Southasia Review of Books podcast #7: Neha Dixit on her history of a working-class Muslim woman in India
Welcome to the Southasia Review of Books Podcast from Himal Southasian, where we speak to celebrated authors and emerging literary voices from across Southasia. In this episode, Shwetha Srikanthan, assistant editor at Himal Southasian, speaks to Neha Dixit about her debut non-fiction book The Many Lives of Syeda X: The Story of an Unknown Indian.
Neha is an independent journalist based in New Delhi. She has covered politics, gender and social justice in print, TV and online media for 17 years. She reports for Al Jazeera, The Washington Post, the Caravan, The Wire and others. She has won over a dozen international and national journalism awards including One Young World Journalist of the Year Award in 2020, the International Press Freedom Award in 2019 from the Committee to Protect Journalists, the Chaameli Devi Jain Award for Outstanding Woman Journalist in 2017, among others.
In her book The Many Lives of Syeda X, Neha traces the life of one working-class Indian migrant woman, her friends and family over the course of thirty years, spanning from the early 1990s to the present day.
Syeda, a tenacious worker in the unorganised sector left Benares for Delhi with her husband and three small children in the aftermath of riots triggered by the demolition of the Babri Masjid in 1992. In Delhi, she settled into the life of a poor migrant, juggling over 50 types of unskilled work in three decades, earning very small sums in the process.
With research for close to a decade, this emphatic account draws readers into an understanding not just of the personal experiences of inequality but of the intractable reasons for its continuation. It is the story of untold millions and a searing account of life in modern India, shining a spotlight on the struggles and aspirations of its minorities and women.
Without any compromise to agency, the focus always remains on Syeda and the people around her, yet through their lives we gain a deeper understanding of religious majoritarianism and the darkest turns of India’s so-called “growth story”.
Episode notes:
The Many Lives of Syeda X : The Story of an Unknown Indian by Neha Dixit. Juggernaut (July 2024)
An unjust war: ‘Love Jihad’ and honour killings are strategies to quell challenges to caste, class and gender conventions. Neha Dixit for Himal Southasian
Caste Pride: Battles for Equality in Hindu India by Manoj Mitta. Context (April 2023)
Women Workers and Globalization: Emergent Contradictions in India by Indrani Mazumdar. Bhatkal & Sen (December 2007)
Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America by Barbara Ehrenreich. Picador (August 2011)
The Warp and the Weft: Community and Gender Identity Among the Weavers of Banaras by Vasanthi Raman. Routledge India (September 2010)
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Southasia Review of Books is a podcast and a monthly newsletter that threads together our latest reviews and literary essays, with curated reading lists and publishing news from around the region.
A new episode of the SaRB Podcast will be available once every four weeks. A special reading list curated by Neha Dixit will be featured in this month’s SaRB newsletter. You can subscribe to the newsletter here.
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