In the heart of a small, one-room home in Yerawada’s slum in Pune, a young girl was growing up with dreams far too expansive for the space around her. That girl, Shailaja Paik, would rise to become one of the most respected voices in the study of modern Indian history, particularly for her pioneering research on caste, gender, and sexuality. Today, Shailaja Paik Dalit historian, educator, and visionary, stands as a beacon of dignity, resilience, and revolutionary scholarship, amplifying the voices of those who have long been silenced.
Born into a Marathi-speaking Dalit family in Pohegaon, Maharashtra, Shailaja Paik was one of four daughters nurtured by parents who believed in the transformative power of education. Her father, despite their limited means, was relentless in pushing his daughters toward academic excellence—a radical act in a society structured to deny Dalit women not just education, but basic humanity. The path Paik followed was neither easy nor well-lit, but it was undeniably hers to carve.
Shailaja Paik: Breaking Barriers through Education
From Nowrosjee Wadia College to Savitribai Phule Pune University, and eventually to the University of Warwick in the UK, Paik’s educational journey was built brick by brick through perseverance, intelligence, and a desire to reimagine the world for Dalit women like herself. Her early academic pursuits were deeply informed by the “double discrimination” she both witnessed and experienced—being a woman and being Dalit in a society that often offers neither gender equality nor caste equity.
Her arrival in the United States in 2005 on a fellowship from Emory University opened doors to academic networks that would further her mission. Positions at Union College and Yale University followed, and in 2010, she joined the University of Cincinnati, where she currently holds the prestigious title of Charles Phelps Taft Distinguished Research Professor of History. She is also affiliated with Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and Asian Studies, lending her voice to multiple academic arenas.
The Power of Grounded Scholarship
What sets Shailaja Paik Dalit historian apart is her commitment to centering Dalit experiences—not as passive narratives, but as powerful sources of resistance, agency, and history. Her groundbreaking books have shed light on dimensions of Indian society that are rarely explored with such nuance and compassion.
In Dalit Women’s Education in Modern India: Double Discrimination, Paik investigates the educational struggles of Dalit women in Maharashtra across three generations. She explores how the promises of education made by anti-caste reformers often clashed with societal structures that continued to marginalize these women, both within and outside their communities. The book is a meticulous and moving analysis of ambition, resilience, and the pursuit of dignity in the face of unrelenting societal boundaries.
Her second book, The Vulgarity of Caste: Dalits, Sexuality, and Humanity in Modern India, takes a bold step further. Focusing on Tamasha—a popular folk theatre form known for its bawdy performances and predominantly practiced by Dalits—Paik dissects how caste, gender, and sexuality intersect to brand Dalit women as “ashlil” or vulgar.
This work is not just a study of performance but a profound critique of how society uses sexuality to police and degrade Dalit women’s existence. Paik challenges even the progressive narratives within Dalit movements, including critiques of Dr. B. R. Ambedkar’s stance on sexualized performance.
Shailaja Paik: Creating New Archives, Crafting New Futures
A defining feature of Paik’s scholarship is her creation of a new archive—one that doesn’t merely rely on established written records but incorporates oral histories, fieldwork, and interviews with Dalit women across Maharashtra. These stories are deeply human and filled with contradictions, courage, and quiet revolutions. Through them, Paik is rewriting Indian history from the margins, bringing to the center the lived realities of women whose names have never appeared in textbooks but who have carried entire cultural legacies.
For Paik, history is not a distant study but a vibrant, ongoing dialogue. Her work has appeared in esteemed journals like Gender and History, Journal of Women’s History, and Indian Journal of Gender Studies, positioning her as one of the most authoritative voices on Dalit women’s history globally. Her efforts were most recently recognized with the prestigious MacArthur Fellowship in 2024, a testament to the impact and urgency of her work.
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