Sharmila Rege and the Marginalised Voices in Women Studies

Sharmila Rege, a pioneering feminist scholar, transformed women’s studies in India. This chapter honours her legacy by exploring her innovative approaches to global discrimination. Rege critiqued Western feminist frameworks for failing to capture the realities of Indian women, advocating for an intersectional feminism that considers caste, class, religion, and region. Her research highlighted caste as a system of oppression, especially impacting Dalit women. In influential works like Writing Caste/Writing Gender (2006) and Against the Madness of Manu (2013), Rege amplified marginalized women’s voices, confronting caste-based discrimination and Brahminical patriarchy, and revitalizing local knowledge through alternative historiography. Her lasting contributions continue to inspire feminist scholarship and activism worldwide.