Archiving women

Women’s Archives had not figured in anybody’s plans either in India or abroad then,but the three kept saying,“Some dreams are like stubborn foetuses in the mind refusing to die; waiting for life to be breathed into them.” Setting up Sound and Picture Archives for Research on Women (SPARROW) has been one such dream.

And now,the members have organized a charity raffle,Song of Sorrow,Songs of Joy,at Bhau Daji Lad Museum to raise a corpus fund for the group,founded in 1988. The aim of Dr CS Lakshmi,Dr Neera Desai and Dr Maithreyi Krishna Raj was a trust to build women’s archives with oral history,print and visual material. Since then,it has collected a lot of material on women’s lives and history and disseminated knowledge to colleges,groups and institutes in innovative ways.

Over the years,director Dr Lakshmi has seen the organisation operate out of her bedroom and a rented garage. “From 1988 to 1992,we pooled in our own money and worked. SPARROW was in my bedroom then. We organised a painting exhibition in 1992,and were able to get some funds to start with. We started getting regular funds only in 1997.”

Initially,the group had to make its need felt but today their rich resource is useful to many organisations. But to realise their unique idea was not easy. “Initially,people did not understand oral history and one Deputy Secretary of Education asked me what it meant. When I told him what it was,he asked,‘You mean it is chit-chat of women?’ It was also difficult to rent out a space. Women normally are supposed to run tailoring classes,tuition classes or brothels! The agent who took me around had to tell the house owners that I was a Madrasi but quite a decent woman.”

Dr Lakshmi doesn’t need anyone else to stress the relevance of archiving women’s history. “It would be total ignorance of women’s history in our country if we do not record it. Many think that women’s archives are not part of development. If women’s histories and voices are silenced,policies cannot be made to bring about positive change¿ By recording a person we are also creating history. It gives satisfaction that I am participating in history. If a woman divulges her very personal and painful aspects of life and put forward a condition not to share certain sections for future research till she dies,we do not share them.”  

Their oral history recordings range from the experiences of Dalit women in the Ambedkar movement,of those who participated in freedom movement and their life after as a freedom fighter,to those in progressive movements and women artists. Besides these,they also have digital video recordings,photography projects,films on past and current social issues surrounding women.

Mumbai’s painful experiences of communal violence,and the influence of popular Indian culture and its representation of women have also been subjects of their workshops.

Now,their goldmine of history has a limited showcasing online but there are more than 12,000 photographs,5,969 media slides,609 documentaries in seven languages,585 popular films in 11 languages,4,700 books in 12 languages,3,500 journal articles in seven languages,17,500 newspaper clippings in eight languages,1,925 brochures in nine languages,3,031 print visuals,1,362 posters,118 calendars,8,000 cartoons by Maya Kamath,649 music audio cassettes and CDs and 1,093 oral history recordings.

There are as many as 15 dedicated individuals who work cheerfully to keep alive certain voices from the past,as well as those from the present that are often muted.

Around 50 women artists have donated their intimate art works — water colours and artists’ books — for the art raffle. “It is to build a much-needed corpus,some of which we have utilised in buying space for the organisation. The corpus will help us to continue to function. Art Raffle is only the first one in a series of events planned to raise a corpus,” said Dr Lakshmi.

It also has an ambitious vision for the future,which includes plans for an electronic museum. “My dream is to build a women electronic museum,where films can be screened,videos and photos can be shared. In short,history available in different ways.”