The Liberation of Sita Read online

  About the Authors

  Volga (Popuri Lalitha Kumari) is a noted feminist writer in Telugu. Her nearly-fifty publications include Svechcha (Freedom, 1987; novel), Rajakeeya Kathalu (Political Stories, 1992; short story collection), Neeli Meghalu (Blue Clouds, 1993; edited anthology of feminist poetry), Charitra Swaralu (Voices of History, 2001; play), and Maaku Godalu Levu (We Have No Walls, 1989; feminist essays). She has translated Agnes Smedley’s Daughter of Earth (1929), Nawal El Saadawi’s Woman at Point Zero (1975), Oriana Fallaci’s Letter to a Child Never Born (1975), and also the script of Richard Attenborough’s Gandhi (1982) into Telugu.

  Among the many awards she has received are the Nandi Award for the Best Story Writer (the Government of Andhra Pradesh, 1998), the Best Woman Writer Award (Telugu University, 1999), the Suseela Narayana Reddy Award (2009), Kandukuri Veerasalingam Literary Award (2013), the Lok Nayak Foundation Award (2014) and the Sahitya Akademi Award (2015). She is currently the executive chairperson of Asmita Resource Centre for Women, Hyderabad.

  T. Vijay Kumar is Professor of English at Osmania University, Hyderabad. His research interests include postcolonial literatures, the Indian literary diaspora, translation and educational television. He has co-edited Globalisation: Australian-Asian Perspectives (2014) and Focus India: Postcolonial Narratives of the Nation (2007). He has translated into English (with C. Vijayasree; 2002) Kanyasulkam, an early 20th century Telugu classic by Gurajada Venkata Appa Rao. He is one of the founder editors of Muse India: the literary e-journal and is a director of the annual Hyderabad Literary Festival.

  C. Vijayasree (1953–2012) was Professor of English at Osmania University, Hyderabad and Director, Osmania University Centre for International Programmes (OUCIP). Author of nearly twenty books and fifty research papers, she was well-known in the field of postcolonial studies. Her publications include Suniti Namjoshi: The Artful Transgressor (2001), Mulk Raj Anand: The Writer and the Raj (1998), Writing the West: Representation of the West in Indian Literatures (2004; editor), Nation in Imagination: Essays on Nationalism, Sub-Nationalisms and Narration (2007; co-editor).

  TALK TO US

  Join the conversation on Twitter

  http://twitter.com/HarperCollinsIN

  Like us on Facebook to find and share posts about our books with your friends

  http://www.facebook.com/HarperCollinsIndia

  Follow our photo stories on Instagram

  http://instagram.com/harpercollinsindia/

  Get fun pictures, quotes and more about our books on Tumblr

  http://www.tumblr.com/blog/harpercollinsindia

  First published in India in 2016 by Harper Perennial

  An imprint of HarperCollins Publishers

  Copyright © Volga 2016

  Translation copyright © T. Vijay Kumar, C. Vijayasree 2016

  P.S. Section copyright © Volga, T. Vijay Kumar, C. Vijayasree 2016

  P-ISBN: 978-93-5177-248-4

  Epub Edition © Agust 2016 ISBN: 978-93-5177-249-1

  2 4 6 8 10 9 7 5 3 1

  Volga asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

  This is a work of fiction and all characters and incidents described in this book are the product of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  All rights reserved under The Copyright Act, 1957. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this ebook on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins Publishers India.

  Cover design and illustration: Maithili Doshi Aphale

  www.harpercollins.co.in

  HarperCollins Publishers

  A-75, Sector 57, Noida, Uttar Pradesh 201301, India

  1 London Bridge Street, London, SE1 9GF, United Kingdom

  Hazelton Lanes, 55 Avenue Road, Suite 2900, Toronto, Ontario M5R 3L2

  and 1995 Markham Road, Scarborough, Ontario M1B 5M8, Canada

  25 Ryde Road, Pymble, Sydney, NSW 2073, Australia

  195 Broadway, New York, NY 10007, USA