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Cast Me Out if You Will
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Lalithambika Antherjanam

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Gita Krishnankutty

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Cast Me Out If You Will

Stories and Memoir
Lalithambika Antherjanam. Edited by Gita Krishnankutty.

Translated by Gita Krishnankutty. Foreword by Meena Alexander. Introduction by Gita Krishnankutty.

Antherjanam (1909-1985) was the first feminist of Kerala, at the tip of India's subcontinent, at the beginning of the 20th century. Her family was supportive, encouraging her education and writing, but as a Brahmin woman she was confined to seclusion until her marriage, fortunately arranged to a man sympathetic to her pursuit of women's rights. Antherjanam's stories offer clear-eyed and chilling testimony to the brutal oppression suffered by Indian women "cast out" if they dared to stray from enforced subjugation. At the same time, they celebrate their resilience, resistance, and vitality of these individuals. This volume includes a selection of her fiction and memoir, which captures early moments in India's nationalist and feminist movements.

"A most welcome publication. It is simultaneously a work of great cultural interest to scholars of social structure and feminism in the Indian subcontinent, a courageous exploration of women's rights, and a work of poignant literary merit."

—Sara Suleri Goodyear, professor of English, Yale University

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