Motherwit, Budhini and Breast Stories: This August, read the women who refuse to be lost in translation

In a new literary collection, translated works from Marathi, Bengali and Malayalam languages are brought together to showcase the power of translation in expanding reading horizons and perspectives. The selection includes a collection of short stories titled "Motherwit" by Urmila Pawar, whose collection explores themes of caste oppression, family pressures, and misogyny.

Pawar's use of sharp, sometimes abrasive language disturbs stereotypes of the soft-spoken woman writer. The stories range from "Mother" to "The Cycle of Dhamma", all written from the perspective of Dalit women. Another selection is "Breast Stories," a collection of three stories by Mahasweta Devi, translated by Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak.

The stories delve into topics of labor, exploitation, violence and resistance, moving the breast from its usual associations with beauty, sexuality and motherhood. Lastly, "Budhini" is a novel by Sarah Joseph, translated by her daughter Sangeetha Sreenivasan. The novel recounts the life of Budhini Mejhan, a fifteen-year-old Santal girl who became a symbol of displacement and indigenous identity after welcoming Jawaharlal Nehru at the inauguration of the Panchet Dam in 1959.

Through Rupi Murmu, a journalist, Joseph seeks to recover Budhini's story, questioning the human costs of development and modernisation.