Urvashi Butalia

Urvashi Butalia studied at University of London, University of Delhi and Miranda House. The recorded working language is English, Punjabi and Hindi. Places of work recorded in the authority are Delhi and Greater London. Distinctions recorded are Padma Shri in literature and education and Goethe Medal.

• Honorific Prefix — Padma Shri • Name — Urvashi Butalia • Born — 1952 • Birthplace — Ambala, Haryana, India • Education — * University of Delhi • University of London • Occupation — Publisher and historian Co-founder of Kali for Women (1984) Founder of Zubaan Books (2003) • Relatives — Pankaj Butalia • Website — zubaanbooks.com

Butalia was born in Ambala, Punjab, into a progressive and atheist family of Punjabi heritage. Her mother, Subhadra Butalia, ran a counselling centre for women.[4] Butalia has one older sister, Bela, and two brothers, Pankaj and Rahul. Pankaj Butalia is a left-wing documentary filmmaker best known for a documentary on the miserable conditions of widows living in Vrindavan. Butalia earned a BA in literature from Miranda House, Delhi University, in 1971, a master's degree in literature from Delhi University in 1973, and a master's in South Asian studies from the University of London in 1977. She speaks Hindi, Punjabi, Bengali, English, Italian, and French.[5]

• Illustration — Urvashi Butalia in October 2016 Butalia started her career working with Oxford University Press in Delhi. She worked for a year at their Oxford headquarters, before moving briefly to London-based Zed Books as an editor in 1982. She then returned to India and, along with Ritu Menon, set up a feminist publishing house, Kali for Women, in 1984. Butalia for the Young India Fellowship at Ashoka University. Butalia's main areas of interest are the Partition of India and oral histories from a feminist and left-wing perspective.[7] She has written on gender, communalism, fundamentalism, and media. Her writings have appeared in several newspapers and magazines, including The Guardian, the New Internationalist, The Statesman, The Times of India, Outlook and India Today.[8] She has been a regular columnist for the left-wing Tehelka and for Indian Printer and Publisher, a business-to-business (B2B) publication dealing with the print and publishing industry. Butalia is a consultant for Oxfam India and holds the position of reader at the College of Vocational Studies at the University of Delhi.

Kali for Women, India's first exclusively feminist publishing house, which Butalia co-founded with Ritu Menon, was set up in 1984 as a trust to increase the body of knowledge on women in the Third World, to give voice to such knowledge as already exists, and provide a forum for women writers, creatives, and academics.[9] In 2003, co-founders Butalia and Menon parted ways.[10] Both went on to set up their own imprints under the banner of Kali for Women, with Menon establishing Women Unlimited[11] and Butalia founding Zubaan Books.[12]

Butalia is an associate of the Women's Institute for Freedom of the Press (WIFP).

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Urvashi Butalia is recorded with the occupation journalist. Recorded as journalist, publisher, historian and writer.