Reflections on place, mobility and belonging in Gujarat

Abstract

This article translates four essays from the memoirs of Gujarati writer Sharifa Vijaliwala that are replete with sociological insights. Methodologically, the genre of memoir affords a rich source portraying the everyday social fabric of rural Gujarat in the 1970s and the changing landscape of the state in later years. In the course of essaying her life stories, she depicts the predicaments and contestations about place, mobility and social interactions within the larger matrix of Gujarati society. What is depicted in graphic detail is the transformation in the web of social relations at the margins of Gujarati society and the present ‘crisis of faith’ that underlies its civil society.