‘A trenchant and invaluable people’s history of the bottom of the pyramid in the world’s most populous nation.’ Financial Times
What does the life of an ordinary working-class, Muslim woman look and feel like in modern India? Award-winning journalist Neha Dixit traces the story of one such faceless Indian woman, from the early 1990s to the present day. What emerges is a picture of a life lived under constant corrosive tension.
Syeda X left Varanasifor Delhi with her young family in the aftermath of riots and communal violence in the early ’90s. In Delhi, she settled into the life of a poor migrant, juggling multiple jobs a day – from trimming the loose threads of jeans to trimming the stalks off raisins, and from shelling almonds to making tea strainers. Syeda has held over 50 different jobs in 30 years, earning paltry sums in the process. And if she ever took a day off, her job would be lost to another faceless migrant.
Researched for close to a decade, in this book, we meet an unforgettable cast of characters: a rickshaw driver in Chandni Chowk who ends up tragically dead in a terrorist blast; a doctor who gets arrested for pre-natal sex determination; a fanatic gaurakshak (cow-protector) whose sister elopes with Syeda’s son; and policemen who delight in beating young Muslim men. Written with empathy and deep insight, this book is a portal to a harsh, hidden world. It is the story of untold millions and a searing account of urban life in New India.
”A trenchant and invaluable people’s history of the bottom of the pyramid in the world’s most populous nation” – Financial Times
”In the climate currently pervading India under Modi’s decade-long rule, Dixit’s book is a brave and damning indictment of Hindutva fascism that shines a crucial spotlight on the ordinary lives that continue to suffer its horrifying impact. It is also an unapologetically feminist celebration of their daily existence” – Jacobin
Neha Dixit is an independent journalist based in New Delhi. She has covered politics, gender and social justice for seventeen years. Most of her work is investigative, narrative and long-form. She has reported for Al Jazeera, The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Caravan, The Wire, and other notable publications. She has won over a dozen international and national journalism awards, including the One Young World Journalist of the Year Award 2020, the International Press Freedom Award 2019 from the Committee to Protect Journalists, the Chameli Devi Jain Award for Outstanding Woman Journalist 2017, the Kurt Schork Award in International Journalism 2014, the Lorenzo Natali Prize for Journalism 2011 from the European Commission, among others.
