and the Indian Constitution (Routledge 2012)[27][edit]

Being one of Kalpana's most influential works, Tools of Justice was selected as one of the five titles worldwide to be discussed at the Author-meets-Critics Session of the World Congress of Sociology held at Yokohama in July 2014.[28]

In praise of the significant contributions made by the book to the study of anti-discrimination law in India,  Justice ZM Yacoob, a former judge of the Constitutional Court of South Africa wrote in The Hindu as under – "The general approach in the thesis is to emphasise the distinction between constitutional morality and societal morality. That, as I understand it, is a distinction between the nature of society, its value system, morality, well-being, inclusiveness and peacefulness, contemplated by the Constitution, on the one hand, and societal morality, on the other. The latter is postulated as a society based on horrendous and systematic discrimination and violence against, and the exclusion of, vulnerable people and communities from the "dominant" mainstream. Ms Kannabiran's work is concerned with the complex, difficult and obstacle ridden route from societal morality to the achievement of the constitutional morality... [A] careful study of this fascinating work would enhance an understanding of the position on the ground, the dire need for change and the way in which this is to be done."[29]

Elucidating on the implications and importance of the central thesis of Tools of Justice, Senior Advocate at the Supreme Court of India, Colin Gonsalves writes in Social Change as under – "The central theme of her project is to show that Article 21 of the Constitution, which guarantees protection of life and liberty, is not applicable only to state custody and civil liberties. Life and liberty are inherently and profoundly interconnected with Article 15 and the prohibition of discrimination on grounds of religion, race, caste, sex or place of birth. Describing liberty as 'the Siamese twin of non-discrimination', the book explores the application of this interrelationship in the areas of disability rights, Dalit rights, adivasi rights, religious minority rights, women's rights and sexuality minority rights... This is a superb, path-breaking study and a must for all college students, academics, activists and members of the legal profession".[30]

In his review of the book Ranabir Samaddar, a noted political scientist and founder-editor of the journal, Refugee Watch remarks that – “Tools of Justice will be treated as a profound book – a difficult book, demanding our attention on the several cases and the jurisprudence built around them which she cites, but in the end rewarding for the patience one will need to read through this massive book. For those who study citizenship it will be even more rewarding as the book demonstrates that there is no complete separation between the citizen and the non-citizen, or the entitled and the non-entitled, but like the disabled, the adivasi, the dalit, the individual of a religious minority, the woman, and the sexually marginalised, they are forever citizens trying to escape their non-citizen status. Through struggles as these, the society – their societies – becomes increasingly political. The condition of such trans formation is not in sidestepping the problematic of law, but in encountering law, unsettling it forever in newer imaginations".[31]

Women and Law: Critical Feminist Perspectives (Sage 2014)[32][edit]

This collection of essays edited by Kalpana seeks to critically evaluate the scope traditionally reserved for the field of women and law, where scholars are expected to engage in research concerning the efficacy of laws enacted for the benefit of women. Aiming to encourage inter-disciplinary conversations between lawyers, activists and academicians, this book highlights the fundamental concerns surrounding the way in which women as a group have been conceptualised in the law, and, it further maps out the manner in which women have engaged in debates with areas of law not specifically reserved for them.

Ved Kumari,[33][34] Vice Chancellor of the National Law University, Orissa,[35] in her review of the book notes as under – "This is a very useful collection of essays providing critical feminist insights in the field of law… It includes 11 essays written on a range of subjects concerning women, focusing on a history of the making of laws, the absence of laws, the discriminatory application of laws, trends and future prospects, and judicial responses. It also covers some uncharted subjects like state violence and women…I recommend this book as a basic reading for all pursuing women’s studies, especially in the realm of law". (Contributions to Indian Sociology 49, 3 (2015): 421–423)[36]

Violence Studies (Oxford University Press 2016)[37][edit]

This edited volume provides a fresh perspective on the way in which violence that we encounter in our daily lives ought to be conceptualised. It presents a nuanced interpretation of the practices of violence, wherein it is understood as a systemic, structural experience that is deeply embedded in the way people are forced to lead their lives. Drawing upon the Indian experiences of violence across different sites including but not limited to the family, state, caste, labour, sexuality, law etc., this book makes important contributions to the field of violence studies by collating novel methodological and conceptual perspectives on the manner in which issues relating to violence are understood and analysed by scholars.

Noted legal scholar Upendra Baxi, in his insightful assessment of the book notes in its blurb as under –: "This rich work addresses the causes, careers, and consequences of the lifeworld of violence—of institutional, insurgent, and everyday violent forms—in modern India. It helps us grasp, among the debris of violence, the residues of justice amidst, and in the aftermath of, this lifeworld. And it bravely depicts and analyses the surplus violence of 'development' or the cruel dichotomies of development and destruction. Whether or not one agrees with the conclusions of eminent contributors is not so crucial as the structures of engagement that this work inspires, a rare call to take violence in all its forms seriously as a way of taking core human rights seriously."

Veena Das captures the significance of the volume in the following words in the blurb – "The Violence Studies volume brings together some of the best scholarship on the contours of politics in India seen through the lens of violence. The 'Introduction' to the volume by Kalpana Kannabiran provides a very important frame with which to connect institutional violence with the dispersal of violence in the fabric of the social. A very valuable resource for teaching and research".

Re-Presenting Feminist Methodologies: Interdisciplinary Explorations (Routledge 2017,  Co-editor:  Padmini Swaminathan)[38][edit]

"This book tracks the trajectory of gender in the social sciences and humanities through an exploration of the challenges and contradictions that confront contemporary feminist analysis as well as future directions. Drawing on research in India, the essays in the volume engage with the subject in imaginative ways, each one going beyond documenting the persistence of gender inequality, instead raising new questions and dilemmas while unravelling the complexities of the terrain. They also interrogate extant knowledge that has 'constructed' women as 'agentless' over the years, incapable of contesting or transforming social orders – by taking a close look at gendered decision-making processes and outcomes, sex for pleasure, health care practices, content and context of formal schooling or the developmental state that 'mainstreams' gender. Do existing feminist methodologies enable the understanding of emerging themes as online sexual politics, transnational surrogacy or masculinist 'anti-feminist' sensibilities? The feminist methodologies delineated here will provide readers with a toolkit to assess the criticality of gender as well as its nuances. The work foregrounds the importance of intersectionality and builds a case for context-specific articulations of gender and societies that destabilise binary universals".[39]

Gender Regimes and the Politics of Privacy: A Feminist Re-Reading of Puttaswamy vs. Union of India (Zubaan, 2021, with Swethaa S. Ballakrishnen)[40][edit]

"In 2017 an all-male nine-judge bench of the Indian Supreme Court delivered the landmark Justice K.S. Puttaswamy & Ors v. Union of India judgment on privacy. In this book, the authors look at the embodiment of privacy in the judgment to examine the ways in which the bench articulated the question of gender. They argue that while Puttaswamy has been central in clarifying the extent of (and extensions to) the right to privacy as a fundamental right, the discourse on this has long existed in India – in various gendered social movements, policy-making around women’s rights, feminist historiography, and discourses on the family, sexual rights, autonomy and choice (in and outside courts), dignity, and critiques of surveillance – and provides an important context within which the judgment becomes especially relevant.

The authors unpack the underlying logics of the right to privacy within the default prism of the notional identity of the normative household and offer an entry point to re-read existing jurisprudence on rape, sexual assault, sexual harassment, atrocity, and sexual violence and humiliation under conditions of mass violence. They suggest a springboard for the possibility of theorising personhood within the right to privacy, arguing that while the judgment sets up radical precedent on the questions of sexual minorities, it remains trapped in a reductionist reading of the female body within heteronormativity".[41]

Awards and achievements[edit]

  1. Rockefeller Humanist-in-Residence Fellowship, Women's Studies Program, Hunter College, City University of New York in the year 1992–93.[42]
  2. V.K.R.V. Rao Prize in Social Sciences awarded by the Institute for Social and Economic Change and the Indian Council of Social Science Research for the year 2003, for the subject area Social Aspects of Law.[43]
  3. Amartya Sen Award for Distinguished Social Scientists for the discipline of Law in 2012.[44]

Bibliography[edit]

  • www.kalpanakannabiran.com


References[edit]

  1. "Civil Society Advisory Governors: new appointments". Commonwealth Foundation. 30 March 2020. Retrieved 23 August 2021.
  2. "Books – Kalpana Kannabiran". Retrieved 23 August 2021.
  3. "Essays – Kalpana Kannabiran". Retrieved 23 August 2021.
  4. "Media – Kalpana Kannabiran". Retrieved 23 August 2021.
  5. "CISCE". cisce.org. Retrieved 23 August 2021.
  6. "RBVRR Womens College". Retrieved 23 August 2021.
  7. "Nizam College". nizamcollege.ac.in. Retrieved 23 August 2021.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  8. "University of Hyderabad | India's Institution of Eminence". Retrieved 23 August 2021.
  9. "EFLU". efluniversity.ac.in. Retrieved 23 August 2021.
  10. "Sultan-Ul-Uloom College of Law". sulawcollege.edu.in. Retrieved 23 August 2021.
  11. "Post Graduate College of Law". osmania.ac.in. Retrieved 23 August 2021.
  12. "Vasanth Kannabiran (India) | WikiPeaceWomen – English". wikipeacewomen.org. Retrieved 23 August 2021.
  13. "LV Prasad Eye Institute - Our Team". lvpei.org. Retrieved 23 August 2021.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  14. "Arvind Kannabiran". School of Media Studies. Retrieved 23 August 2021.
  15. "Dr Raj Mohan Tella". LinkedIn.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  16. "Knowledge, territoriality and statecraft - Research Portal, King's College, London". kclpure.kcl.ac.uk. Retrieved 23 August 2021.
  17. "Keertana Kannabiran Tella". sites.google.com. Retrieved 23 August 2021.
  18. "Equal Opportunity Commission: What, Why and How?" (PDF). Ministry of Minority Affairs, Government of India. Retrieved 23 August 2021.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  19. "India Second NGO Shadow Report on CEDAW" (PDF). Partners For Law in Development. Retrieved 23 August 2021.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  20. "Executive Summary of the IV & V NGO Alternative Report On CEDAW 2014" (PDF). United Nations Human Rights Treaty Bodies. Retrieved 23 August 2021.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  21. UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (2 February 2007). "Concluding comments of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women". {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  22. "Past Executive Committees". isa-sociology.org. Retrieved 23 August 2021.
  23. Kannabiran, Kalpana; Kannabiran, Vasanth (1 January 2002). De-Eroticizing Assault: Essays on Modesty, Honour and Power. ASIN 8185604525.
  24. Poonacha, Veena (2003). Kannabiran, Kalpana; Kannabiran, Vasanth (eds.). "Challenging Caste and Gender Ideologies". Economic and Political Weekly. 38 (48): 5047–5049. ISSN 0012-9976. JSTOR 4414340.
  25. Babar, Aneela Zeb (1 November 2002). "Review Article : Kalpana Kannabiran and Vasanth Kannabiran, De-Eroticizing Assault: Essays on Modesty, Honour and Power. Calcutta: Stree; 2002; 267 pages; INR 500 (hardcover)". Gender, Technology and Development. 6 (3): 450–454. doi:10.1177/097185240200600309. ISSN 0971-8524.
  26. Kannabiran, Kalpana, ed. (1 January 2006). The Violence of Normal Times: Essays on Women's Lived Realities. ASIN 8188965065.
  27. "Tools of Justice: Non-discrimination and the Indian Constitution". Routledge & CRC Press. Retrieved 23 August 2021.
  28. "Tools of Justice – Kalpana Kannabiran". Retrieved 23 August 2021.
  29. Yacoob, Z. M. (30 December 2011). "Societal morality to constitutional morality". The Hindu. ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 23 August 2021.
  30. Gonsalves, Colin (1 March 2013). "Book Review: Tools of Justice: Non-Discrimination and the Indian Constitution". Social Change. 43 (1): 137–140. doi:10.1177/0049085713475737. ISSN 0049-0857. S2CID 147601875.
  31. "The Legal Imagination for the Struggle for Rights". Economic and Political Weekly: 7–8. 5 June 2015.
  32. "Women and Law". SAGE Publications Inc. 22 August 2021. Retrieved 23 August 2021.
  33. "Ved Kumari". scholar.google.co.in. Retrieved 23 August 2021.
  34. "Ved Kumari". LinkedIn. Retrieved 23 August 2021.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  35. "VICE – CHANCELLOR". NLUO. Retrieved 23 August 2021.
  36. Kumari, Ved (2015). "Kalpana Kannabiran, ed. 2014. Women and Law: Critical Feminist Perspectives. New Delhi: SAGE Publications. DOI: 10.1177/0069966715592781" (PDF). Contributions to Indian Sociology. 49: 421–423. doi:10.1177/0069966715592781. S2CID 152249285 – via SAGE.
  37. Violence Studies. Oxford India Studies in Contemporary Society. Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press. 28 September 2016. ISBN 978-0-19-946482-1.
  38. "Re-Presenting Feminist Methodologies: Interdisciplinary Explorations". Routledge & CRC Press. Retrieved 23 August 2021.
  39. "Re-Presenting Feminist Methodologies: Interdisciplinary Explorations". Routledge & CRC Press. Retrieved 23 August 2021.
  40. "Gender Regimes and the Politics of Privacy: A Feminist Re-Reading of Puttaswamy vs. Union of India – Zubaan". Retrieved 23 August 2021.
  41. "Gender Regimes and the Politics of Privacy: A Feminist Re-Reading of Puttaswamy vs. Union of India – Zubaan". Retrieved 23 August 2021.
  42. "Rockefeller Humanist-in-Residence Fellowship, 1992-93 – Kalpana Kannabiran". Retrieved 23 August 2021.
  43. "VKRV Rao Prize". isec.ac.in. Retrieved 23 August 2021.
  44. "Six social scientists get first Amartya Sen awards". The Indian Express. 7 May 2013. Retrieved 23 August 2021.