<p>As I began to look back at my life in order to write my Memoir, I found that my roots — the family or the members of the family from where I emerge were extraordinary, liberal and interesting people. In a sense that would surprise readers as I am discussed or talked about as somebody who has pioneered her life and who broke away from everything but when you really look back it was not such a big deal. </p>.<p>So when you read my Memoirs, especially the first few chapters, you will see what a progressive man my father was — taking not only his daughters but also his wife, his mother-in-law, his sister-in-law out on a tour as a government official, not leaving anyone behind. He was so different from other men of his generation in that he was always with my mother whether he was in English speaking parties or whether he went to America, he was proud of her and she was his partner — which was very unusual in those times when marriage happened between a girl who was about 9 years of age and the boy was about 16 years of age and this is what happened in my parent’s case. </p>.<p>But what is also something that began to emerge, remember that as you write your biography, you’re trying to remember the past and therefore you begin to remember and identify issues which may not have otherwise struck your mind. But then I recognised that while there was that progressiveness in the choices that my father made of his life, the traditions to which we belonged like girls marrying around puberty, like people marrying within their own caste, marrying within a certain age and so on, all that came back with full force suffocating one’s own desire for shaping one’s life. So this is the contradiction that I learnt.</p>.<p>Having said that I must also confess that to reach another domain both in terms of family and kin and in terms of moving from an academic life into a public policy life, does require not bravado but effort and courage, I would say! I also think I had a gift in that, intuitively I had felt that my real passion is to bring justice in the world. This notion of justice is mesmerising — you get involved in every form of injustice that you perceive. I first perceived the injustice in the way we counted workers amongst women. Women’s work, if it is weeding the fields or threshing the sheets of wheat was not considered “work”. They were acting as if they were processing after what men had done. Weeding, which is so important for the productivity of the crops, was not considered “work” so there was neither a wage nor recognition in data.</p>.<p> So one begins to feel that recognition of the role that women play both at home and also outside both in terms of monetising it and in terms of exhibiting it is something that needs to be sheltered, valued and strengthened and that came through my research. And that research at that time was new for India, I suspect because even before I could open my eyes, I was drawn into the “world space” i.e., firstly UN and then from UN to all the other UN agencies and then to the intellectual for, that was the door opening for me to recognise women’s economic contribution in our statistics. Beyond that how it happened I do not know but I did have a strong feeling against colonisation even though I was young — I did recognise it as I grew up I was resentful of the fact that all our knowledge, all our definitions, all our understanding of ourselves came from European intellectualism.</p>.<p>So the idea of affirming our intellect, our definitions, our description of our phenomenon was the other ball that I started rolling within the women’s group that I knew which again led to my being included in the South Commission which was a very prestigious global set up and then recognition here and there for having affirmed that the former colonies had wanted to define their own economic language and their own economic policy.</p>.<p>So in one sense, I would like to leave this comment with the suggestion that we grow, we reach, we share only if you open boxes. My temptation was to open the box, for example, my most recent venture has been to show that the terminology used in the English language to describe ‘Economic phenomena of the South’ is not only erroneous but misleading. I call it the ‘Vocabulary of Oppression’.</p>.<p>So in a way, therefore, one would say that living life fully with one’s eyes open helps one recognise who we are and what we have to fight for — that sums up my life. </p>.<p>(<span class="italic"><em>Devaki Jain has recently published ‘The Brass Notebook: A Memoir’ with Speaking Tiger</em>.</span>)</p>
<p>As I began to look back at my life in order to write my Memoir, I found that my roots — the family or the members of the family from where I emerge were extraordinary, liberal and interesting people. In a sense that would surprise readers as I am discussed or talked about as somebody who has pioneered her life and who broke away from everything but when you really look back it was not such a big deal. </p>.<p>So when you read my Memoirs, especially the first few chapters, you will see what a progressive man my father was — taking not only his daughters but also his wife, his mother-in-law, his sister-in-law out on a tour as a government official, not leaving anyone behind. He was so different from other men of his generation in that he was always with my mother whether he was in English speaking parties or whether he went to America, he was proud of her and she was his partner — which was very unusual in those times when marriage happened between a girl who was about 9 years of age and the boy was about 16 years of age and this is what happened in my parent’s case. </p>.<p>But what is also something that began to emerge, remember that as you write your biography, you’re trying to remember the past and therefore you begin to remember and identify issues which may not have otherwise struck your mind. But then I recognised that while there was that progressiveness in the choices that my father made of his life, the traditions to which we belonged like girls marrying around puberty, like people marrying within their own caste, marrying within a certain age and so on, all that came back with full force suffocating one’s own desire for shaping one’s life. So this is the contradiction that I learnt.</p>.<p>Having said that I must also confess that to reach another domain both in terms of family and kin and in terms of moving from an academic life into a public policy life, does require not bravado but effort and courage, I would say! I also think I had a gift in that, intuitively I had felt that my real passion is to bring justice in the world. This notion of justice is mesmerising — you get involved in every form of injustice that you perceive. I first perceived the injustice in the way we counted workers amongst women. Women’s work, if it is weeding the fields or threshing the sheets of wheat was not considered “work”. They were acting as if they were processing after what men had done. Weeding, which is so important for the productivity of the crops, was not considered “work” so there was neither a wage nor recognition in data.</p>.<p> So one begins to feel that recognition of the role that women play both at home and also outside both in terms of monetising it and in terms of exhibiting it is something that needs to be sheltered, valued and strengthened and that came through my research. And that research at that time was new for India, I suspect because even before I could open my eyes, I was drawn into the “world space” i.e., firstly UN and then from UN to all the other UN agencies and then to the intellectual for, that was the door opening for me to recognise women’s economic contribution in our statistics. Beyond that how it happened I do not know but I did have a strong feeling against colonisation even though I was young — I did recognise it as I grew up I was resentful of the fact that all our knowledge, all our definitions, all our understanding of ourselves came from European intellectualism.</p>.<p>So the idea of affirming our intellect, our definitions, our description of our phenomenon was the other ball that I started rolling within the women’s group that I knew which again led to my being included in the South Commission which was a very prestigious global set up and then recognition here and there for having affirmed that the former colonies had wanted to define their own economic language and their own economic policy.</p>.<p>So in one sense, I would like to leave this comment with the suggestion that we grow, we reach, we share only if you open boxes. My temptation was to open the box, for example, my most recent venture has been to show that the terminology used in the English language to describe ‘Economic phenomena of the South’ is not only erroneous but misleading. I call it the ‘Vocabulary of Oppression’.</p>.<p>So in a way, therefore, one would say that living life fully with one’s eyes open helps one recognise who we are and what we have to fight for — that sums up my life. </p>.<p>(<span class="italic"><em>Devaki Jain has recently published ‘The Brass Notebook: A Memoir’ with Speaking Tiger</em>.</span>)</p>
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